How to conditionally replace text with replace-regexp

I am writing a script that looks at an org-mode buffer and replaces strings with an org-mode hyperlink. For instance, I want to replace every instance of "Link One" with `[[LinkUrl][Link One]]`. The problem is if I run my function again, that instance will now look like `[[LinkUrl][[[LinkUrl][Link One]]]]`. I need to replace the text only if it is not surrounded by brackets.

Include the spaces in both.

I would try the following: - `\bLink One\b` - `\([^[]\)Link One\([^]]\)` -> `\1[[link-url][Link One]]\2` There is probably a better way to specify "sequence before" and "sequence after" without replacing them, but I'm not sure if that's available in emacs regexp.

If you’re not doing hundreds … query-replace can be handy in a pinch

There might be a TON of these, as the list will be growing every week.

okay, I think this is a good approach.. like, only match what SHOULD be there.. like "$%\^." or white space..

`\bLink One\b` is likely to match for `[Link One]`, but the second approach certainly works. Elisp regexps do not support arbitrary zero-width look-ahead/behind assertions, but this is generally fine because elisp allows you operate on specific groups of the matched text -- typically by calling `replace-match` and specifying a SUBEXP argument (group number). In general you do the broader matching in your main `(while (re-search-forward...` loop and then you get to process each match however you want to (which could involve further regexp matching/replacement on that section of text).