Community

The replacement \\\i should output a literal backslash and then an increment per match, so matches are replaced with the texts "\1", "\2", "\3" etc. But that's not the case.

However, if I use the replacement \\ \i the output is as expected: "\ 1", "\ 2", "\ 3" etc. But I don't want another character between the backslash and the increment.

To me this looks like a bug, as there's no way to achieve what I want (in one step).

I can reproduce this. Try \\(\i) or (\\)\i instead.

Oh, both of those work - I never expected the replacement to have any function for parenthesis. Another workaround is using \x5c\i.

Do you have an explanation why TextPad is overreacting here?

Look in TextPad's help in the section Reference Information | Replacement Format Strings. Parentheses are often required when using conditional replacement expressions (not a common occurrence).

Sequence number generation and regex replacement are separate mechanisms. Perhaps something goes wrong when one butts up against the other.