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From: msb@ho5cad.ATT.COM
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: GNU Emacs string modification question
Message-ID: <321@ho7cad.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Apr 88 15:43:33 GMT
References: <11715@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: nuucp@ho7cad.ATT.COM
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In-reply-to: karl@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu's message of 27 Apr 88 04:23:40 GMT

In article <11715@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> karl@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes:

> I have a variable which has been setq'd to a string value.  The string
> may contain characters which are special to RE searches, but I need
> the characters to be used literally in searches.  (Specifically, I am
> looking at newsgroup name searches in the vn emulator, possibly
> containing +'s, e.g., comp.lang.c++.)  I cannot avoid performing the
> search as re-search-forward; plain search-forward will not do, due to
> the need to find "[:!]" following the newsgroup name.  Can anyone give
> me a simple function which takes a string argument and inserts
> backslashes (\) in front of RE-special characters within the string?
> 
> --Karl

spell.el uses a function regexp-quote.  Should do exactly what you
want.  Here is the function-help.

regexp-quote:
Return a regexp string which matches exactly STRING and nothing else.

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