Multiline Search and Replace in Visual Studio
I was cleaning my older VB .NET project some time ago. I just wanted to "refactor" some code to look more readable. All I needed was several replaces of multiline text. VS 2002, 2003 nor 2005 is unable to perform multiline search/replace. So I wrote a macro that can do it.
As you know, you can use regular expressions (regex in next text) in standard Find/Search. See Regular Expressions in MSDN for more info. You can define newline by \n sequence in regex . So theoretically, all you need to do is to replace newline by \n in Find what and Replace with boxes and select Regular Expressions in Use box. But that means that you cannot just simply copy and paste the text to this dialog.
There's another problem. Regex uses many characters which have special meaning, for example * + [ ] . ^ $ : < > etc. You can find complete definition in MSDN. That means that your original text cannot contain these characters. Or you must escape them all with \ character.
And that's exactly what my macro does:
- It allows you to enter multiline search/replace text.
- Then it converts it to regex syntax.
- Opens standard VS Find/Replace window and automatically fills Find and Replace boxes with regex text. It also selects Regular Expressions mode.
You can then search and replace as usually.
To create macro:
- Open Macro Explorer. Go to Tools - Macros - Macro Explorer
- Navigate to Macros - MyMacros. Here you must create your own class by right-click and New Module.... Name it MultilineSearch.
- Double click your MultilineSearch module to open Macros IDE.
- Delete its all contents and copy this code:
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module MultilineSearch
Sub MultilineSearchReplace()
Dim winptr As New WinWrapper(DTE)
Dim sf As New MultilineSearchForm
sf.ShowDialog(winptr)
If sf.result <> FindReplaceKind.none Then
' temporarily disable Tools - Options -
' Environment - Documents - Initialize Find text from editor
Dim oldFindInit As Boolean
Try
'vs 2002/2003
Dim props As EnvDTE.Properties
props = DTE.Properties("Environment", "Documents")
Dim prop As EnvDTE.Property = props.Item("FindReplaceInitializeFromEditor")
oldFindInit = CBool(prop.Value)
prop.Value = False
Catch ex As System.Exception
Try
'vs 2005/2008
Dim props As EnvDTE.Properties
props = DTE.Properties("Environment", "FindAndReplace")
Dim prop As EnvDTE.Property = props.Item("InitializeFromEditor")
oldFindInit = CBool(prop.Value)
prop.Value = False
Catch ex2 As Exception
End Try
End Try
DTE.Find.PatternSyntax = vsFindPatternSyntax.vsFindPatternSyntaxRegExpr
DTE.Find.FindWhat = sf.findText
If sf.replaceText.Length = 0 Then
'If Replace text is empty, the Find dialog automatically
'uses the last non-empty value from history. To prevent this,
'we must pass some non-empty value which produces empty text.
'The ninth regex tagged expression seems good for this as it is very
'unlikely that user will add 9 tagged expressions in Find field in
'original VS Find dialog after it is pre-filled with this macro.
DTE.Find.ReplaceWith = "\9"
End If
DTE.Find.ReplaceWith = sf.replaceText
Select Case sf.result
Case FindReplaceKind.find
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.Find")
Case FindReplaceKind.findInFiles
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.FindinFiles")
Case FindReplaceKind.replace
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.Replace")
Case FindReplaceKind.replaceInFiles
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.ReplaceinFiles")
Case Else
End Select
' restore Tools - Options -
' Environment - Documents - Initialize Find text from editor
Try
'vs 2002/2003
Dim props As EnvDTE.Properties
props = DTE.Properties("Environment", "Documents")
Dim prop As EnvDTE.Property = props.Item("FindReplaceInitializeFromEditor")
prop.Value = oldFindInit
Catch ex As System.Exception
Try
'vs 2005/2008
Dim props As EnvDTE.Properties
props = DTE.Properties("Environment", "FindAndReplace")
Dim prop As EnvDTE.Property = props.Item("InitializeFromEditor")
prop.Value = oldFindInit
Catch ex2 As Exception
End Try
End Try
End If
End Sub
End Module
'''<summary>Types of find/replace operations.</summary>
Public Enum FindReplaceKind
'''<summary>Find</summary>
find
'''<summary>Find In Files</summary>
findInFiles
'''<summary>Replace</summary>
replace
'''<summary>Replace in Files</summary>
replaceInFiles
'''<summary>None. Cancel was pressed.</summary>
none
End Enum
Public Class MultilineSearchForm
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
Public Sub New()
MyBase.New()
'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
InitializeComponent()
'Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call
End Sub
'Form overrides dispose to clean up the component list.
Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
If disposing Then
If Not (components Is Nothing) Then
components.Dispose()
End If
End If
MyBase.Dispose(disposing)
End Sub
'Required by the Windows Form Designer
Private components As System.ComponentModel.IContainer
'NOTE: The following procedure is required by the Windows Form Designer
'It can be modified using the Windows Form Designer.
'Do not modify it using the code editor.
Friend WithEvents FindBox As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
Friend WithEvents Label1 As System.Windows.Forms.Label
Friend WithEvents Label2 As System.Windows.Forms.Label
Friend WithEvents ReplaceBox As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
Friend WithEvents FindBtn As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Friend WithEvents FindInFilesBtn As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Friend WithEvents ReplaceBtn As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Friend WithEvents ReplaceInFilesBtn As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Friend WithEvents CancelBtn As System.Windows.Forms.Button
<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> Private Sub InitializeComponent()
Me.FindBox = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
Me.Label1 = New System.Windows.Forms.Label
Me.Label2 = New System.Windows.Forms.Label
Me.ReplaceBox = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
Me.FindBtn = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
Me.FindInFilesBtn = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
Me.ReplaceBtn = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
Me.CancelBtn = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
Me.SuspendLayout()
'
'FindBox
'
Me.FindBox.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(16, 24)
Me.FindBox.Multiline = True
Me.FindBox.Name = "FindBox"
Me.FindBox.ScrollBars = System.Windows.Forms.ScrollBars.Both
Me.FindBox.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(400, 80)
Me.FindBox.TabIndex = 0
Me.FindBox.Text = ""
'
'Label1
'
Me.Label1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(16, 8)
Me.Label1.Name = "Label1"
Me.Label1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(160, 16)
Me.Label1.TabIndex = 2
Me.Label1.Text = "Find what:"
'
'Label2
'
Me.Label2.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(16, 112)
Me.Label2.Name = "Label2"
Me.Label2.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(160, 16)
Me.Label2.TabIndex = 4
Me.Label2.Text = "Replace with:"
'
'ReplaceBox
'
Me.ReplaceBox.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(16, 128)
Me.ReplaceBox.Multiline = True
Me.ReplaceBox.Name = "ReplaceBox"
Me.ReplaceBox.ScrollBars = System.Windows.Forms.ScrollBars.Both
Me.ReplaceBox.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(400, 80)
Me.ReplaceBox.TabIndex = 3
Me.ReplaceBox.Text = ""
'
'FindBtn
'
Me.FindBtn.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(16, 232)
Me.FindBtn.Name = "FindBtn"
Me.FindBtn.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(80, 24)
Me.FindBtn.TabIndex = 5
Me.FindBtn.Text = "Find>>"
'
'FindInFilesBtn
'
Me.FindInFilesBtn.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(104, 232)
Me.FindInFilesBtn.Name = "FindInFilesBtn"
Me.FindInFilesBtn.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(96, 24)
Me.FindInFilesBtn.TabIndex = 6
Me.FindInFilesBtn.Text = "Find in Files>>"
'
'ReplaceBtn
'
Me.ReplaceBtn.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(216, 232)
Me.ReplaceBtn.Name = "ReplaceBtn"
Me.ReplaceBtn.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(80, 24)
Me.ReplaceBtn.TabIndex = 7
Me.ReplaceBtn.Text = "Replace>>"
'
'ReplaceInFilesBtn
'
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(304, 232)
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn.Name = "ReplaceInFilesBtn"
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(112, 24)
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn.TabIndex = 8
Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn.Text = "Replace in Files>>"
'
'CancelBtn
'
Me.CancelBtn.DialogResult = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Cancel
Me.CancelBtn.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(168, 272)
Me.CancelBtn.Name = "CancelBtn"
Me.CancelBtn.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(80, 24)
Me.CancelBtn.TabIndex = 9
Me.CancelBtn.Text = "Cancel"
'
'MultilineSearchForm
'
Me.AutoScaleBaseSize = New System.Drawing.Size(5, 13)
Me.CancelButton = Me.CancelBtn
Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(432, 310)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.CancelBtn)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.ReplaceInFilesBtn)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.ReplaceBtn)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.FindInFilesBtn)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.FindBtn)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.Label2)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.ReplaceBox)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.Label1)
Me.Controls.Add(Me.FindBox)
Me.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.SizableToolWindow
Me.Name = "MultilineSearchForm"
Me.Text = "Multiline Search and Replace"
Me.ResumeLayout(False)
End Sub
#End Region
#Region "Properties"
Private m_result As FindReplaceKind = FindReplaceKind.none
'''<summary>Gets result button from this dialog.</summary>
'''<value>The value specifying which button was pressed.</value>
Public ReadOnly Property result() As FindReplaceKind
Get
Return m_result
End Get
End Property
Private m_findText As String
'''<summary>Gets escaped multiline text to be searched.</summary>
'''<value></value>
Public ReadOnly Property findText() As String
Get
Return m_findText
End Get
End Property
Private m_replaceText As String
'''<summary>Gets escaped multiline replace text.</summary>
'''<value></value>
Public ReadOnly Property replaceText() As String
Get
Return m_replaceText
End Get
End Property
#End Region
'''<summary>Transforms the text to regular expression syntax.</summary>
'''<param name="original">Original text.</param>
'''<returns>Text with escaped regex characters.</returns>
Private Function escapeRegEx(ByVal original As String) As String
Dim specialChars() As Char = "\.*+^$><[]|{}:@#()~".ToCharArray
Dim c As Char
For Each c In specialChars
original = original.Replace(c.ToString, "\" & c.ToString)
Next
original = original.Replace(vbCrLf, "\n")
Return original
End Function
'''<summary>Transforms the text to regular expression syntax in Replace field.</summary>
'''<param name="original">Original text.</param>
'''<returns>Text with some escaped regex characters.</returns>
Private Function escapeReplaceRegEx(ByVal original As String) As String
Dim specialChars() As Char = "\".ToCharArray
Dim c As Char
For Each c In specialChars
original = original.Replace(c.ToString, "\" & c.ToString)
Next
original = original.Replace(vbCrLf, "\n")
Return original
End Function
Private Sub MultilineSearchForm_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Try
Me.Activate()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub CancelBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles CancelBtn.Click
Try
m_result = FindReplaceKind.none
Me.Close()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub FindBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles FindBtn.Click
Try
m_findText = escapeRegEx(Me.FindBox.Text)
m_replaceText = escapeReplaceRegEx(Me.ReplaceBox.Text)
m_result = FindReplaceKind.find
Me.Close()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub FindInFilesBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles FindInFilesBtn.Click
Try
m_findText = escapeRegEx(Me.FindBox.Text)
m_replaceText = escapeReplaceRegEx(Me.ReplaceBox.Text)
m_result = FindReplaceKind.findInFiles
Me.Close()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub ReplaceBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ReplaceBtn.Click
Try
m_findText = escapeRegEx(Me.FindBox.Text)
m_replaceText = escapeReplaceRegEx(Me.ReplaceBox.Text)
m_result = FindReplaceKind.replace
Me.Close()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub ReplaceInFilesBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ReplaceInFilesBtn.Click
Try
m_findText = escapeRegEx(Me.FindBox.Text)
m_replaceText = escapeReplaceRegEx(Me.ReplaceBox.Text)
m_result = FindReplaceKind.replaceInFiles
Me.Close()
Catch ex As System.Exception
End Try
End Sub
End Class
''' <summary>
''' Helper class for passing parent window argument to ShowDialog method.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312877 for details.</remarks>
Friend Class WinWrapper
Implements System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window
Private vsinstance As DTE
Sub New(ByVal dte As DTE)
vsinstance = dte
End Sub
Overridable ReadOnly Property Handle() As System.IntPtr Implements System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window.Handle
Get
Dim iptr As New System.IntPtr(vsinstance.MainWindow.HWnd)
Return iptr
End Get
End Property
End Class
- Add System.Drawing.dll to References under MyMacros in Macros IDE.
- Close Macros IDE.
Now you can run MultilineSearchReplace macro. You can of course create a toolbar or menu button or assign keyboard shortcut to it.
There is one interesting thing on this macro. It creates its own form. There is no Form designer in Macros IDE so I thought it was not possible to create my own form in macro. Fortunately, I was wrong. Form is a class as any other, it just must inherit from System.Windows.Forms.Form. I created my form in normal VB .NET project using Form designer and then copied the code into macro IDE. It couldn't be easier.
UPDATE 15. October 2008: I have updated the macro code. It fixes two bugs:
- In VS 2005 and 2008, when using Find/Replace in Files, the "Find what" field didn't contain value entered by user but text from cursor position in editor.
- When Replace field contained some special characters, they were incorrectly escaped with \.
UPDATE 23. June 2009: I have updated the macro code. It fixes two issues:
- When Replace with text was empty (you wanted to delete the text), the last non-empty text from replace history was automatically filled. This is behavior of standard VS Find/Replace dialog. To prevent this, we need to pass non-empty value which produces empty text. The "\9" seems OK for this. This is regex tagged expression number nine which is always empty string. You would need to manually add nine tagged expressions (text enclosed with {}) in Find what field in original VS Find/Replace dialog to \9 produce any text.
- When macro's modal window was open and you switched to another application and then back to VS, the macro window was not visible and you had to activate it from task bar.
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:16 pm
I just tried to create thid macro in new installation of VS and there were some errors when I tried to run it. I needed to add System.Drawing.dll to References under MyMacros in Macros IDE.
April 5th, 2006 at 3:02 am
I’d REALLY appreachiate a stand alone program of this…
Do you have one available? If you did I’d really
appreachiate it, emailed to me.
Thank you for this tip, I could maybe try to translate the code
into Python to use as a script (don’t have VS…)
-Magnon Damant
April 5th, 2006 at 8:23 am
No, I don’t have standalone program for this. Quick Google search revealed some free programs that you may try:
http://www.nodesoft.com/SearchAndReplace/
http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2004/PL2004FILEUTILITIES.php#0379-PW
May 4th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
After a while , the lookin is full with all the last locations .It all adds up in the registry. Is there a way to clear it/ prevent from adding ?
May 4th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I don’t think it is possible to clear or prevent from adding the “Look In” history of “Find in Files” dialog from macro or add-in. You will probably need to use VSIP package. You can only manually manipulate the registry. But the changes take effect only after VS restart. You can use DTE.RegistryRoot property to find the correct registry key.
May 7th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Peter - sorry for bugging but your post is so useful…
Is there a way to get the results back as a collection or something like that ? I would like to use the results in some way
May 7th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
You can get the results easily. I wrote an article at http://www.helixoft.com/blog/archives/23 how to do it.
June 7th, 2006 at 12:11 am
Does this work in VS 2003? I couldn’t get it to work on VS 2003.
June 7th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Yes, it works in VS 2003. The screenshots are from VS 2003. What kind of error did you encounter? Did you add System.Drawing.dll to References under MyMacros in Macros IDE?
September 21st, 2007 at 9:54 am
Your macro worked for me but I had to remove the escape character “\” wherever there was “)” or “(” in the ‘replace’ line. For example, for “dispose\(\)” in the replace line I had to use “dispose()”.
Thanks for your multiline searching macro. It helped me.
October 13th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Hej Powershell guy.
In gui-help replace it can be defined as - a specified number of times.
But how should i do, if i only will change the first space and not the other space
in the following example ???
${C:\powerstart.txt} -replace ‘ ‘,’;’ > C:\powerstart1.txt
I need a real reference manual !!
——————————————————————–
Replace
Definition: Returns a string in which a specified substring has been replaced
with another substring a specified number of times.
$a = “bxnxnx”
$a = $a -replace(”x”,”a”)
Regards
Torben Brønsholm
Denmark
May 7th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Thank you!
May 19th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
This has solved my problem in a nanosecond, thanks a lot!!!
July 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Man,
It works just fine! Saved a lot of time for me. Thanks pal!
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
hehe,
i just requested this functionality as a feature in visual studio and the microsoft connect team pointed me here.
cheers for the macro. very useful
October 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The code above may be good for VS2005, but the two bits where it looks up environment settings will need to be replaced with something like the following in VS2008:
Dim props As EnvDTE.Properties = DTE.Properties(”Environment”, “FindAndReplace”)
Dim prop As EnvDTE.Property = props.Item(”InitializeFromEditor”)
oldFindInit = CBool(prop.Value)
October 15th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Nathan, thank you for finding this problem. It even didn’t work in VS 2005, only in VS 2002/2003. I haven’t found it because it worked in VS 2005 if Find/Replace was used. The problem occured only if Find in Files/Replace in files was used.
I have updated the code in my post. It fixes this problem and also bug when replacing with special characters mentioned in Sadiq’s comment.
October 25th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Hello,
Be careful, this macro is unchecking behind the scenes, without asking permission, a Visual Studio 2005 environment checkbox:
There is a “Automatically populate Find What with text from the editor” checkbox under
Tools-> Options -> Environment -> Find and Replace
which is automatically reset ??
See also this article:
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/10/22/did-you-know-ctrl-f-does-a-quick-find-in-the-current-document.aspx
October 25th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
To Charles Rex: Exactly. This macro turns off this setting and then immediatelly restores its value back. The setting must be temporarily reset, otherwise the Find dialog ignores our text and uses selected text from editor. The update mentioned in the post addresses exactly this issue.
October 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Small correction
Replace
Catch ex2 As Exception
with
Catch ex2 As System.Exception
October 26th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
> Catch ex2 As System.Exception
Good point. I have updated the code. In fact, I have
Imports System
at the beginning of each file so this was not necessary on my computer.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Just awesome, works like a dream, thank you for this. I do this all the time, and I wrote an external program to escape my searches and replaces, really annoying, this macro saves a lot of time. Great install instructions, too.
A suggestion to perfection would be to give the user the ability to select text during the macro execution, which is not possible, at least not in VS2008. Don’t know if it’s possible.
Thanks again //Tor
January 16th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks a lot. You should be a Sir
March 13th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Thank you for making this available. It saved me a ton of time yesterday and certainly in the future as well!
March 25th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
You is awesome!
April 29th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Thanks. This was very useful.
May 11th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Awesome… thanks.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Fantastic, saved me loads of time. Thanks.
Just one thing though … I was deleting lines with your macro, so left the ‘Replace with’ textbox blank. The ‘Find and Replace’ dialog though put a ” character in the ‘Replace with’ textbox.
Cheers.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Andrew, thank you for reporting this problem. I have fixed it and updated the article. See UPDATE note at the end of article.