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Free Plugin by John Godley v3.4.4

Search Regex

Search Regex adds a powerful set of search and replace functions to WordPress posts, pages, custom post types, and other data.

Search Regex

The facts

Rating
4.7★ from 101
Active installs
100k+
Price
Free
Last updated
29 Aug 2026
Added
Sep 2007
Requires WP
6.6
Tested up to
WP 7.1
Requires PHP
7.4
Downloads
2,599,935

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Search Regex is a WordPress plugin that enhances the search and replace functionality for posts, pages, custom post types, and other data sources. It allows users to perform complex searches using PHP's regular expressions, enabling tasks such as migrating sites, updating URLs, and making site-wide changes.

This plugin can search various elements, including posts, comments, users, and metadata. It supports bulk modifications and offers options to modify, delete, or export matching results, making it suitable for both small and large WordPress sites.

Best for: This plugin is best for WordPress site administrators who need advanced search and replace capabilities.

What it does well

  • Supports complex search and replace functions
  • Utilises PHP's regular expressions
  • Can search across multiple data types
  • Allows bulk modifications of results
  • Provides options for exporting data

Where it falls short

  • No specific examples of use cases provided
  • Limited information on user interface or ease of use

Verdict

Search Regex offers a robust solution for users needing to perform detailed searches and modifications on their WordPress content. It is particularly useful for those managing larger sites or complex data structures.

From the developer

John Godley's own description of Search Regex, lightly tidied.

Search Regex adds a powerful set of search and replace functions to WordPress posts, pages, custom post types, and other data sources. These go beyond the standard searching capabilities, and allow you to search and replace almost any data stored on your site. In addition to simple searches you have the full power of PHP’s regular expressions at your disposal.

You can use this to do things like:
– Help migrate a site from one domain to another
– Update URLs in links and images
– Perform site-wide changes

Search filters can be created to match any column of any WordPress table. For example:
– Find all posts in a category
– Find all post meta data without a post
– Find all posts in a date range

Search Regex handles small and large sites.

Search Regex has been tested with PHP from 7.4 to 8.4.

What can I search?

You can search:
– Posts
– Pages
– Any custom post type
– Comments (including spam)
– Users
– Meta data
– WordPress options

Full regular expression support is provided, and you can capture data and use it in the replacement.

Actions

A variety of actions can be performed on matching results:
– Modify and replace the result
– Delete the result
– Export to CSV and SQL
– Perform custom PHP action

Modify and Replace Data

Results can be individually modified by clicking on the item to change, and using the popup modifier.

Bulk modifications can be performed against all matching results.

The types of modification depend on the data being changed:
– Numbers can be added or subtracted to existing numbers
– Hours, days, weeks, and months, can be added to dates
– Tags and categories can be added, removed, and substitued

Custom shortcodes are supported that allow dynamic data to be included:
– Add the current date and time, in any format, to content
– Insert data from other columns. For example, insert the category into the title
– Transform existing data. For example, convert case, change underscores to dashes.

Example uses

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

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