CLion 2016.1 Help

Finding and Replacing Text in Project

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Finding a piece of text in all the files within the specified path

  1. On the main menu, choose Edit | Find | Find in Path, or press Ctrl+Shift+F.
  2. In the Find In Path dialog box, specify the following options:
    • The text to find. Type the text explicitly, or specify a pattern using a regular expression, or select a previously used piece of text or a pattern from the recent history drop-down list.

      If you specify the search pattern through a regular expression, use the $n format in back references (to refer to a previously found and saved pattern).

    • Search scope (project , module or directory).
    • Search options (case sensitivity, whole words, and regular expressions).
  3. Click Find.

If the search takes too long time, click Background in the search progress window. In this case the search progress is indicated in the Status bar.

Replacing a piece of text in all the files within the specified path

  1. Do one of the following:
    • On the main menu, choose Edit | Find | Replace in Path.
    • Press Ctrl+Shift+R
    • Being in the Find In Path dialog box, press Ctrl+Shift+R to switch to Replace In Path dialog box.
  2. In the Replace In Path dialog box, specify the search and replace strings, the search options, and the scope. Type the search and replacement text explicitly, or specify patterns using regular expression, or select a previously used piece of text or a pattern from the recent history drop-down list.
    • If you specify the search and/or replacement text through a regular expression, use the $n format in back references (to refer to a previously found and saved pattern).
    • To use a backslash character \ in a regular expression, escape the meaningful backslash by inserting three extra backslashes in preposition: \\\\.
  3. Click Find. CLion displays the encountered occurrences of the search string in the Find tool window, selects the first occurrence and opens the file with this occurrence in the editor and moves the focus to it.

    At the same time, CLion opens the Replace Usage dialog box, with the full path to the encountered occurrence in the title bar:

    Do one of the following:

    • To have the selected occurrence replaced, click Replace.
    • To preserve the selected occurrence and move to the next one, click Skip.
    • To have all the occurrences of the search string in the currently active tab replaced, click Replace All in This File.
    • To preserve the occurrences of the search string in the currently active tab (any) and move to the next file, click Skip to Next File.
    • To have all the detected occurrences replaced, click All Files.
    • To switch to the manual mode, click Preview. The Replace Usage dialog box closes and the focus moves to the Find tool window. Do one of the following:
      • Browse through the list of detected occurrences, select the ones you want to replace and then click Replace Selected.
      • To have all the occurrences changed click Replace All.

Toggling between the Find in Path and Replace in Path dialog boxes

See Also

Last modified: 20 July 2016