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$59.95 (as of December 20, 2024 09:33 GMT +00:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Replacing text across multiple lines is a common task when refactoring code in Visual Studio. Whether renaming variables, changing function calls, or standardizing formatting, multiline find-and-replace skills are essential.
This in-depth guide covers Visual Studio’s robust multiline search and replace capabilities. We’ll explore powerful regex-based find options, scope filtering, and other advanced replace techniques.
Mastering multiline manipulation in Visual Studio accelerates development workflows and makes codebase-wide changes safe and simple. Let’s dive in!
Overview of Multiline Editing in Visual Studio
Visual Studio provides extensive support for editing across line breaks:
- Find and replace literals, wildcards, and regular expressions spanning multiple lines.
- Scope multiline searches to selected text, documents, projects, or entire solutions.
- Leverage .NET regex syntax for complex multilined find patterns.
- Use special backslash escapes to match line breaks in regex replacements.
- Inspect search results and selectively apply replacements.
- Support for multiline editing across VS languages like C#, JavaScript, Python, and more.
These multilined editing capabilities help tackle wide-ranging codebase refactors with ease.
Why Multiline Editing Matters
Robust multiline find-and-replace delivers important benefits:
- Make codebase-wide variable and method renames safe and fast.
- Standardize formatting by changing multiline comment styles.
- Modify complex multi-statement logic by searching brackets and braces.
- Fix invalid string literals spanning lines.
- Reflow text by altering line breaks.
- Quickly implement standard style guidelines and conventions.
- Accurately update licenses, copyright notices, and shared text blocks.
Overall, multiline editing is invaluable for large-scale codebase manipulation.
Using Multiline Selection for Focused Finds
Visual Studio offers multiline selection for focusing finds:
Enable Mulitline Selection
Enable with Edit > Advanced > View Whitepsace:
[Screenshot showing enabling multiline selection]This shows special glyphs for line breaks.
Make a Multiline Selection
Highlight across multiple lines:
[Screenshot showing a multiline selection]Use arrows with Shift or drag with mouse.
Find Within Selection
Search for matches only within the selection:
[Screenshot showing finding within a selection]This narrows scope to selected text.
Multiline selecting avoids overbroad changes across code.
Finding Multiline Literals
Find literal strings spanning lines with:
Wildcards
Use asterisks * to match anything:
Find: Hello*world
Matches:
Hello
world
Helloeveryone
world
JavaScriptCaret ^ for Line Starts
Use ^ to require line start matching:
Find: ^Hello*world
Matches:
Hello
world
Doesn't match:
ByeHello
world
JavaScriptDollar $ for Line End
Use $ to require line end matching:
Find: Hello*world$
Matches:
Hello
world
Doesn't match:
Hello
world!
JavaScriptWith these wildcards, flexible literal multiline finds are possible.
Finding with .NET RegexMultiline Expressions
For complex finds, use .NET regex multiline mode:
Regex Multiline Flag
Enable with (?m) flag:
Find: (?m)Hello.*world
JavaScriptThis allows ^, $, and . to match line breaks.
Start and End Anchors
Use \A and \Z to anchor multiline matches:
Find: \AHello.*\Z
Matches:
Hello
world
But not:
Bye
Hello
world
JavaScriptDotall Mode
Set (?s) flag so dot . matches line breaks:
Find: (?s)Hello.*world
JavaScriptThis matches any character including newlines.
Word Boundaries
Use \b in multiline mode to match word breaks:
Find: (?m)\bworld\b
JavaScriptMatches ‘world’ surrounded by word breaks.
Regex enables extremely flexible multiline finds.
Multiline Replacements with Regex Backslashes
Special regex escapes insert newlines and literal replacements:
Newline Escape
\r and \n insert newlines
Replace: Hello \\r\\n world
Becomes:
Hello
world
JavaScriptCarriage Return
\r for carriage returns
Literal Backslashes
\\ to insert literal backslashes
Other Regex Metacharacters
Escape regex symbols with \
Backslash handling enables inserting multiline text.
Multiline Find and Replace Scope Options
Scope multiline operations to:
Selected Text
Just act within the current text selection.
Current Document
Apply to only the active document.
All Open Documents
Span every open document.
Current Project
Apply changes across the whole project.
Entire Solution
Replace globally across all projects.
Scope avoids accidentally impacting unrelated code.
Reviewing Multiline Find Results
Review results before applying replacements:
Preview Files
Inspect changed files with the right arrow icon:
Review diffs visually.
Open Files
Double click result lines to open files.
Selective Replacement
Uncheck unwanted result lines to skip them.
Undo Support
Revert unwanted replacements.
Thorough reviewing prevents overbroad find-and-replace mistakes.
Example Multiline Refactors in Visual Studio
Some examples of useful multiline refactors:
Changing Multiline Comments
Easily update comment styles:
/* Old
block comment */
Regex replace:
/*.**/
With:
// New
line comment
JavaScriptThis converts comment formats.
Method Renaming
Rename methods across classes:
void oldMethod() {
}
Regex replace:
(?m)oldMethod\(\)
With:
newMethod()
JavaScriptThis safely renames globally.
String Literal Formatting
Standardize string formats spanning lines:
"Old string
literal"
Replace:
"(?m)"".*""
With:
@"New verbatim
string literal"
JavaScriptPowerful for formatting fixes.
Variable Renames
Change variables globally:
old_variable = 1;
Replace:
(?m)\bold_variable\b
With:
new_variable
JavaScriptUse \b for word boundaries.
Code Style Compliance
Standardize spacing around symbols:
if(test == 1){
}
Replace:
(?m)\bif\b\((.*)\)(\s*){
With:
if (\\1) {
JavaScriptThis neatly fixes spacing issues.
Regex replacements enables large-scale refactors.
Multiline Replace Tips and Tricks
Some handy tips for multilined search-and-replace:
- Start with simple wildcard finds and build up to full regex.
- Scope replaces narrowly at first and broaden once validated.
- Mind indentation – use \t, \r\n, or \n newlines as needed.
- Review files after multiline updates and revert problematic changes.
- Consider enabling regex . matches newline mode for convenience.
- Use named capture groups for readability with complex replacements.
- Break long find-and-replace expressions into separate steps when possible.
Following these tips will result in smoother multiline edits.
Advanced Multiline Selection Tricks
Some useful advanced selection techniques:
Column Selection
Hold Alt and select to column highlight:
[Screenshot showing column selection]Finds, moves, and edits entire columns.
Find All Occurances
Use Ctrl + Shift + L to select all matches:
[Screenshot showing finding all occurences]Jumps between occurences.
Adjacent Lines
Hold Ctrl+Click to add contiguous lines.
Rectangular Blocks
Hold Alt + Shift while clicking and dragging for a rectangular selection.
These tricks expand multilined manipulation capabilities.
Multiline Editing in Other Visual Studio Languages
Beyond C#, robust multiline find-and-replace works in:
JavaScript
Update CSS class names across .js files:
$('.old-class')
Replace:
(\$)\(\s*['"].*['"]\s*\)
With:
$1('.new-class')
JavaScriptPython
Standardize string quotes usage:
'old string'
Replace:
(?m)(["'])(.*)(["'])
With:
"\\2"
JavaScriptXML
Rename elements throughout config files:
<oldTag>
</oldTag>
Replace:
(?m)<oldTag>.*</oldTag>
With:
<newTag>
</newTag>
JavaScriptMarkdown
Correct image links:
![alt](oldlink)
Replace:
!\[.*]\((.*)\)
With:
![\\1](newlink)
JavaScriptRegex replacements work across major VS languages.
Multiline Selection and Editing Keyboard Shortcuts
Useful Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts:
- Ctrl + Click: Add cursor for multiline editing
- Alt + Shift + Arrow: Column selection
- Ctrl + Alt + Up/Down: Add line above or below
- Ctrl + Enter: Insert line below cursor
- Ctrl + Shift + L: Select all occurrences
- Ctrl + F: Open multiline find/replace dialog
Keyboard shortcuts accelerate multilined workflows.
Multiline Find and Replace Risks
Some risks to watch out for:
- Unintended matches from overbroad regex or scope.
- Forgetting to escape special regex characters.
- Spanning too much code at once leading to widespread unintended changes.
- Changing text within comments and strings.
- Impacting overlapping match regions with multiple successive replaces.
- Forgetting to review replacements before committing them.
Going slowly and carefully at first is advisable.
Alternative Multiline Editing Options
Some alternatives to Visual Studio find-and-replace:
Sublime Text Multicursor
Enables direct multiline editing:
[Screenshot showing Sublime Text multicursor]However, less scope control than true find-and-replace.
grep and sed
Powerful command line search-and-replace:
grep -r "find" /code | sed -e "s/find/replace/"
JavaScriptBut easy to make mistakes without previews.
Code Search Tools
Services like Sourcegraph and Silver Searcher enable code searching without also handling replacements.
Visual Studio’s balance of safety and power has advantages.
Sample Multiline Find and Replace Workflow
Walkthrough of a full safe multilined refactor workflow:
- Make a narrow initial selection to preview the intended change.
- Craft a focused regex that matches only the desired lines.
- Test run the replace within the selection and validate the results.
- Broaden the scope slightly and re-test, iterating until confident.
- Do one final verification in a clone of the code before running globally.
- Scope to entire project/solution and execute while carefully reviewing changes.
- Spot check files to verify accuracy.
- Consider running source control diffs to review impact.
- Revert any improperly matched file edits as needed.
This careful, iterative approach ensures safety.
Key Benefits of Multiline Editing in Visual Studio
Mastering Visual Studio’s multilined find-and-replace:
- Helps complete large scale refactors easily.
- Avoids hours of risky manual search-and-replace.
- Enables superior codebase-wide find-and-replace scope.
- Makes codebase edits accurate with strong regex and previewing.
- Improves consistency with project-wide formatting standardization.
- Integrates robustly across languages and file types.
- Reduces introduction of regressions relative to global manual edits.
Smooth multilined workflows accelerate development and maintain cleaner code.
Conclusion
Visual Studio delivers industry-leading support for versatile multiline text manipulation through its robust find-and-replace functionality. Developers can accomplish codebase-wide changes ranging from style standardization to large scale refactors with speed and accuracy.
By leveraging features like regex, scoping, and previews, developers can avoid common find-and-replace pitfalls. Following a careful iterative approach ensures global changes can be made fearlessly. Deep multiline editing mastery pays dividends across virtually any Visual Studio project.