IntelliJ find and replace using regular expressions

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

IntelliJ (and all JetBrains ideas) support the ability to find and replace text using regular expressions. Regular expressions in this context can be very powerful. When you do not use regular expressions enough, it may take some time to come up with a correct regex, often looking at the docs or examples to find out how they work.

find/replace regex (and also regular find/replace) works particularly well when lots of replacements need to be made.

IntelliJ structural search and replace

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you run into a situation where you want to refactor some code but cannot use the regular refactorings. For example, take the following code:

jQuery("body").on("change", "#fontSelector", "change", function () {
    var selectedFont = jQuery("#fontSelector").val();
    layoutDesigner.selectFont(selectedFont);
});

I wanted to replace the above code with the following:

jQuery("#fontSelector").off("change");
jQuery("#fontSelector").on("change", function () {
    var selectedFont = jQuery("#fontSelector").val();
    layoutDesigner.selectFont(selectedFont);
});

Sure, I could rewrite this manually. But this takes a long time with dozens of such event handling constructs, all with different selectors, events and functions. Structural search and replace to the rescue.

IntelliJ on Jamie Craane personal blog

IntelliJ find and replace using regular expressions

IntelliJ structural search and replace