How to keep parenthesis in Notepad++ regex find/replace

Question

I'm trying to convert

LIGHTING-W/AREA = ( 1.7549 )

To

LIGHTING-W/AREA = ( 1.2 )

Using the notepad++ regex find/replace tool

When I use

LIGHTING-W/AREA = (.*) and replace with LIGHTING-W/AREA = ( 1.2 )

I get LIGHTING-W/AREA = 1.2 instead of LIGHTING-W/AREA = ( 1.2 )

What happened to my paranthesis and how do I get them back? Sorry, not a programmer by trade!

Solution

Use LIGHTING-W/AREA = \( 1.2 \) in your replace box

Comments

[Anthony]

Perfect! Now why did that work? I'm guessing parenthesis are special characters that have to be treated differently in searches?

[Sico]

exactly, the backslashes 'escape' the parenthesis making regex treat it as text to look for.