How to replace a character with a newline in Emacs

Question

I am trying to replace a character - say   - with a new line using replace-string and or replace-regexp in Emacs   I have tried the following commands      M-x replace-string RET   RET  n   This will replace   with 2 characters   n  M-x replace-regex RET   RET  n  This results in the following error  shown in the minibuffer       Invalid use of     in replacement text      What s wrong with using replace-string for this task  Is there any other way to do it   Thanks

User · Accepted Answer

M-x replace-string RET   RET C-q C-j    C-q for quoted-insert  C-j is a newline    Cheers

User · Answer

More explicitly   To replace the semi colon character     with a newline  follow these exact steps    locate cursor at upper left of buffer containing text you want to change Type m-x replace-string and hit RETURN the mini-buffer will display something like this  Replace string  default    -     Type in the character you want to replace  In this case    and hit RETURN the mini-buffer will display something like this  string   with  Now execute C-q C-j All instances of semi-colon will be replaced a newline  from the cursor location to the end of the buffer will now appear    Bit more to it than the original explanation says

User · Answer

Switch to text-mode   M-x text-mode   Highlight block to indent   Indent   C M     Switch back to whatever mode

User · Answer

inline just   C-M-S-   if binding keys still default  than replace-string J

User · Answer

Don t forget that you can always cut and paste into the minibuffer   So you can just copy a newline character  or any string  from your buffer  then yank it when prompted for the replacement text

User · Answer

There are four ways I ve found to put a newline into the minibuffer    C-o C-q C-j C-q 12  12 is the octal value of newline  C-x o to the main window  kill a newline with C-k  then C-x o back to the minibuffer  yank it with C-y

[emacs] How to replace a character with a newline in Emacs?

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