Issue
If I have a search: (\d\d):(\d\d) and I want to add an extra 0 to the numbers that I find (ie, 12:30 would become 120:130), how do I prevent the 0 being interpreted as \10 and \20:
\10:\20
I tried escaping it with \ but that just made more backreferences. Is there another way to escape in grep?
Solution
In your original post, you didn't mention that you're using these backreferences in the replacement pattern, not the search pattern. You also didn't mention that you're using BBEdit. Solving your problem requires both of those facts.
From page 209 of the BBEdit manual:
\NNN+
If more than two decimal digits follow the backslash, only the first two are considered part of the backreference. Thus, “\111” would be interpreted as the 11th backreference, followed by a literal “1”. You may use a leading zero; for example, if in your replacement pattern you want the first backreference followed by a literal “1”, you can use “\011”. (If you use “\11”, you will get the 11th backreference, even if it is empty.)
Therefore you should try this replacement pattern:
\010:\020
Answered By - rob mayoff Answer Checked By - Terry (WPSolving Volunteer)