Search and Replace Keyboard Shortcuts Across Editors and IDEs

Search and Replace Shortcuts

Search and replace is one of the most frequently used operations in software development. Every editor and application has its own variant, but the patterns are remarkably consistent.

Universal Pattern

Almost every application follows this convention:

• Find (⌘+F / Ctrl+F) — open the find dialog
• Find and Replace (⌘+H / Ctrl+H or ⌘+⌥+F) — open find and replace
• Find Next (⌘+G / F3 or Enter) — jump to next match
• Find Previous (⌘+Shift+G / Shift+F3) — jump to previous match

VS Code Specifics

• Find in File (⌘+F / Ctrl+F) — search within the current file
• Replace in File (⌘+⌥+F / Ctrl+H) — find and replace in the current file
• Search All Files (⌘+Shift+F / Ctrl+Shift+F) — project-wide search
• Replace All Files (⌘+Shift+H / Ctrl+Shift+H) — project-wide replace
• Toggle Regex (⌘+⌥+R / Alt+R) — enable regex mode in the search dialog
• Toggle Case (⌘+⌥+C / Alt+C) — toggle case sensitivity
• Toggle Whole Word (⌘+⌥+W / Alt+W) — match whole words only

IntelliJ Specifics

• Find in File (⌘+F / Ctrl+F)
• Replace in File (⌘+R / Ctrl+R)
• Find in Path (⌘+Shift+F / Ctrl+Shift+F) — project-wide search with scope filtering
• Replace in Path (⌘+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R) — project-wide replace
• Structural Search — IntelliJ's unique feature that searches by code structure, not just text

Browser Search

• Find in Page (⌘+F / Ctrl+F) — works in every browser
• Find Next (Enter or ⌘+G) — jump between matches
• Close Find (Esc) — dismiss the find bar

Regex Tips

When regex mode is enabled in your editor:

• \b — word boundary (match whole words)
• (group) — capture group, reference with $1 in replacement
• .*? — non-greedy match
• ^/$ — start and end of line
• \n — newline in search (VS Code multiline search)