Find and Replace in Visual Studio using Regex

Question

I found out that you can use Regex for search queries in Find and Replace in Visual Studio. I have a lot of similar lines like so:

datum["Id"] = id; datum["Name"] = name;

I also have more lines like so:

this.Id = datum["Id"]; this.Name = datum["Name"];

I want to turn the first lines to:

datum.Set("Id", id); datum.Set("Name", name);

And the second set of lines to:

this.Id = datum.Get<int>("Id"); this.Name = datum.Get<int>("Name");

How is it possible to do with Find and Replace and Regex? I can't figure it out.

Answer 1

After enabling regular expression by clicking on 'use Regular Expression' button, Place following in find:

datum\\[\\"Id\\"\\]\\s*=\\s*id\\;

and place following in replace (no need to use regex in replace):

datum.Set("Id", id);

Similarly:

In Find:

datum\[\"Name\"\]\s*=\s*name\;  

In replace:

datum.Set("Name", name);

In Find:

this\.Id\s*=\s*datum\[\"Id\"\]\; 

In Replace:

this.Id = datum.Get<int>("Id");

In Find:

this\.Name\s*=\s*datum\[\"Name\"\]\; 

In Replace:

this.Name = datum.Get<int>("Name");

Answer 2

I think you need universal Regex with substitutions in replace field.

This expression:

([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\["([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)"\] = ([a-zA-Z0-9_]+);

matches your first lines.

You should input that in "Find..." field.

This expression allows you to make replacements you need:

$1.Set("$2", $3);

Put it to the "Replace..." field.

Numbered expressions like this $n in replacement targets to groups in original Regex that defined by (...) and numbered in sequential order.

So, replacement for your second lines would be like that:

Find: (this.[a-zA-Z0-9_]+) = ([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\\["([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)"\\];

Replacement: $1 = $2.Get<int>("$3");

You could find more information on MSDN

PS Feel free to ask more question for details.