Find and replace text, with regex support
Change a repeated name, fix a phrase throughout a draft, or remove a matching pattern. The result appears beside a match count while your original stays available for another try.
Runs in your browser — your input is not uploaded to ToolsNow.
How to use
- Paste the text to edit. Start with a short sample if you are trying a regular expression.
- Fill in Find and Replace with. Leave Replace with empty to delete the matches. Ordinary searches treat punctuation literally.
- Choose the matching rules. Whole words only avoids changing "cat" inside "cats". Regular expression enables patterns and switches whole-word mode off.
- Read the result before copying. Check both the match count and the changed passages, then use Copy result. A matching count alone does not tell you that the right words changed.
Questions
Does it replace every match?
Yes, throughout the input. There is no replace-one button. Use a more specific search or work on a selected passage if you only want one occurrence changed.
Can I search for a full stop or insert a dollar sign?
With Regular expression off, both the search and replacement are literal: "." finds full stops and "$1" inserts those two characters. With it on, a dot is a pattern and $1 refers to a capture group.
How do I swap captured parts?
Turn on Regular expression and use parentheses to capture text. Find "(\w+), (\w+)" and replace with "$2 $1" to turn "Smith, John" into "John Smith". This example suits simple names; JavaScript’s \w does not cover all accented letters.
Why do word boundaries or line anchors miss my text?
Whole words only uses JavaScript’s \b boundaries, which are limited for accented and non-Latin words. Regex mode has no multiline flag here, so ^ and $ refer to the input’s start and end rather than each line. The options do not understand sentences or names.
Can a regular expression stall the page?
Yes. Matching runs on the page thread with no timeout, so avoid nested repetition such as (a+)+b on large inputs. Invalid syntax shows an error and leaves the original text in the result; a valid but slow pattern can still block the tab.
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