Find and Replace Text Online - Free Text Search & Replace Tool

The Find and Replace tool is an essential text editing utility that allows you to search for specific text patterns and replace them with new content. Whether you're editing documents, cleaning data, updating code, or performing bulk text transformations, this tool provides both simple and advanced options to handle any text replacement task efficiently.

With support for simple text matching and powerful regular expressions (regex), this tool can handle everything from basic word replacements to complex pattern-based transformations. The real-time match counter helps you see exactly how many instances will be replaced before you commit to the change.

Key Features

1. Simple Text Matching

The default mode searches for exact text strings and replaces them with your specified replacement. Perfect for straightforward text substitutions like changing names, updating terminology, or correcting typos throughout a document.

Example: Replace all instances of "color" with "colour" for British English conversion.

2. Case Sensitive Matching

Control whether the search should distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. When disabled, "hello", "Hello", and "HELLO" are treated as the same word. When enabled, each variation is treated separately, giving you precise control over what gets replaced.

Use case: Replace only lowercase "apple" while preserving "Apple" (the company name).

3. Regular Expression (Regex) Support

Enable powerful pattern-based matching using regular expressions. Regex allows you to search for complex patterns like email addresses, phone numbers, URLs, or any custom pattern you can define. This is essential for advanced text processing and data cleaning tasks.

Example: Find all email addresses using regex pattern for email matching

4. Replace All or Replace First

Choose whether to replace all occurrences of the search term or just the first match. Replace All is perfect for batch operations, while Replace First is useful when you want to update only the initial occurrence, such as changing the first heading in a document.

Use case: Replace only the first "Introduction" heading with "Overview" while keeping others unchanged.

5. Real-time Match Counter

As you type your search term, the tool instantly shows you how many matches were found in your text. This preview helps you verify your search pattern is working correctly before performing the replacement, preventing accidental changes.

Benefit: See "25 matches found" before replacing, ensuring you're targeting the right text.

6. Statistics Tracking

View character, word, and line counts for both input and output text. This helps you understand how your replacements affect the overall text length and structure, which is particularly useful for SEO content or documents with length requirements.

Common Use Cases

📝 Document Editing

• Update company names throughout documents
• Correct spelling mistakes in bulk
• Change terminology consistently
• Update dates or version numbers
• Replace outdated information

💻 Code Refactoring

• Rename variables or functions
• Update API endpoints
• Change class names
• Replace deprecated methods
• Update import paths

📊 Data Cleaning

• Remove extra whitespace
• Standardize date formats
• Clean CSV data
• Format phone numbers
• Normalize text entries

🌐 Web Content

• Update URLs in bulk
• Change HTML tags
• Modify meta descriptions
• Replace image paths
• Update anchor text

✉️ Email Management

• Update email signatures
• Change contact information
• Modify template variables
• Replace placeholder text
• Standardize formatting

📄 Content Migration

• Update old URLs to new ones
• Change image CDN paths
• Replace shortcodes
• Update internal links
• Modify markdown syntax

Useful Regex Patterns

Email addresses: Standard email pattern matching

Matches standard email format like name@domain.com

Phone numbers: Pattern for various phone formats

Matches formats like (123) 456-7890 or 123-456-7890

URLs: Match http and https URLs

Matches http:// or https:// URLs

Multiple spaces: Match consecutive whitespace

Matches two or more consecutive whitespace characters

Numbers only: Match digit sequences

Matches one or more consecutive digits

Word boundaries: Match complete words

Matches complete words, not as part of another word

Best Practices

✅ Before Replacing

• Test your pattern: Check the match count to ensure you're targeting the right text
• Use Replace First for testing: Try replacing just the first occurrence to verify results
• Enable case sensitivity carefully: Consider whether "Hello" and "hello" should be treated differently
• Validate regex patterns: Test complex regex patterns on sample text first
• Keep a backup: Copy your original text before performing large replacements

✅ After Replacing

• Review the output: Scan through results to ensure replacements are correct
• Check edge cases: Look for unintended replacements at the beginning or end of lines
• Verify count matches: Compare the number of replacements with your expectations
• Test with variations: Try different search terms if the first attempt doesn't work
• Save immediately: Copy your results right away to avoid losing work

Pro Tips

💡 Tip 1: Use word boundaries (\b) in regex to avoid partial matches. For example, \bcat\b matches "cat" but not "category".

💡 Tip 2: When replacing with nothing (empty string), you can effectively delete text. Useful for removing unwanted characters or patterns.

💡 Tip 3: Use capturing groups in regex with $1, $2, etc. in replacement to reorder or reformat matched text.

💡 Tip 4: For multiline replacements, test with a small sample first, then apply to the full text.

💡 Tip 5: Disable "Replace All" when making sensitive changes - review each occurrence manually.

💡 Tip 6: Chain multiple find-and-replace operations by copying output back to input for sequential transformations.

Understanding Regex Basics

Regular expressions (regex) are powerful patterns for matching text. Here are essential regex concepts:

. (dot): Matches any single character except newline
* (asterisk): Matches 0 or more of the preceding character
+ (plus): Matches 1 or more of the preceding character
? (question mark): Matches 0 or 1 of the preceding character
\d: Matches any digit (0-9)
\w: Matches any word character (letters, digits, underscore)
\s: Matches any whitespace character (space, tab, newline)
[]: Character class - matches any character inside brackets
^: Matches the start of a line
$: Matches the end of a line

Privacy and Security

🔒 Your data stays private: All find and replace operations happen entirely in your browser using JavaScript. No text is ever sent to any server or stored anywhere. This ensures complete privacy for sensitive documents, personal information, or confidential data.

The tool works offline once loaded, making it safe for processing classified or sensitive content without any security concerns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between simple mode and regex mode?

Simple mode searches for exact text strings - what you type is what it looks for. Regex mode interprets your search as a pattern with special characters like \d for digits or .* for any characters. Use simple mode for straightforward replacements and regex mode for pattern-based matching.

Q: How do I replace text with nothing to delete it?

Leave the "Replace With" field empty. When you perform the replacement, all matches will be deleted from the text. This is useful for removing unwanted characters, cleaning up formatting, or deleting specific patterns.

Q: Why does my regex pattern show an error?

Regex syntax errors occur when the pattern is invalid. Common mistakes include unmatched parentheses, invalid escape sequences, or incorrect quantifiers. Try simplifying your pattern or testing it piece by piece. The tool will display specific error messages to help you identify the issue.

Q: Can I undo a replacement if I make a mistake?

The tool doesn't have a built-in undo feature, but your original text remains in the input field. You can always refer back to it or copy it again. For safety, consider copying your original text to a separate location before performing major replacements.

Q: How do I replace only whole words, not partial matches?

Enable regex mode and use word boundaries \b around your search term. For example, \bcat\b will match "cat" as a complete word but won't match the "cat" in "category". This ensures precise replacements without affecting similar words.

Q: Can I perform multiple different replacements at once?

Not in a single operation, but you can chain replacements. After your first replacement, copy the output back to the input field, change your find/replace terms, and run it again. Repeat this process for each replacement you need to make.

Find and Replace Text

Find and Replace Examples

Simple Text Replacement

Case Insensitive Replacement

Regex Pattern: Remove Extra Spaces

Regex Pattern: Format Phone Numbers

About Find and Replace Tool