Literal matching
Case and whole-word settings determine whether similar text is included
A literal search is appropriate for names, labels, paths, and exact phrases. Case-insensitive mode groups different capitalization, while whole-word mode avoids replacing a short term inside a longer one. Word-boundary behavior can differ around underscores, hyphens, accented letters, and scripts, so inspect representative matches.
Regular expressions
Regex adds capture groups and patterns but also creates empty, broad, or expensive matches
Use regex mode when the target is structural rather than a fixed phrase. Escape literal punctuation, anchor where appropriate, and test greedy quantifiers. Replacement references such as captured groups follow engine-specific syntax. A pattern that matches an empty string can insert content at many positions and needs special caution.
Change control
Replace Current is a review tool; Replace All is a bulk operation
Navigate matches to learn the data before a bulk replacement. Check totals, line endings, identifiers, URLs, and generated content. Preserve the source or use version history, then diff the result. This page changes text content only and does not understand code symbols, ASTs, database records, or file-system paths semantically.