Find and Replace

Find and replace locates every occurrence of a search string in your text and substitutes a replacement value. It is the fastest way to fix repeated typos, update product names across a document, swap date formats, or restructure data without manual scrolling. Enter the find term, enter the replacement, and apply to all matches at once or step through individually.

Plain text mode matches literal strings exactly — searching "color" replaces only that sequence, not "Color" unless case-insensitive mode is enabled. Regular expression (regex) mode unlocks pattern matching: replace all digits, extract email addresses, swap date formats from MM/DD/YYYY to YYYY-MM-DD, or remove HTML tags with a single pattern.

Whole word matching prevents partial replacements — searching "cat" won't alter "category" when whole word mode is on. Capture groups in regex allow rearranging matched parts: replace "(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})" with "$2/$3/$1" to flip date components. Test regex on a small sample before replacing thousands of lines.

Preview matches before applying bulk replacement to avoid unintended changes. Combine with sort lines and remove duplicates after restructuring list data. The text compare tool verifies replacements produced the expected output against an original backup.

Whether you are updating deprecated API names in documentation, fixing consistent misspellings, or transforming CSV delimiter formats, find and replace automates edits that would take hours by hand.