I'm trying a simple regex search with "\n" to find a line feed and some String(s) around. In a single file search it´s working fine (see screenshot on the right), but in a folder search I get the error "Literal '\n' not allowed" (see screen shot on the left). Any idea?
Screenshot
Cheers Daniel
I believe this error is coming from ripgrep, which VSCode uses by default for this search function. I found this comment by the owner, referencing \n in particular.
Fortunately, you can tell VSCode not to use ripgrep in your settings.json:
"search.useRipgrep": false
With ripgrep disabled, \n should work as expected.
Related
I searched everywhere for this, the problem is that the search criteria is very similar to other questions.
The issue I have is that file (script actually) is embedded in another file. So when I open the parent file I can see the script as massive string with several \n and \r\n codes. I need a way to convert these codes to what they should be so that it formats the code correctly then I can read said code and work on it.
Quick snippet:
\n\n\n\n\nlocal scriptingFunctions\n\n\n\n\nlocal measuringCircles = {}\r\nlocal isCurrentlyCheckingCoherency
Should covert to:
local scriptingFunctions
local measuringCircles = {}
local isCurrentlyCheckingCoherency
perform a Regex Find-Replace
Find: (\\r)?\\n
Replace: \n
If you don't need to reconvert from newlines to \n after you're done working on the code, you can accomplish the trick by simply pressing ctrl-f and substituting every occurrence of \n with a new line (you can type enter in the replace box by pressing ctrl-enter or shift-enter).
See an example ctrl-f to do this:
If after you're done working on the code you need to reconvert to \n, you can add an invisible char to the replace string (typing it like ctrl-enter invisibleChar), and after you're done you can re-replace it with \n.
There's plenty of invisible chars, but I'd personally suggest [U+200b] (you can copy it from here); another good one is [U+2800] (⠀), as it renders as a normal whitespace, and thus is noticeable.
A thing to notice is that recent versions of vscode will show a highlight around invisible chars, but you can easily disable it by clicking on Adjust settings and then selecting Exclude from being highlighted.
If you need to reenable highlighting in the future, you'll have to look for "editor.unicodeHighlight.allowedCharacters" in the settings.
I've been trying to do a whole word search in VS Code's Vim extension. The cursor is at the top of the file, and I try looking for the word "category" with /\<category\>. I've also tried /\v<category> but that doesn't work either. What am I doing wrong?
All you need to do is type /category, I don't think there is a need for '<' or '>'.
The /\<category\> option does work for me in vscode so it must have been fixed. Hopefully your issue is gone
Multiline regular expression search doesn't work in VS Code version 1.27.2 .
Theoretically aaa(\n|.)*bbb should find string starting from aaa and ending bbb but it doesn't work.
The solution mentioned here Multi-line regular expressions in Visual Studio Code doesn't work as well.
Multiline search is added in v1.29 released in November 2018. See multi-line search.
VS Code now supports multiline search! Same as in the editor, a regex
search executes in multiline mode only if it contains a \n literal.
The Search view shows a hint next to each multiline match, with the
number of additional match lines.
This feature is possible thanks to the work done in the ripgrep tool
to implement multiline search.
Multiline search is coming to the Find Widget with v1.38. See multiline find "pre-release" notes.
Multi Line search in Find Widget
The Find Widget now supports multiple line text search and replace. By
pressing Ctrl+Enter, you can insert new lines into the input box.
.
Odd that it is Ctrl+Enter in the Find Widget but Shift+Enter in the Search Panel (see Deepu's answer below). Shift+Enter has other functionality when the Find Widget is focused.
yes, you could use regex for mutliple line search in VScode.
To find a multi-line text block starting from aaa and ending with the first bbb (lazy qualifier)
aaa(.|\n)+?bbb
To find a multi-line text block starting from aaa and ending with the last bbb. (greedy qualifier)
aaa(.|\n)+bbb
I have been looking for a quick way to do this, and I have come to the following:
start_text.*?(.|[\n])*?end_text
with start_text and end_text being the bounds of your multiline search.
breaking down the regex ".?(.|[\n])?":
".?" will match any characters from your start text to the end of the line. The "?" is there to ensure that if your end_text is on the same line the . wont just keep going to the end of the line regardless (greedy vs lazy matching)
"(.|[\n])" means either a character\whitespace or a new line
"*?" specifies to match 0 or more of the expression in the parentheses without being greedy.
Examples:
<meta.*?(.|[\n])*?/> will match from the beginning of all meta tags to the end of the respective tags
<script.*?(.|[\n])*?</script> will match from the beginning of all script tags to the respective closing tags
Warning:
Using .*?(.|[\n])*? with improperly or partially filled in start_text or end_text might crash VS Code. I suggest either writing the whole expression out (which doesn't cause a problem) or writing the start and end text before pasting in the regex. In any case, when I tried to delete parts of the starting and ending text VS Code froze and forced me to reload the file. That being said, I honestly could not find something that worked better in VS Code.
Without using regex.
Multi-line search is now possible in vs code version 1.30 and above without using regex.
Type Shift+Enter in the search box to insert a newline, and the search box will grow to show your full multiline query. You can also copy and paste a multiline selection from the editor into the search box.
You can find and replace in multiple lines by using this simple regex : StringStart\r\nStringEnd
For example
public string MethodA(int x)
{
var user;
}
public string MethodB(string y)
{
var user;
}
public string MethodC(int x)
{
var user;
}
public string MethodD(float x)
{
var user;
}
If you want to replace the name of user variable with customer along with method parameter name to user but only for the int ones.
Then the regex to find will be : int x)\r\nEnterBlankSpacesHereToReachTheString{\r\nEnterBlankSpacesHereToReachTheStringvar user
and regex to replace will be : int user)\r\nEnterBlankSpacesHereToReachTheString{\r\nEnterBlankSpacesHereToReachTheStringvar customer
See for reference
I had a similar issue, this works better for me:
aaa[.\n\r\t\S\s]*bbb
This includes carriage return (\r), new line (\n), tab (\t), any whitespece (\s) and any non whitespace (\S). There seems to be some redundancy putting "." and "\S" together, but it doesn't work without both in my case.
No regex way: you can copy multiline text and paste it in "Find in files" form:
result of "Replace all":
(.|\n)+? or [\s\S\r]* or [.\n\r\t\S\s]* may be understandable when viewed in isolation, but in an already complex regex expression, they can add that extra layer of complexity that makes the whole thing unmanageable.
On Windows, for files on the local disk, I find the best solution is to switch to using Notepad++. Not only does it handle multi-line out of the box, it also has a pleasant interface for multi-file search and replace, handles macros gracefully, and is quite light-weight. You can switch back to VScode as soon you have finished your regex changes. Personally, I deleted Notepad++ when I found VScode, but reinstalled it later when I found some of what Notepad++ had to offer was missing in VScode. Both are free to use! I'm sure there's an equivalent on the Mac.
If you are willing to search JavaScript, TypeScript or JSON files I can recommend my VScode extension
It allows for formatting agnostic text search and structural code search
You can find it on codeque.co or at VSCode Marketplace
Your query could look like this
aaa$$mbbb
where $$m means optional multiline set of any characters
Make sure to use text mode for this query
CodeQue can make much more than that!
The reason on this behavior is very simple.
Multiple line search isn't implemented yet.
see: Support multi-line search for Global search
When you search for a string in Visual Studio Code with Ctrl-F it doesn't display number of occurrences.
Is it possible to find out somehow?
On the other hand it displays a number of hits next to a filename when you search all files with Ctrl-Shift-F.
Once you have the search bar pulled up with Ctrl-F, click the triangle on the left side of the search bar. The occurrence count of your search term will be displayed.
Happy coding!
I had the same problem as csonuryilmaz mentioned in the comment to this answer, I needed the exact count of the string, even if it is 19999+. I ended up opening the file in Notepad++, there you can count all occurences when searching for a string.
Maybe not the best solution if you want/have to use only Visual Studio Code, but for my problem this was a good enough workaround.
On Windows, you can count string occurrences with the command FIND /C "string you're searching" filename.txt
So on VSCode, you can open the console (ctrl + ') and type the command. It's one workaround to count string on large files without have to install any new extensions.
click the down faced triangle and then choose 'find all'
and then the matched string number should be visible on the bottom left:
How can I remove lines that only contain spaces when using Eclipse Find/Replace prompt. I checked the "Regular Expression" check box, and tried the following, neither of which worked.
^[:space:]*$
and
^\s*$
Find: ^\s*\n
Replace with: (empty)
sry this might be an different answer but you can set the number of blank lines you wish to have after fields, methods and blocks in the formatting dialog of the eclipse preferences. then you can hit ctrl-shift-f to automatically format your code depending on your custom definitions.
have fun!
I was suprised that for XML files edited with Eclipse there is a good solution:
Select the checkbox value named 'Clear all blank lines' in Formatting panel
Window->Preferences->XML->XML Files-> Editor
Save and use the "Ctrl+Shift+F' shortcut
The blank lines will dissappear!
for the find/replace operation, "\n\r\s" regex will work on windows, for unix based system, "\n\s" can be used
as already suggested, you can format your code by Ctl+Shift+F
for manual work, locate a blank line and press Ctl+D (Cmd+D on Mac) <- gives u satisfaction of killing the line with your own bare hands :)
cheer!
This one worked for me for years:
Replace this: [\t ]+$
With nothing
Hope this helps!
Many thanks to lamamac.
In genereal, when you want to do search replace with regular expressions in eclipse the $ sign doesn't work as it should.
Use '\s*\n' instead of '$'
As already suggested, regular expression and replacement is the solution, but such response would have been saving some minutes to me:
click on ctrl+f
use this replacement: