question: protected static boolean regexReplace ( JTextArea textArea , String toFind , String replaceWith , boolean forward , boolean matchCase , boolean wholeWord ) throws PatternSyntaxException { Caret c = textArea . getCaret ( ) ; int start = makeMarkAndDotEqual ( textArea , forward ) ; String findIn = getFindInText ( textArea , start , forward ) ; if ( findIn == null ) return false ; RegExReplaceInfo info = getRegExReplaceInfo ( toFind , findIn , forward , matchCase , wholeWord , replaceWith ) ; findIn = null ; if ( info != null ) { c . setSelectionVisible ( true ) ; int matchStart = info . getStartIndex ( ) ; int matchEnd = info . getEndIndex ( ) ; if ( forward ) { matchStart += start ; matchEnd += start ; } selectAndPossiblyCenter ( textArea , matchStart , matchEnd ) ; textArea . replaceSelection ( info . getReplacement ( ) ) ; return true ; } return false ; }
target:  Finds the next instance of the regular expression specified from the caret position. If a match is found, it is replaced with the specified replacement string.