A query-replace question

A query-replace question

[Rodolfo Medina]

Hi to all Emacs users.

In a large .tex file, I wish to replace all `x' with `a', but only those
occurrences of x that lay between two dollars symbols: e.g., $x = y$.  Could
that be ever possible with Emacs, and how?

Thanks for any help
Rodolfo

Re: A query-replace question

[David Kastrup]

Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi to all Emacs users.
>
> In a large .tex file, I wish to replace all `x' with `a', but only those
> occurrences of x that lay between two dollars symbols: e.g., $x = y$.  Could
> that be ever possible with Emacs, and how?

M-: (require 'texmathp) RET

C-M-% x RET \,(if (texmathp) "a" \&) RET

Note that this includes \max and similar, so you might want to use
something like
\_<x\_>
as your search expression for doing the matching.

-- 
David Kastrup

Re: A query-replace question

[B. T. Raven]

David Kastrup wrote:
> Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Hi to all Emacs users.
>>
>> In a large .tex file, I wish to replace all `x' with `a', but only those
>> occurrences of x that lay between two dollars symbols: e.g., $x = y$.  Could
>> that be ever possible with Emacs, and how?
> 
> M-: (require 'texmathp) RET
> 
> C-M-% x RET \,(if (texmathp) "a" \&) RET
> 
> Note that this includes \max and similar, so you might want to use
> something like
> \_<x\_>
> as your search expression for doing the matching.
> 

This seems like it should work but doesn't:

C-M-% \(\$.?\)x\(.?\$\) RET \1a\2 RET

Running the following two in succession finds x in $x = y$ and $y = x$


C-M-% \(\$.+\)x\(.?\$\) RET \1a\2 RET

C-M-% \(\$.?\)x\(.+\$\) RET \1a\2 RET


Is there a regexp guru out there who knows if this approach is possible
or is it necessary to look for the texmath environment as David does
with texmathp? Is wildcard greediness at play here?

Ed