Regex issue: "replace with" box unintentionally interpreting Regex characters literally

[appreciatethehelp]

I’m still fairly new to Regex so am trying to work out where I’ve gone wrong here…

I am trying to replace just the number ‘2’ with the number ‘5’ in the following example, however all the Regex characters used to locate the 2 in question are being erroneously added in the “replace with” box… where am I going wrong?

The first of the two Screenshots supplied shows what I’m trying to achieve and the second the incorrect result achieved.

Cheers.

(image inline display enabled by ajlittoz – newcomers, please, use the correct tool to add screenshots: this is the “slide” icon, not the “paperclip” which is a generic upload tool; the “slide” is specially intended for pictures)

[Wanderer]

Text is better than photos.
You search for \),.,2 and quoted the ) but not the . wich is also a special character

Try ( \),.,)2 and replace with $1 5 to keep the found part before the 2 and change only 2 > 5

[ajlittoz]

To fully answer OP’s question, regexp are considered only in the Find argument. The Replace argument is interpreted literally, except for some escape sequences starting with \. As \) is not a registered escape sequence, both characters will be inserted as members of the Replace.

Similarly, the dot . in Replace is just a dot.

You can copy effective parts of the matching Find provided these parts are identified as parenthesized groups. They are designated as $n where n is an integer corresponding to the rank of the group left parenthesis (this is important when groups are nested).

For details, see built-in help.

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