Elisp: Regex Tutorial

This page is a tutorial on using regex in emacs lisp code.

Regex Syntax in Elisp

See Emacs: Regex Tutorial

Test Regex in Elisp Code

One simple way to test regex is to create a file with the following content:

(re-search-forward "yourRegex")

whatever text to search here

Then, put your cursor to the right of the closing parenthesis, then Alt+x eval-last-sexp 【Ctrl+x Ctrl+e】. If your regex matches, it'll move cursor to the last char of the matched text. If you get a lisp error saying search failed, then your regex didn't match. If you get a lisp syntax error, then you probably screwed up on the backslashs.

Newline Character and Tab

Inside elisp string, \t is TAB char (Unicode codepoint 9), and \n is newline. You can use [\t\n ]+ for sequence of {tab, newline, space}.

When a file is opened in Emacs, newline is always \n, regardless whether your file is from {Unix, Windows, Mac}. Do NOT manually do find replace on newline chars for changing file newline convention. [see Emacs: Newline Representations ^M ^J ^L]

Backslash in Emacs Lisp Regex String

"\n"

Newline.

"\t"

Tab.

"\""

Literal double quote.

"[chars]"

Any of chars

"[\t\n ]+"

Sequence of {tab, newline, space}.

"\\[abc\\]"

Literal square bracket with abc inside.

"(abc)"

Literal parenthesis and text.

"\\(pattern\\)"

Capture pattern.

"\\1"

First captured pattern. Used in replacement.

"\\2"

Second captured pattern. Used in replacement.

Here's complex example, suppose you have this text:

<img src="cat.jpg" alt="my cat" width="795" height="183" />

When you call a command such as list-matching-lines , you can type the regex in the prompt. Example:

<img src="\([^"]+?\)"

But in lisp code, the same regex needs to have many backslash escapes, like this:

(re-search-forward "<img src=\"\\([^\"]+?\\)\"" )

(info "(elisp) Regular Expressions")

Use emacs to Convert Regex to Elisp Regex String

There is a easy way to get the backslashes right.

• First, Alt+x list-matching-lines and enter a regex.
• Immediately do Alt+x repeat-complex-command.

The elisp string regex syntax will be shown in minibuffer. (with all correct backslashes if needed)

Unicode Representation in String

Elisp: Unicode Escape Sequence

Find Replace Text

Elisp: Find Replace String in Buffer

Regex in Elisp Syntax: rx Package

There is a elisp package rx that uses lisp style syntax to represent regex syntax.

(require 'rx)

;; this
(rx (one-or-more blank) line-end)

;; returns this
;; "[[:blank:]]+$"

I do not recommend it. Because it's a middleman. Just learn and use raw regex directly.

Elisp Regex Video Tutorial