Replace things after point matching REGEXP with TO-STRING.
Preserve case in each match if `case-replace' and `case-fold-search'
are non-nil and REGEXP has no uppercase letters.
If `replace-regexp-lax-whitespace' is non-nil, a space or spaces in the regexp
to be replaced will match a sequence of whitespace chars defined by the
regexp in `search-whitespace-regexp'.
In Transient Mark mode, if the mark is active, operate on the contents
of the region. Otherwise, operate from point to the end of the buffer.
Third arg DELIMITED (prefix arg if interactive), if non-nil, means replace
only matches surrounded by word boundaries.
Fourth and fifth arg START and END specify the region to operate on.
In TO-STRING, `\&' stands for whatever matched the whole of REGEXP,
and `\N' (where N is a digit) stands for
whatever what matched the Nth `\(...\)' in REGEXP.
`\?' lets you edit the replacement text in the minibuffer
at the given position for each replacement.
In interactive calls, the replacement text may contain `\,'
followed by a Lisp expression used as part of the replacement
text. Inside of that expression, `\&' is a string denoting the
whole match, `\N' a partial match, `\#&' and `\#N' the respective
numeric values from `string-to-number', and `\#' itself for
`replace-count', the number of replacements occurred so far.
If your Lisp expression is an identifier and the next letter in
the replacement string would be interpreted as part of it, you
can wrap it with an expression like `\,(or \#)'. Incidentally,
for this particular case you may also enter `\#' in the
replacement text directly.
When using those Lisp features interactively in the replacement
text, TO-STRING is actually made a list instead of a string.
Use C-x M-: after this command for details.
Use M-n to pull the last incremental search regexp to the minibuffer
that reads REGEXP.
This function is usually the wrong thing to use in a Lisp program.
What you probably want is a loop like this:
(while (re-search-forward REGEXP nil t)
(replace-match TO-STRING nil nil))
which will run faster and will not set the mark or print anything.