Re: keyboard regexp shortcuts

[Scott Frazer]

On 8/17/12 10:20 AM, Perry Smith wrote:
> Very often, I do a regex search (M-C-s) of \_<foo\_> because I don't want to 
> find bad_foo_dog.
>
> Typing the \ _ < and \ _ > is tedious.  Can someone suggest a way to make that 
> easier?
>
> Thank you,
> Perry

Here's what I use:

(defun my-isearch-word ()
  "Surround current input with word/symbol delimiters and turn on regexp matching if 
necessary."
  (interactive)
  (unless isearch-regexp
    (isearch-toggle-regexp))
  (setq isearch-string (concat "\\_<" isearch-string "\\_>")
        isearch-message (mapconcat 'isearch-text-char-description isearch-string 
""))
  (isearch-search-and-update))

(define-key isearch-mode-map (kbd "M-w") 'my-isearch-word)