Find Replace

Find Replace

Modern find-and-replace using sd.

sd Basics

# Replace in file (in-place)
sd 'oldText' 'newText' file.txt

# Replace in multiple files
sd 'oldText' 'newText' *.js

# Preview without changing (pipe)
cat file.txt | sd 'old' 'new'

sd vs sed

| sed | sd |

|-----|-----|

| sed 's/old/new/g' | sd 'old' 'new' |

| sed -i 's/old/new/g' | sd 'old' 'new' file |

| sed 's#path/to#new/path#g' | sd 'path/to' 'new/path' |

Key difference: sd is global by default, no delimiter issues.

Common Patterns

# Variable/function rename
sd 'oldName' 'newName' src/**/*.ts

# Word boundaries (avoid partial matches)
sd '\boldName\b' 'newName' src/**/*.ts

# Import path update
sd "from '../utils'" "from '@/utils'" src/**/*.ts

# Capture groups
sd 'console\.log\((.*)\)' 'logger.info($1)' src/**/*.js

Safe Batch Workflow

# 1. List affected files
rg -l 'oldPattern' src/

# 2. Preview replacements
rg 'oldPattern' -r 'newPattern' src/

# 3. Apply
sd 'oldPattern' 'newPattern' $(rg -l 'oldPattern' src/)

# 4. Verify
rg 'oldPattern' src/  # Should return nothing
git diff              # Review changes

Special Characters

| Character | Escape |

|-----------|--------|

| . | \. |

| * | \* |

| [ ] | \[ \] |

| $ | \$ |

| \ | \\ |

Tips

| Tip | Reason |

|-----|--------|

| Always preview with rg -r first | Avoid mistakes |

| Use git before bulk changes | Easy rollback |

| Use \b for word boundaries | Avoid partial matches |

| Quote patterns | Prevent shell interpretation |

Additional Resources

For detailed patterns, load:

• ./references/advanced-patterns.md - Regex, batch workflows, real-world examples