VS Code Find & Replace

Your everyday regex environment

VS Code's Find & Replace (Cmd/Ctrl+F for current file, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F for project-wide) supports regex when you toggle the .* button (or press Alt+R).

The flavor is JavaScript-style RegExp — most patterns from the JS lesson work directly.

Replacement syntax

Use $1, $2... for capture groups in the replacement field. $0 is the whole match. Named groups: $<name>.

Special replacements:

\n — newline (insert a line break)
\t — tab
\u$1 — uppercase the first character of group 1
\U$1 — uppercase entire group 1
\l$1 — lowercase the first character of group 1
\L$1 — lowercase entire group 1

The case modifiers are killer

Convert userName to USER_NAME: find ([a-z])([A-Z]), replace with $1_$2, then a second pass: find (\w+), replace with \U$1. Two passes, code modernized.

Other VS Code regex superpowers

Multi-line mode: Toggle the multi-line button (or press Ctrl+Enter in find box). Now \n matches newlines and you can match across lines.
Files to include/exclude: Restrict the search scope without writing complex shell commands.
Preserve case: Toggle to make replacements respect the original case (camelCase stays camelCase, etc.).

Code

VS Code regex examples·text

// Find: console\.log\((.*?)\);
// Replace: logger.debug($1);
//
// Converts every console.log to logger.debug across the file.

// Find: function (\w+)\(
// Replace: const $1 = (
//
// Converts function declarations to arrow assignments.

// Find: ([a-z])([A-Z])
// Replace: $1_\L$2
//
// Converts userName → user_name (camelCase to snake_case)

// Find: (\w+) (\w+)
// Replace: \U$1\E $2
//
// Uppercase the first word of each matched pair (\E ends the case modifier)

Your everyday regex environment

Replacement syntax

The case modifiers are killer

Other VS Code regex superpowers

Code

External links

Exercise

Progress

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