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.TH "STRING-REPLACE" "1" "Nov 13, 2025" "4.2" "fish-shell"
.SH NAME
string-replace \- replace substrings
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fBstring\fP \fBreplace\fP [\fB\-a\fP | \fB\-\-all\fP] [\fB\-f\fP | \fB\-\-filter\fP] [\fB\-i\fP | \fB\-\-ignore\-case\fP]
               [\fB\-r\fP | \fB\-\-regex\fP] [(\fB\-m\fP | \fB\-\-max\-matches\fP) \fIMAX\fP] [\fB\-q\fP | \fB\-\-quiet\fP]
               \fIPATTERN\fP \fIREPLACEMENT\fP [\fISTRING\fP \&...]
.fi
.sp
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
\fBstring replace\fP is similar to \fBstring match\fP but replaces non\-overlapping matching substrings with a replacement string and prints the result. By default, \fIPATTERN\fP is treated as a literal substring to be matched.
.sp
If \fB\-r\fP or \fB\-\-regex\fP is given, \fIPATTERN\fP is interpreted as a Perl\-compatible regular expression, and \fIREPLACEMENT\fP can contain C\-style escape sequences like \fBt\fP as well as references to capturing groups by number or name as \fI$n\fP or \fI${n}\fP\&.
.sp
If you specify the \fB\-f\fP or \fB\-\-filter\fP flag then each input string is printed only if a replacement was done. This is useful where you would otherwise use this idiom: \fBa_cmd | string match pattern | string replace pattern new_pattern\fP\&. You can instead just write \fBa_cmd | string replace \-\-filter pattern new_pattern\fP\&.
.sp
If \fB\-\-max\-matches MAX\fP or \fB\-m MAX\fP is used, \fBstring replace\fP will stop all processing after MAX lines of input have matched the specified pattern. In the event of \fB\-\-filter\fP or \fB\-f\fP, this means the output will be MAX lines in length. This can be used as an \(dqearly exit\(dq optimization when processing long inputs but expecting a limited and fixed number of outputs that might be found considerably before the input stream has been exhausted.
.sp
Exit status: 0 if at least one replacement was performed, or 1 otherwise.
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS Replace Literal Examples
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.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
>_ string replace is was \(aqblue is my favorite\(aq
blue was my favorite

>_ string replace 3rd last 1st 2nd 3rd
1st
2nd
last

>_ string replace \-a \(aq \(aq _ \(aqspaces to underscores\(aq
spaces_to_underscores
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SS Replace Regex Examples
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
>_ string replace \-r \-a \(aq[^\ed.]+\(aq \(aq \(aq \(aq0 one two 3.14 four 5x\(aq
0 3.14 5

>_ string replace \-r \(aq(\ew+)\es+(\ew+)\(aq \(aq$2 $1 $$\(aq \(aqleft right\(aq
right left $

>_ string replace \-r \(aq\es*newline\es*\(aq \(aq\en\(aq \(aqput a newline here\(aq
put a
here
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SH COPYRIGHT
fish-shell developers
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