Sublime text replace pattern with regex

Question

Using Sublime Text 3 I am trying to find all instances of a <span> element where the class value is not enclosed in quotes – eg <span class=foo> – and I want to wrap the class value in quotes.

The following is not working as expected as a search + replace with the regex option activated:

• Find what: <span class=[A-Za-z0-9]*>
• Replace with: <span class="$1">

The result I am getting (which I don't want) is <span class="">

Highlighting shows that the search term is correctly matching what I want but the $1 part where I want to insert the previously captured pattern does not work. I have also tried \\1 in the replace pattern.

What is wrong with my syntax?

Answer 1

The answer was supplied as comment. The pattern to be captured was not wrapped in brackets.

Tell it what you want to (capture): <span class=([A-Za-z0-9]*)>

• Alex K.