Replace only the first occurrence of a word with regex in text-editor

Question

I want to replace only first occurrence of word(default) in each line with another word(rwd).

As below I want this:

../app/design/adminhtml/default/default/layout/pmodule.xml
../app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/pmodule.xml
../app/design/frontend/default/default/template/company/module/gmap.phtml

To be replaced to this:

../app/design/adminhtml/rwd/default/layout/pmodule.xml
../app/design/frontend/rwd/default/layout/pmodule.xml
../app/design/frontend/rwd/default/template/company/module/gmap.phtml

I have tried \bdefault\b but in vain.

Answer 1

You can use a regex with a lazy dot matching pattern:

^(.*?)\bdefault\b

To replace with \1rwd.

See the regex demo

Pattern details:

• ^ - start of line/string
• (.*?) - Group 1 capturing any 0+ characters other than a newline as few as possible up to the first
• \bdefault\b - whole word default.

GEdit screenshot:

Geany screenshot:

Answer 2

You can search using this lookahead regex:

^((?:(?!\bdefault\b).)*)default

And replace it using:

\1rwd

RegEx Demo