Visual Studio: Find & Replace w/ Expressions?

[MrDoomMaster]

I don't know about you guys but trying to use expressions in Find & Replace in Visual Studio .NET 2003 is just like trying to learn a new programming language.

I'm particularly interested in changing every occurance of this code:


CHECKCLASS();
return 0;
into this code:

CHECKCLASS();

Can someone show me how I can format the Find & Replace expression in order to achieve this? MSDN fails to provide any examples.

Thanks!

Note: All spaces must remain the same, as the tabbing shown above is essential. My tabs are spaces, not actual tabs. 4 spaces per tab.

[wildfrog]

Maybe this does the trick:

// What to find
\tCHECKCLASS\(\);\n\t\treturn 0;\n

// Replace with
\tCHECKCLASS();\n
Basically what is says is to find a tab followed by "CHECKCLASS();", a new-line, two more tabs, "return 0;" and then a new line. Then replace it with a tab followed by "CHECKCLASS();" and a newline, phew...

- petter

[MrDoomMaster]

hmm didn't work. Perhaps \t doesn't consider 4 spaces as a tab.

[wildfrog]

Sorry... not tabs, just spaces.

^:Wh^4CHECKCLASS\(\);\n:Wh^8return:Wh0;\n
This should find a newline, 4 spaces, "CHECKCLASS();", newline, 8 spaces, "return 0;" and a newline...

- petter

[Marc G]

BTW: these are called regular expressions and are explained in the MSDN. :wave:

[MrDoomMaster]

BTW: these are called regular expressions and are explained in the MSDN. :wave:

The expressions are explained but no examples are given. I need MSDN to provide me syntax examples, so that I can get an idea of how to use them. This is the entire point of posting this thread, to obtain examples.

[MrDoomMaster]

Sorry... not tabs, just spaces.

^:Wh^4CHECKCLASS\(\);\n:Wh^8return:Wh0;\n
This should find a newline, 4 spaces, "CHECKCLASS();", newline, 8 spaces, "return 0;" and a newline...

- petter

Why the ^ at the start?

[Marc G]

Why the ^ at the start?
It means the start of a line.

BTW: the following pages explains all the symbols, including the ^ ;)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2k3te2cs

[MrDoomMaster]

I'm trying a new type of find/replace, and it's not working so far. When I click "FIND", it actually DOES match the find expression, but if I click REPLACE ALL, an error appears saying "Syntax error in pattern". Not very helpful...

FIND: DXLIBFAILURE\({:i}\)
REPLACE: DXLIBFAILURE\(\0, __FUNCTION__, __LINE__\)

Any help? Thanks.


:::EDIT:::

I just fixed it. The proper notation:

FIND: DXLIBFAILURE\({:i}\)
REPLACE: DXLIBFAILURE(\1, __FUNCTION__, __LINE__)

no \( or /) is allowed in a replace expression because there are no sub-expressions to group.