Search and Replace
Don’t worry about those many files where you have to change a few things! There’s no need to open every single file and edit them manually, Search and Replace does it all for you!
Search and Replace lets you create your own rule files for replacing strings in files or even in folders. It even supports regular expressions for advanced replace operations!
It works with plain text file formats like .txt. But you can also edit files using plain text format like HTML,XML,Tex,etc… if you know how to manipulate them.
Please be aware that this tool does not work with binary file formats! You can also filter your files using the file extension so you don’t have to be afraid of overwriting other files. A small description box lets you enter information what the file does, in case you are confused by those regex rules.
If you want to know more about regular expressions, look here.
New in version 1.2
- Extension filter
- Description field
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- example for html files
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- use regex rules for complex search and replace operations
May 15, 2014 at 22:25
Hi there!
That is a really helpful and time saving app! Easy and full of power. Thanks.
Although it is meant for plain text, Unicode supports more than ASCII and it would be nice if one can replace something like “–” (long dash). If I enter it ALT+- it will be “trimmed to a normale hyphen.
Anyway, cool application!
May 15, 2014 at 22:33
Thanks Sebastian!
I may include this feature in an upcoming version, meanwhile you can replace special characters by pasting them into the Search and Replace app. So for example write the long dash in a TextEdit document and paste it into the “Search for…”-field.
Thomas
December 14, 2015 at 13:16
Hi Thomas,
I agree that this is a quite practical app 😀
However I have a little problem with a replacement of a string, I have to remove this :
I’ve tried different combinations of regexes and escape char … but still no clue.
Any idea ?
December 16, 2015 at 01:38
I’ve sent you an email with an example file.
March 25, 2016 at 03:22
Hi Thomas,
Does search and replace support the REGEX dotall mode?
March 29, 2016 at 15:48
Hey Rutger,
there is currently no option for this. But you can use
(?ms)at the beginning of the RegEx command to achieve the same thing. So instead of(.*?)sometext(.*?)endwrite(?ms)(.*?)sometext(.*?)endThomas
October 2, 2016 at 01:30
This is an awesome app, extremely helpful for converting Word docs to LaTeX! However I can’t get the regex replacement working. I always end up with the regex replacement expression inserted literally (e.g. after searching and replacing, my text is full of “\L$&”…
Still, 👍👍👍
October 2, 2016 at 17:30
Hey Steffen,
thanks a lot! Unfortunately the available replacement string commands are only ‘$’ and ‘\’, as the app uses the API provided by Apple.
Thomas