Function: word-search-forward

word-search-forward is an interactive and byte-compiled function defined in isearch.el.gz.

Signature

(word-search-forward STRING &optional BOUND NOERROR COUNT)

Documentation

Search forward from point for STRING, ignoring differences in punctuation.

Set point to the end of the occurrence found, and return point. An optional second argument bounds the search; it is a buffer position.
  The match found must not end after that position. A value of nil
  means search to the end of the accessible portion of the buffer.
Optional third argument, if t, means if fail just return nil (no error).
  If not nil and not t, move to limit of search and return nil.
Optional fourth argument COUNT, if a positive number, means to search
  for COUNT successive occurrences. If COUNT is negative, search
  backward, instead of forward, for -COUNT occurrences. A value of
  nil means the same as 1.
With COUNT positive, the match found is the COUNTth one (or first,
  if COUNT is 1 or nil) in the buffer located entirely after the
  origin of the search; correspondingly with COUNT negative.

Relies on the function word-search-regexp to convert a sequence of words in STRING to a regexp used to search words without regard to punctuation. This command does not support character folding, and lax space matching has no effect on it.

View in manual

Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 23.1.

Key Bindings

Source Code

;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/isearch.el.gz
(defun word-search-forward (string &optional bound noerror count)
  "Search forward from point for STRING, ignoring differences in punctuation.
Set point to the end of the occurrence found, and return point.
An optional second argument bounds the search; it is a buffer position.
  The match found must not end after that position.  A value of nil
  means search to the end of the accessible portion of the buffer.
Optional third argument, if t, means if fail just return nil (no error).
  If not nil and not t, move to limit of search and return nil.
Optional fourth argument COUNT, if a positive number, means to search
  for COUNT successive occurrences.  If COUNT is negative, search
  backward, instead of forward, for -COUNT occurrences.  A value of
  nil means the same as 1.
With COUNT positive, the match found is the COUNTth one (or first,
  if COUNT is 1 or nil) in the buffer located entirely after the
  origin of the search; correspondingly with COUNT negative.

Relies on the function `word-search-regexp' to convert a sequence
of words in STRING to a regexp used to search words without regard
to punctuation.
This command does not support character folding, and lax space matching
has no effect on it."
  (interactive "sWord search: ")
  (re-search-forward (word-search-regexp string nil) bound noerror count))