re.place is a module wich acts as a content filter. It searches for pre-defined 
regular expressions and replaces matches with pre-defined replacements.
It is possible to specify different replacements based on several 
“replacement restrictions” — for authenticated users and guests, 
for pages and non-pages currently (see “Screenshots”).
For example, you can implement the functionality of cross-linker module, while 
adding the possibility to insert “target” parameter, “rel=nofollow”, style 
information, etc.
As another example, you can insert in your posts custom smiles or the like.
As another example, you can add custom markup to you blog, like 
 Google(something) would insert link to <code>www.google.com/search?q=something</code>, 
 TouTube(youtube_id) will insert <code><object ...></code>, wich displays that video, 
etc-etc. See “Other notes” for more examples.
You can replace http links with some other stuff for guests, leaving as is for 
authenticated users (see https://wordpress.org/support/topic/297405).
Every entry can have custom “order” number, so you can chain your replacements.
re.place stores entries in database.
Management GUI provided to list entries, add, edit or delete entries.
See changelog for some changes tracking.
<h3>A brief examples</h3>
<ol>
<li>
As a search field, use ‘<code>_—</code>‘ (space in place of <code>_</code>!), 
as a replace — ‘<code>#160;—</code>‘. This will insert non-breaking space 
before every em-dash.
Mmm… You may wish even use ‘<code><span 
style="letter-spacing:0.1ex;">#160;—</code>‘ as a replase to insert 
narrower non-breaking space… If you love typography too much… And you 
can make space after dot wider…
</li>
<li>
Search for ‘<code>:-)</code>‘ and replace with:
‘<code><img src="http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/standart/smile3.gif"' . 
 'alt=":-)" title=":-) (nice smile -- http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/standart/smile3.gif)"' . 
 'style="vertical-align: middle;" /></code>‘
</li>
<li>
Search pattern: <code>YouTube\(([a-zA-Z_0-9\-]*)\)</code>
Replace pattern:
‘<code><object width="425" height="344" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/\1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> 
 <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/\1"></param> 
</object></code>‘
This will allow you to use markups like <code>YouTube(TMCf7SNUb-Q)</code> to insert 
Youtube video fragments easily.
</li>
<li>
How to Mass Remove Link (mass deactivate URL Linked text inside posts)? 
(https://wordpress.org/support/topic/288020)
Search pattern: <code><a [^>]*>([^<]*)<\/a></code>
Replace pattern: <code>\1</code>
This will “deactivate” all links in all posts 
(e.g. replace <code><a href="...">Try!</a></code> with just <code>Try!</code>). 
Note, you can activate them back, deactivating this <code>re.place</code> entry.
</li>
<li>
Want to insert drop caps easily?.. Use ‘<code><drop>L</drop>orem ipsum...</code>‘ in your 
posts and replace it with <code>\1</code>‘. Use angle brackets, 
and if you (accidentally) deactivate re.place, these “tags” won’t mess you page.
</li>
<li>
New — in v0.1.3 — [beta-] feature: you can specify different replace patterns 
for authenticated users and “guests”. Sorry, i’ll update screenshots and doc 
ASAP. 🙂
</li>
</ol>

re.place

re.place adds content filter wich searches in posts for specified patterns (regular expressions) and replaces matches found with specified strings.

Delicious Brains

WP Engine

Matt Shaw

When moving your WordPress site to a new domain or server, you will likely run into a need to run a search/replace on the database for everything to work correctly. Fortunately, there are several plugins available for this task, however, all have a different approach to a few key features. This plugin consolidates the best features from these plugins, incorporating the following features in one simple plugin:
<ul>
<li>Serialization support for all tables</li>
<li>The ability to select specific tables</li>
<li>The ability to run a “dry run” to see how many fields will be updated</li>
<li>No server requirements aside from a running installation of WordPress</li>
<li>WordPress Multisite support</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
Time-saving features available in the Pro version:
<ul>
<li>View exactly what changed during a search/replace</li>
<li>Backup and import the database while running a search/replace</li>
<li>Priority email support from the developer of the plugin</li>
<li>Save or load custom profiles for quickly repeating a search/replace in the future</li>
<li>Support and updates for 1 year</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://bettersearchreplace.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Learn more about Better Search Replace Pro</a>
</blockquote>
The search and replace functionality is heavily based on interconnect/it’s great and open-source Search Replace DB script, modified to use WordPress native database functions to ensure compatibility.
Supported Languages
<ul>
<li>English</li>
<li>French</li>
<li>German</li>
<li>Spanish</li>
</ul>
Want to contribute?
Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on <a href="https://github.com/deliciousbrains/better-search-replace/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.

Better Search Replace

Perfekt

Long time in the past (maybe ~ 7 years ago?), I tried to find a way to search and replace inside WP serialized data.
I found out Better Search and Replace, and I never try another plugin. 
This one is the most reliable for me, thanks!

One of my favorite plugin for years


The plugin was good before, but now it lacks a lot of the functionality.


Good before, not anymore


This really make my life better. For real. Since I found this plugin al my migrations are FLAWLESS. So simple so good. Thanks a lot!!!


So good i cant belive


I was going to try doing some search and replacements, and chose to do the 'dry run' first, but apparently you can't view the results from the dry run, without upgrading to the paid version. This effectively makes it less than useless. I'm not going to run a search/replace on a table unless I can preview what's going to be changed first.


Can't preview 'dry run' changes in free plugin


Here is the thing.



I had changed my blog's domain name and had issues with the images still on the old domain name. So, they were not loading. At all. 



So, I went to ask uncle ChatGPT how to solve the issue. He told me I should try this plugin, and he was even generous enough to give me the instructions. In less than a minute, my issue was resolved. 



5 stars from me.



Thanks. 


Such a Powerful Plugin


I tried updating some data directly through SQL queries, but I kept running into issues—sometimes the data wasn’t updating properly, and other times I got errors that broke parts of my site.



Then I found Better Search Replace, and it worked perfectly. It updated everything smoothly, without any problems.



✅ Easy to use✅ Preview option before making changes✅ Safe and reliable



I highly recommend it—great tool for database updates!


Great Plugin – Saved Me from Database Errors

A simple plugin to update URLs or other text in a database.

re.place vs Better Search Replace