How to Add Text to the Start or End of Every Line (Prefix, Suffix)

The short answer

To add the same text to the start or end of every line, open Find and Replace, paste your lines and tick Use regex. For a prefix, find (^|\n)(?=.) and replace with $1 followed by your text. For a suffix, find (.)(\r?\n|$) and replace with $1 + your text + $2. To wrap each line, find (.+) and replace with your prefix, $1, then your suffix. The result updates as you type, and you can copy it with one click.

When you need this

Adding text to every line comes up whenever you move a list between tools:

• Turning a plain list into bullet points (- item) or a Markdown quote (> line)
• Wrapping values in quotes for code, CSV files or SQL
• Adding a comma or semicolon to the end of each line
• Adding https:// in front of a list of domains
• Adding a file extension such as .jpg to a list of file names
• Adding # in front of single-word tags

Doing it by hand is slow for more than a few lines and easy to get wrong. A regex replacement does every line at once.

How the patterns work

The Find and Replace tool uses JavaScript regular expressions with a few settings you control: Case sensitive, Whole word, Use regex and Replace all. Replace all is on by default and must stay on for these recipes, otherwise only the first line changes.

In this tool, ^ means the start of the whole text and $ means the end of the whole text, not the start or end of each line. That is why the patterns below also look for the line break character \n:

• (^|\n) matches the very start of the text, or any line break.
• (?=.) only lets the match happen if a character follows, so empty lines are skipped.
• (.) matches one character that is not a line break.
• (\r?\n|$) matches a line break (Windows or Unix style), or the end of the text.
• (.+) matches a whole line's content, without the line break.

In the replacement, $1 and $2 put back whatever the first and second groups in brackets matched. That is how the line breaks are kept while new text is added around them.

Add text to the start of every line

Paste your lines into the text box.

Tick Use regex.

In Find, type (^|\n)(?=.)

In Replace with, type $1 followed by your prefix.

Check the result and click Copy.

Examples:

Replace with	Before	After
$1-	apple	- apple
$1>	Quoted text	> Quoted text
$1https://	example.com	https://example.com
$1#	travel	#travel

The (?=.) part makes sure empty lines are left alone, so a blank line at the end of your list does not get a stray bullet. If you do want the prefix on empty lines too, use (^|\n) on its own.

Add text to the end of every line

Tick Use regex.

In Find, type (.)(\r?\n|$)

In Replace with, type $1, then your suffix, then $2.

For example, $1,$2 turns

apple

banana

cherry

into

apple,

banana,

cherry,

Other useful suffixes:

Replace with	Before	After
$1;$2	SELECT 1	SELECT 1;
$1.jpg$2	photo-01	photo-01.jpg
$1 (done)$2	Call bank	Call bank (done)

The \r? part handles text copied from Windows programs, where each line ends with a hidden carriage return before the line break. Without it, the suffix could land after that hidden character. Empty lines are skipped because (.) needs at least one character.

Wrap every line with a prefix and a suffix

When you need both, one pattern is enough:

Tick Use regex.

In Find, type (.+)

In Replace with, type your prefix, then $1, then your suffix.

Replace with	Before	After
"$1"	Delhi	"Delhi"
'$1',	1001	'1001',
[$1]	Draft	[Draft]

This works line by line because the dot in (.+) does not match line breaks, so each line is a separate match. Empty lines have no characters and are skipped.

If you want to turn the wrapped lines into a single comma-separated line for SQL, see turning a column into a comma-separated list.

Troubleshooting

Only the first line changed

Replace all is unticked. Tick it and the change applies to every line.

Nothing changed and the match count is 0

Use regex is not ticked, so the tool is searching for the literal characters (^|\n). Tick Use regex.

A dollar sign disappeared from my text

In the replacement box, $ introduces a group reference such as $1. To insert a real dollar sign, type $$. For example, $1$$ puts a dollar sign at the start of each line. $& inserts the whole match, which can be handy for suffixes.

Typing \n in Replace with gives a literal backslash-n

The Replace with box inserts text exactly as typed, apart from $ references. You cannot type a new line break there, which is why these recipes capture the existing line break in a group and put it back with $1 or $2.

Some lines have spaces at the end

A suffix is added after the last character, including trailing spaces, so apple becomes apple ,. Remove trailing spaces first: find [ \t]+(?=\n|$) with Use regex ticked and leave Replace with empty.

I need numbers, not the same text on every line

Find and replace cannot count, so it cannot produce 1., 2., 3. Use a spreadsheet: put the lines in column B, numbers in column A, and join them. Or use the numbered list button in your word processor.

Clean the list before you add text

Prefixes and suffixes are easiest on a tidy list. Before you start:

• Remove repeated entries with Remove Duplicate Lines.
• Put the lines in order with Sort Text.
• Remove line breaks copied from a PDF if a single item has been split across lines.

For more patterns, including capture groups and whole-word matches, read find and replace with regex.