Find and Replace

Find and replace is one of the oldest features in text editing — born in early word processors and command-line editors, then refined over decades into the indispensable workflow developers, writers, and data analysts use every day. What started as literal string search grew into case options, whole-word matching, and eventually regular expressions for patterns that describe whole classes of text at once.

SuperTextTools runs find and replace entirely in your browser. Paste source text, define what to find and what to insert, preview matches, then replace one occurrence or every match — with optional regex, case sensitivity, and whole-word boundaries.

Common use cases

• Renaming in code — change a variable name without touching similar identifiers like userId when you only mean user (whole-word mode helps).
• Fixing typos — replace every teh with the across a draft in one click.
• Bulk data edits — CSV columns, config files, exported JSON, log files.
• Anonymizing data — strip emails, phone numbers, or names with regex capture groups.
• Reformatting — swap date formats, change separators, normalize whitespace.
• Cleaning imports — remove timestamps, headers, or boilerplate from scraped text.

The power of regex in find/replace

Literal find/replace is enough for fixed strings. Regex mode matches variable text: any digit, any URL, any email shape. Capture groups let you restructure matches — turn Last, First into First Last, or mask usernames while keeping domains. Anchors like ^ and $ target line starts and ends when multiline mode is on.

Tips for power users

• Start in literal mode; switch to regex when patterns get complex.
• Use Replace First on a sample before Replace All on the full document.
• Expand Preview matches to verify highlights before committing.
• Save regex patterns you reuse — they transfer across projects.