regexsearchemacsheaderorg-mode

emacs org mode, search only headers

In emacs, I want to be able to search only the 'headers' in an org mode file.

Idea 1: Search only Visible
I could achieve this by hiding everything, then showing only the outline (S-TAB, S-TAB) and then maybe search all that is visible.(in this case it would be the whole table of content). But how do I search only visible content? C-s searches everything.

Idea 2: use regex
I can potentially do: 

C-c / /             //opens regex search
\*.*heading        //start with * (escaped), followed by any chars, then heading.

But at the moment it's cumbersome to type all of that. Considering I've started learning emacs like 3 hours ago, can I automate this somehow?
E.g, can I write a function to search with "*.*ARGUMENT" and tie it a hotkey? but still have the ability to go like 'next find, next find' etc..?

The use case for this is searching my notes. Some are like ~7000+ lines long and I commonly only search the headers.

[EDIT Solution 1]
@abo-abo's answer worked well for me. I now use helm-org-in-buffer-headings

I.e, I installed Melpa: https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa#usage

Then I installed helm from the package list: M-x package-list-packages

Then I edited my .emacs and bound a hotkey to it:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-=") 'helm-org-in-buffer-headings) ;Outline search.

I reloaded emacs and now when pressing Ctrl+= a searchable outline pops up that automatically narrows down as I type in additional characters. The usual C-n, C-p , buttons work for navigation.

Thanks!

[Edit Solution 2] Curiosity got the best of me. After enjoying helm's heading search, I messed around with worf also. It is like helm (it uses helm) but looks nicer and I can select a 'level' of outline by pressing the number key. I hacked out just the bits necessary for heading search, if of use:

;; ——— WORF Utilities ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
;; https://github.com/abo-abo/worf/blob/master/worf.el
(defun worf--pretty-heading (str lvl)
  "Prettify heading STR or level LVL."
  (setq str (or str ""))
  (setq str (propertize str 'face (nth (1- lvl) org-level-faces)))
  (let (desc)
    (while (and (string-match org-bracket-link-regexp str)
                (stringp (setq desc (match-string 3 str))))
      (setq str (replace-match
                 (propertize desc 'face 'org-link)
                 nil nil str)))
    str))
(defun worf--pattern-transformer (x)
  "Transform X to make 1-9 select the heading level in `worf-goto'."
  (if (string-match "^[1-9]" x)
      (setq x (format "^%s" x))
    x))

(defun worf-goto ()
  "Jump to a heading with `helm'."
  (interactive)
  (require 'helm-match-plugin)
  (let ((candidates
         (org-map-entries
          (lambda ()
            (let ((comp (org-heading-components))
                  (h (org-get-heading)))
              (cons (format "%d%s%s" (car comp)
                            (make-string (1+ (* 2 (1- (car comp)))) ?\ )
                            (if (get-text-property 0 'fontified h)
                                h
                              (worf--pretty-heading (nth 4 comp) (car comp))))
                    (point))))))
        helm-update-blacklist-regexps
        helm-candidate-number-limit)
    (helm :sources
          `((name . "Headings")
            (candidates . ,candidates)
            (action . (lambda (x) (goto-char x)
                         (call-interactively 'show-branches)
                         (worf-more)))
            (pattern-transformer . worf--pattern-transformer)))))

And then tied it to a hot key: 

(global-set-key (kbd "<f3>") 'worf-goto)
Solution

  • worf-goto from worf can do this, so can helm-org-in-buffer-headings from helm.

    worf-goto actually uses helm as a back end. In addition to helm-org-in-buffer-headings, you get: