Question

I want to match a pattern, replace part of the pattern, and use a variable within the pattern as part of the replacement string.

Is this correct?

/s/^((\s+)private\sfunction\s__construct\(\))/(2)def\s__init__

In English: Replace any amount of whitespace followed by the string "private function __construct()" with the same amount of whitespace and the string def __init__. So, is my regex bad or what?

Answer 1

This is called a backreference, and you use \i to refer to the i’th captured group from the pattern.

So for the pattern ^((\s+)private\sfunction\s__construct\(\)), the replacement is \2def __init__.