Regex in GoogleDocs search-and-replace

Question

I want to replace all first "/" with "[" but all second "/" with "]". GoogleDocs offers a regular expression search-and-replace, but I have no clue how to use that for this "first and second" issue. Example of source and target below.

What do I have to enter in the Search and Replace fields of GoogleDocs dialogue?

current state

p pen /pen/
b bad /bæd/
t tea /tiː/

intended solution

p pen [pen]
b bad [bæd]
t tea [tiː]

take advantage of the space before the first slash. replace <space>/ with [ and then / with ]. You shouldn't need regex here. — dvo
– dvo, Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 14:26
Google Docs Find and Replace does not support replacement backreferences, it is not clear how to do that without them. Try /\b to replace the first and \b/ to replace the second slash. — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 14:29
It's a very long table. Unfortunenately, in many cases there is a tab #9 and not a #32 in front of the slash. But yes, a nice idea as work-around. However, I hoped to learn to to use regular expressions with "first" and "second" occurences here and how to keep whatever is in-between. — HJay
– HJay, Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 14:30
Thanks for the "trivial" solution. So GoogleDocs cannot do this? How do they intend this feature to be used? — HJay
– HJay, Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 14:43

Mischa Michael · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-07 15:57:40Z

2

In Google Sheets you can use capture groups so you could do something like Find: /(.*)/ Replace with: [$1]

Docs does not support this functionality so you may have to move your stuff around a little.

answered Mar 7, 2019 at 15:57

Mischa Michael

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1 Comment

HJay Over a year ago

Thanks. Indeed it works in Google Sheets. The answer of Wiktor solved the replacement issue.

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