Emacs add quotes around every word

Question

I have a file and i want to add quotes around every word for example hello becomes "hello" So far i have tried this in emacs:

M-x query-replace-regexp [a-z]+ RET "\1" y

But it just deletes the word and leaves quotes.

Quipster

That's because you're replacing the regexp by the string? – Benenson

yeah, but how do i tell him not to delete the regexp? jus to add qoutes around – Quipster

Answer 1

This is what you want:

M-x query-replace-regexp \(\<\w+\>\) RET "\1" y

Peneus

Answer 2

You need to place a capturing group ( ) around your pattern referencing to back reference \1

M-x query-replace-regexp \([a-zA-Z]+\) RET "\1" y

Maduro

Answer 3

ok i got it, instead od the \1 I need to put \& in the replace part

Quipster

Or use \(...\), as in the example I gave. You also need to check word boundaries, using \<...\>. And you can use \w to represent any word char. – Peneus