this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Why does replace-regexp backwards work so differently? (idiomdrottning.org)
submitted 10 months ago by Sandra@idiomdrottning.org to c/emacs@lemmy.ml
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Why does replace-regexp backwards work so differently?

C-u - M-x replace-regexp \w+

The - prefix arg replaces backwards but it hits one char at a time, as if the plus sign weren't there. The same replacement forwards (without the prefix arg) does hit one word at a time. What's going on, @emacs@lemmy.ml?

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[–] Sandra@idiomdrottning.org 3 points 10 months ago

Yes, I got that, that wasn't the weird part. The weird part is why the matcher is searching char-by-char backwards in the first place as opposed to skipping match-by-match.

I'll use "\b\w+", that seems to work well. \W\w+ was not good since it caught the spaces.

(Thanks for your patient repeated replies, BTW, I don't mean to come across as ungrateful.)

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