Regex to capture and replace in-line

[sottovoce]

I've been using basic string triggers with regex to replace text as I type. E.g. \bign\s into ing[space] using the "insert text" action. This works for words with the "ing" suffix but incorrectly modifies something like "foreign".

I can't do anything more sophisticated like converting \b.?[^e]ign\s into \b.?[^e]ing\s since the "insert text" action doesn't work with captured groups from the triggered regex. I understood that you can use the clipboard to do this but I could use a hand.

If someone has already written a similar macro that does this sort of in-line search and replace, could you share?

[peternlewis]

@sottovoce

I can't do anything more sophisticated like converting \b.?[^e]ign\s into \b.?[^e]ing\s since the "insert text" action doesn't work with captured groups from the triggered regex. I understood that you can use the clipboard to do this but I could use a hand.

It can.

You can use the TriggerValue token to get the captured text, and then adjust your behaviour based on this.

But better is to use a negative look behind assertion, (?<! ...)

(?<!e)ign\s

this will match “ign\s”, but only if the previous character is not an e, that previous character is not included in the match.

[sottovoce]

Thank you, Peter. The regex you proposed worked perfectly and I'll experiment with "TriggerValue" for some other cases.