This tutorial explains how to search on a webpage using regular expressions in Firefox.
Regex Find is a free Firefox plugin to search the content on a webpage using regular expressions. This plugin adds ‘Regex‘ option in findbar of Firefox browser, and lets you use regular expressions to search any webpage.
Regular expression is a sequence of characters and symbols and that sequence becomes a search pattern. Using a particular search pattern, it becomes very easy to find a particular item from a webpage containing vast variety of content. For example, when you want to find only domain names listed on a webpage, you can enter regular expressions in the findbar and it will find domain names for you. Similarly, you can use regular expressions to find a particular value available in a data sheet.
For those who have good understanding and command over regular expressions, this add-on is really handy. You can quickly search for a particular content from the whole webpage by adding the correct regular expression.
Above screenshot shows domain names searched by me on a Wikipedia page using the findbar and regular expressions.
Note: This add-on is useful but only supports basic regex search. It can’t be used to search on images, frames, or to use control symbols (like \f, \n, etc.).
Other free search add-ons for Firefox reviewed by us: Instant Fox and InstantFirefox.
How To Search a Webpage using Regular Expressions in Firefox using This Free add-on?
Searching on a webpage with regular expressions using this add-on is really easy. However, you should have a good command over the regular expressions to get the full benefit of this add-on. Here are the steps to install and use it:
Step 1: Jump to the end of this review to access the link to download this add-on. After accessing its homepage, use the ‘Add to Firefox’ button to install it.
Step 2: After installation, you need to restart your browser.
Step 3: Open a webpage and press ‘Ctrl+F‘ to activate the findbar. You will find an extra option in findbar, named ‘Regex’.
Step 4: Now you can enter a particular regular expression in findbar to search what you want on that particular webpage.
Step 5: Click on the Regex option. After this, based on the input regular expression, the add-on will search and find only those results that should be searched in accordance with that particular pattern.
You can use arrows available in findbar to move forward/backward among the results. Result items will be highlighted on that webpage. You can also use Match Case option (that is already available in Firefox) to search and find content with exact case.
Whenever you want to start normal search using findbar, simply disable ‘Regex’ option by clicking on it.
Other Options Provided by This add-on:
- After installing this add-on, you can turn off findbar using the same ‘Ctrl+F’ shortcut key.
- F2 and F3 keys can be used to go backward and forward among the search results.
Conclusion:
Using this add-on, it becomes possible to search on a webpage using the regular expressions. It won’t affect your normal search as you can enable and disable searching with regular expressions in a single-click.
