Regular Expression - Add a character before/after each word

Question

Using Notepad++ and replace function, I tried to add a symbol "+" or "[" before each word of my list.

Example of list :

• blue car
• red car big
• red car small
• green car big
• green car small

I'm looking for the following result :

• +blue +car
• +red +car +small
• +red +car +big
• .. etc

I know how to add a character befor each line... but I cannot find the way to add it in front of every word without using replace "blue" to "+blue".

Answer 1

A cross platform solution should be

Search: \b\w+\b (or \b[[:alpha:]]+\b)
Replace: +$&

Search pattern details:

• \b - a leading word boundary
• \w+ - 1 or more word chars (if [[:alpha:]]+ is used, 1+ letters)
• \b - a trailing word boundary

Replacement details: + is a literal plus, and $& is the backreference to the whole match.

See the screenshot: