Search

There are several ways to perform a search and to find things in the workspace:

• Search in Workspace
• Open File
• Open Workspace Symbol
• Navigator Search
• Find and Replace in Editor

Search in Workspace

The Search in Workspace command will bring up the Search view. Run it either through the command palette or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F (⌘+Shift+F on macOS).

In the Search view, you can start typing, and the matching results will be shown automatically without pressing Enter. The search can be restricted to case matching, whole word matching, or the query can be given as a regular expression. Search results are grouped by file, with an indication of the number of occurrences and the file’s path. Expand a file to see a preview of all of the hits within that file. Then single-click on one of the hits to view it in the editor.

Advanced Search Options

In the input box below the search box, you can enter patterns to include or exclude from the search. If you enter theName, it will match every directory and file named theName in the workspace. If you enter ./theName, it will match the directory theName/ at the top level of your workspace. Use ! to exclude those patterns from the search. !theName will skip searching any directory or file named theName. You can also use globbing syntax:

• * to match one or more characters in a path segment,
• ? to match on one character in a path segment,
• ** to match any number of path segments, including none,
• {} to group conditions (e.g., {**/*.html,**/*.txt} matches all HTML and text files), and
• [] to declare a range of characters to match (e.g., theName.[0-9] to match on theName.0, theName.1, …).

Theia excludes some directories by default (for instance, node_modules and others that are ignored through .gitignore) to reduce the number of search results. If you would like to search for all files in the workspace, click on the Include Ignored Files in the search field.

Search and Replace

You can also Search and Replace across files. Expand the Search widget to display the Replace text box.

When you type text into the Replace text box, you will see a diff display of the pending changes. You can replace across all files from the Replace text box, replace all in one file, or replace a single change. Double-clicking on any of the Search and Replace occurrences, opens the file in a diff editor so that you can review the modification in the editor before eventually applying them.

Open File

Use Ctrl+P (⌘+P on macOS) to search files in the workspace by name. By default, hidden and ignored files do not show up among the results.

If you want to include all files in this search, press Ctrl+P once again.

Selecting a file will open it in an editor.

Open Workspace Symbol

Press Ctrl+O (⌘+O on macOS) to find symbols in the workspace. Note: what kinds of symbols are searchable is language-specific.

Navigator Search

When the Files navigator is in focus, start typing to highlight all those files whose names match your pattern. This search ignores all collapsed files in the navigator. When the navigator search is active and there are highlighted files, you can use the cursor arrows to jump the matching resources in the navigator. You can finish your search anytime by hitting Esc, or by deleting your pattern with Backspace.

Use this to quickly locate a file in the Files navigator.

Find and Replace in Editor

Press Ctrl+F (⌘+F on macOS) in the editor to open the Find/Replace search widget. It is recommended to use this search functionality if you want to find something in a given file. As always, alternatively, you can use the command palette (look for Find) or the Edit > Find menu item to open the search widget.

This functionality helps you finding all occurrences in a single file. Your query can match the whole word, can be case sensitive, or even a regular expression. It also provides a convenient way to replace all you search occurrences.