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visual-studio-codefind-replace

"Replace All" does nothing when using the "Replace in Selection" feature in Visual Studio Code

Replacing in selection is a crazy difficult process - and it apparently does not even work. Getting to the point of even having Replace in Selection enabled we need to:

  • highlight the area
  • Hit Find by Alt-Cmd-F

Then we can try to do replace in selection by:

  • Hit Alt-Cmd-L

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The replacement selections dialog is on the upper right . I have put in 'space' for the find and nothing/empty for the replacement.

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How to replace all at one swoop? Hovering for a while gives the nominal answer:

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But CMD-Enter does *nothing. Actually ENTER does nothing either. This Find in Selection is inoperative??

Solution

  • There is an additional step I found by trial and error: we need to tab to the Replace field and then hit CMD-ENTER.

    This whole process is rather hard to believe about how cumbersome to do for a core/essential editing capbility.