Emacs regexp groups in regex-replace -

i have bunch of c macros in files, stuff next( pl ) expanded ( ( pl ) -> next )

i want remove of them because they're unnecessary.

what do, text inside parentheses in macro, pl. want replacing regexp use text rewriting. example, in perl /next\(\s*(.+)\s*) (may little incorrect) , output $1->next, should turn line

if ( next( pl ) != null ) {  

into

if ( pl->next != null ) { 

in emacs, use match groups in emacs replace-regexp on file file basis. i'm not entirely sure how in emacs.

m-x query-replace-regexp next(\([^)]+\)) ret \1->next ret 

which can done inside function (to apply entire buffer)

(defun expand-next ()   "interactive"   (goto-char (point-min))   (while (re-search-forward "\\<next(\\([^\)]+\\))" nil t)     (replace-match "\\1->next"))) 

and, apply multiple files, can mark files in dired , type q query-replace-regexp on marked files (use regexp/replacement in first line of answer).