Find and Replace

Find and replace text online — fast and fully in your browser. The tool supports regular expressions, replacement groups ($1, $2), and a Match Case option. Use Modify → Find & Replace and click the Replace button to replace all occurrences. Processing is client-side; limits are driven only by your browser/textarea capacity.

How to use

1. Paste your text into the editor.
2. Open Modify → Find & Replace.
3. Enter the Find pattern and the Replace text. Toggle Match Case or Use Regular Expression.
4. Click the Replace button (performs replace on all matches). Review or undo as needed.
5. If you process very large text, work in smaller chunks to avoid browser slowdowns.

Key features

• Simple string replace — quick bulk edits across a document.
• Regex support for advanced pattern matching.
• Replacement groups / backreferences using $1, $2, …
• Match Case toggle for case-sensitive replacements.
• Client-side processing — your text stays in the browser (no upload).
• Replace action targets all matches (button labeled Replace).
• Menu location: Modify → Find & Replace.

Common use cases

• Bulk edits: update product names, company terms, or legal wording across many documents.
• Data cleanup: normalize separators, unify quotes, or prepare CSVs before analysis.
• Code & logs: rename variables, update paths/URLs, or change prefixes/suffixes.
• SEO/content updates: replace keywords or tidy meta snippets.
• Markup fixes: remove or change attributes — consider using HTML Stripper first if you need to ignore tags.

Examples — grouped (copy-paste ready)

Simple replaces

• Find: apple → Replace: orange
• Find (case-sensitive): Apple → Replace: Pear (toggle Match Case)
• Replace all occurrences of double spaces: Find: → Replace:

Regex examples

Substitution groups / backreferences

More regex examples (advanced)

Tips for using regex safely and effectively

• Test on a small sample first. Because Replace acts on all matches, verify results before you commit.
• Use \b to anchor whole-word matches and avoid partial replacements (e.g., \bcat\b won’t match catalog).
• Remember replacements use $1, $2, … for backreferences (not \1 in the replacement field).
• For case-sensitive patterns combine Match Case with regex or use inline flags if needed — but prefer the Match Case toggle when available.
• Escape special characters in literal searches (e.g., search for a dot use .).
• If your input contains HTML or structured data, prefer dedicated converters (see next section) because regex can be error-prone with nested structures.
• For very large documents split the text into parts; browsers may slow or run out of memory for extremely large inputs.

Dedicated PicoToolkit converters — prefer these over ad-hoc regex when possible

When the goal is format conversion rather than ad-hoc string edits, use dedicated tools below — they handle edge cases reliably and simplify the workflow.

• Convert Newline To Comma — turn multiline lists into CSV safely.
• HTML Stripper — remove HTML tags without breaking nested markup.
• CSV to JSON Converter — structured conversion of CSV to JSON.
• JSON to CSV Converter — reliable JSON → CSV conversion.
• Remove Non-Alphanumeric Characters — safer than multiple regex passes.
• Convert Tabs — normalize tab characters before replacements.

Advice: use those converters when working with CSV/JSON/HTML or when you need predictable results across many edge cases. Regex is powerful, but dedicated tools reduce mistakes and save time.

Tips & edge cases

• Make a copy of your text before mass changes. Use undo if the editor offers it.
• To avoid accidental global edits, run a Find first (inspect matches) before Replace.
• When replacing quotes, handle smart quotes and straight quotes separately.
• If replacements create duplicate lines, use Remove Duplicates afterwards.
• Trim or normalize whitespace with Remove Spaces or Remove Empty Lines where appropriate.

Short FAQ

Q: Does the tool support regex backreferences in replacements?

A: Yes — use $1, $2, etc. in the replacement field to reference capture groups from your pattern.

Q: Is processing client-side or uploaded?

A: Processing is client-side — your text stays in the browser. There is no server upload.

Q: Are there file or character limits?

A: No hard limit. Limits depend on what your browser and device can handle inside a textarea.

Q: How do I make case-sensitive replacements?

A: Toggle the Match Case option. For regex you can also craft patterns to be case-specific.

Q: Does Replace change every match or one at a time?

A: The tool performs Replace for all matches when you click the Replace button.

Related tools

• Line Counter — count lines before/after edits.
• Word Counter — verify word counts after mass changes.
• Character Counter — check size impact of replacements.
• Minify Text — remove unnecessary whitespace and reduce size.