Searching for marked (selected) text in Emacs

Question

I use emacs for viewing and editing code and other text files. I wanted to know if there is a way to search forward or backward for text which is marked in the current buffer. S

Answer 1

You can find C-s help by doing C-h k C-s, and it says:

Type DEL to cancel last input item from end of search string. Type RET to exit, leaving point at location found. Type LFD (C-j) to match end of line. Type C-s to search again forward, C-r to search again backward. Type C-w to yank next word or character in buffer onto the end of the search string, and search for it. Type C-M-w to delete character from end of search string. Type C-M-y to yank char from buffer onto end of search string and search for it. Type M-s C-e to yank rest of line onto end of search string and search for it. Type C-y to yank the last string of killed text. Type M-y to replace string just yanked into search prompt with string killed before it. Type C-q to quote control character to search for it. Type C-x 8 RET to add a character to search by Unicode name, with completion. C-g while searching or when search has failed cancels input back to what has been found successfully. C-g when search is successful aborts and moves point to starting point.

If you try to exit with the search string still empty, it invokes nonincremental search.

Type M-c to toggle search case-sensitivity. Type M-s i to toggle search in invisible text. Type M-r to toggle regular-expression mode. Type M-s w to toggle word mode. Type M-s _ to toggle symbol mode. Type M-s ' to toggle character folding.

Type M-s SPC to toggle whitespace matching. In incremental searches, a space or spaces normally matches any whitespace defined by the variable ‘search-whitespace-regexp’; see also the variables ‘isearch-lax-whitespace’ and ‘isearch-regexp-lax-whitespace’.

Type M-s e to edit the search string in the minibuffer.

Also supported is a search ring of the previous 16 search strings. Type M-n to search for the next item in the search ring. Type M-p to search for the previous item in the search ring. Type C-M-i to complete the search string using the search ring.

Type M-% to run ‘query-replace’ with string to replace from last search string. Type C-M-% to run ‘query-replace-regexp’ with the last search string. Type M-s o to run ‘occur’ that shows the last search string. Type M-s h r to run ‘highlight-regexp’ that highlights the last search string.

Type C-h b to display all Isearch key bindings. Type C-h k to display documentation of Isearch key. Type C-h m to display documentation of Isearch mode.