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A regular expression (or regexp for short) is a pattern that denotes a class of alternative strings to match. Emacs provides both incremental and nonincremental ways to search for a match for a regexp. The syntax of regular expressions is explained in the next section.
isearch-forward-regexp).
isearch-backward-regexp).
Incremental search for a regexp is done by typing C-M-s
(isearch-forward-regexp), by invoking C-s with a
prefix argument (whose value does not matter), or by typing M-r
within a forward incremental search. This command reads a
search string incrementally just like C-s, but it treats the
search string as a regexp rather than looking for an exact match
against the text in the buffer. Each time you add text to the search
string, you make the regexp longer, and the new regexp is searched
for. To search backward for a regexp, use C-M-r
(isearch-backward-regexp), C-r with a prefix argument,
or M-r within a backward incremental search.
All of the special key sequences in an ordinary incremental search do similar things in an incremental regexp search. For instance, typing C-s immediately after starting the search retrieves the last incremental search regexp used and searches forward for it. Incremental regexp and non-regexp searches have independent defaults. They also have separate search rings, which you can access with M-p and M-n.
Unlike ordinary incremental search, incremental regexp search
do not use lax space matching by default. To toggle this feature
use M-s <SPC> (isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace).
Then any <SPC> typed in incremental regexp search will match
any sequence of one or more whitespace characters. The variable
search-whitespace-regexp specifies the regexp for the lax
space matching. See Special Isearch.
In some cases, adding characters to the regexp in an incremental regexp search can make the cursor move back and start again. For example, if you have searched for ‘foo’ and you add ‘\|bar’, the cursor backs up in case the first ‘bar’ precedes the first ‘foo’. See Regexps.
Forward and backward regexp search are not symmetrical, because regexp matching in Emacs always operates forward, starting with the beginning of the regexp. Thus, forward regexp search scans forward, trying a forward match at each possible starting position. Backward regexp search scans backward, trying a forward match at each possible starting position. These search methods are not mirror images.
Nonincremental search for a regexp is done with the commands
re-search-forward and re-search-backward. You can
invoke these with M-x, or by way of incremental regexp search
with C-M-s <RET> and C-M-r <RET>.
If you use the incremental regexp search commands with a prefix
argument, they perform ordinary string search, like
isearch-forward and isearch-backward. See Incremental Search.