Find & Replace
Search and replace across text with plain, word-boundary, or regex match.
How to Use
- Paste your text into the input area.
- Enter the search pattern in the Find field and the replacement in the Replace field.
- Pick match mode: <strong>Plain</strong> (literal text), <strong>Word boundary</strong> (whole words only), or <strong>Regex</strong> (full ECMAScript regular expressions).
- Toggle case sensitivity as needed.
- For regex with groups, use <code>$1</code>, <code>$2</code> in the replacement to insert captured groups.
- Result and match count update live; click Copy or Download when finished.
Notes
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between Plain, Word Boundary, and Regex modes?
<strong>Plain:</strong> exact-text match. Searching for 'cat' matches anywhere it appears, including inside 'cats' and 'concatenate'. <strong>Word Boundary:</strong> only matches whole words — 'cat' matches 'cat' but not 'cats' or 'concatenate'. <strong>Regex:</strong> full pattern matching with metacharacters, character classes, quantifiers, etc. — most powerful but trickiest to get right.
How do regex groups work?
Parentheses in the search pattern create capture groups, numbered from 1. In the replacement, <code>$1</code>, <code>$2</code>, etc. insert the captured text. Example: search <code>(\d{3})-(\d{4})</code>, replace <code>$1.$2</code> turns '555-1234' into '555.1234'. Named groups <code>(?<name>...)</code> are referenced as <code></code>.
Can I use regex to clean up data?
Yes — common patterns: redact emails (<code>[\w.-]+@[\w.-]+\.\w+</code> → <code>[REDACTED]</code>), strip HTML tags (<code><[^>]+></code> → empty), normalize whitespace (<code>\s+</code> → single space), extract just numbers (<code>[^\d]</code> → empty). Test patterns first with the Regex Tester.
What does the multiline flag do?
Patterns are evaluated with <code>/gm</code> flags by default — global (replace all matches) and multiline (<code>^</code> and <code>$</code> match line starts/ends instead of just the whole-string boundaries). For DOTALL behavior (<code>.</code> matches newlines), use the <code>(?s)</code> mode modifier or use this with a different toggle.
Can I undo a replace?
Click reset to restore the original input. The original is preserved in the input pane; replacements appear in the output pane. Result is a new string; the original input isn't modified.
Is the text uploaded?
No. Find/replace happens entirely in your browser. You can safely process sensitive content — internal documents, customer data, source code — without exposure.
Common Use Cases
Bulk text refactoring
Change a variable name, function call, or magic string across an entire copied codebase.
Cleaning up imported data
Strip extra whitespace, normalize quotes, fix encoding issues in pasted CSVs or text exports.
Log redaction
Remove emails, IPs, or other PII from logs before sharing for debugging.
Content migration
Update internal links, image paths, or formatting markers when moving content between platforms.
Format conversion
Convert markdown to HTML-style markup or vice versa with regex patterns.
CSV column manipulation
Extract or replace specific columns by anchoring on commas and quote characters.
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