Incremental searches, regular expression searches and query-replace
Spell-checking
Some modes
SEARCHING
Incremental search commands
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
C-s
isearch-forward
Start incremental search forward; follow by search string. Also, find next occurrence(forward) of search string.
C-r
isearch-backward
Start incremental search backward; follow by search string. Also, find next occurrence(backward) of search string.
Enter
isearch-exit
In an incremental search, exit the search.
C-g
keyboard-quit
In an incremental search, cancel the search.
Del
isearch-delete-char
In an incremental search, delete character from search string.
C-s C-w
isearch-yank-word
Start incremental search with the word the cursor is on as the search string.
C-s C-y
isearch-yank-line
Start an incremental search with the text from the cursor position to the end of the line as the search string.
C-s M-y
isearch-yank-kill
Start an incremental search with text from the kill ring as the search string
C-s C-s
isearch-repeat-forward
Repeat previous search.
C-r C-r
isearch-repeat-backward
Repeat previous search.
Simple search commands(nonincremental search)
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
C-s Enter SEARCH STRING Enter
Start nonincremental search forward
C-s
Repeat search forward
C-r Enter SEARCH STRING Enter
Start nonincremental search backward
C-r
Repeat search backward
REPLACING
Query-replace
Responses during query-replace(Type M-% to go into query-replace)
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
Space or y
Replace search string with new string and go to the next instance of the string.
Del or n
Don’t replace; move to next instance.
.
Replace the current instance and quit
,
Replace and let me see the result before moving on.(Press Space or y to move on.)
!
Replace all the rest and don’t ask.
^
Back up to the previous instance.
Enter or q
Exit query-replace.
E
Modify the replacement string.
C-r
Enter a recursive edit.
C-w
Delete this instance and enter a recursive edit
C-M-c
Exit recursive edit and resume query-replace.
C-]
Exit recursive edit and query-replace
Regular Expressions for Search and Replacement Operations
Characters for regular expressions
Character(s)
Match
^
Matches the beginning of a line.
$
Matches the end of a line.
.
Matches any single character(like ? in filenames).
.*
Matches any group of zero or more characters(. matches any character and * matches zero or more of the previous character)
\<
Matches the beginning of a word.
\>
Matches the end of a word.
[]
Matches any character specified within the brackets; for example, [a-z] matches any alphabetic character.
\s, \S
Matches any white space character: space, a newline, a tab, a carriage return, a formfeed, or a backspace; \S matches any character except white space.
\d, \D
Matches any single digit, 0-9; \D matches any character but a digit.
\w, \w
Matches any "word" character(upper- and lowercase letters, digits, and the underscore character);\W matches any character but these.
Regular expression search commands
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
C-M-s Enter
re-search-forward
Search for a regular expression forward
C-M-r Enter
re-search-backward
Search for a regular expression backward.
C-M-s
isearch-forward-regexp
Search incrementally forward for a regular expression.
C-M-r
isearch-backward-regexp
Search incrementally backward for a regular expression.
C-M-%
query-replace-regexp
Query-replace a regular expression.
(none)
replace-regexp
Globally replace a regular expression unconditionally(use with caution).
SPELLING CHECKING
Spell-checking commands
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
M-$
ispell-word
Check the word the cursor is on or the word following the cursor.
ispell-region
Check spelling of the region.
ispell-buffer
Check spelling of the buffer.
ispell-message
Check spelling of the body of a mail message.
ispell-comments-and-strings
Check spelling of comments and strings in a program.
C-u M-$
ispell-continue
Resume Ispell; it works only if stopped Ispell with C-g.
ispell-kill-ispell
Kill the Ispell process, which continues to run in the background after it is invoked.
M-Tab
ispell-complete-word
In text mode, list possible completions for the current word.
flyspell-mode
Enter the Flyspell minor mode, in which incorrectly spelled words are highlighted
flyspell-buffer
Spell-check the current buffer, underlining all misspelled words. Use middle mouse button to correct.
Word abbreviation commands
Keystrokes
Command name
Action
M-/
dabbrev-expand
Complete this word based on the nearest word that starts with this string(press M-/ again if that’s not the word you want).
abbrev-mode
Enter(or exit) word abbreviation mode.
C-x a - or C-x a i g
inverse-add-global-abbrev
After typing the global abbreviation, type the definition.
C-x a i l
inverse-add-mode-abbrev
After typing the local abbreviation, type the definition.
