Search in all files in a project in Sublime Text 3

Question

Is there a way to search for a string in all files inside a project in Sublime Text 3? The string is not a method.

Solution 1

You can search a directory using Find → Find in files. This also includes all opened tabs.

The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl⇧+F on non-Mac (regular) keyboards, and ⌘⇧+F on a Mac.

You'll be presented with three boxes: Find, Where and Replace. It's a regular Find/Find-replace search where Where specifies a file or directory to search. I for example often use a file name or . for searching the current directory. There are also a few special constructs that can be used within the Where field:

<project>,<current file>,<open files>,<open folders>,-*.doc,*.txt

Note that these are not placeholders, you type these verbatim. Most of them are self-explanatory (e.g. -*.doc excludes files with a .doc extension).

Pressing the ... to the right will present you with all available options.

After searching you'll be presented with a Find results page with all of your matching results. To jump to specific lines and files from it you simply double-click on a line.

Solution 2

You can put <project> in "Where:" box to search from the current Sublime project from the Find in Files menu.

This is more useful than searching from the root folder for when your project is including or excluding particular folders or file extensions.

Solution 3

Solution:

Use the Search all shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+F, then select the folder in the "Where:" box below. (And for Mac, it's ⌘+Shift+F).

If the root directory for the project is proj, with subdirectories src and aux and you want to search in all subfolders, use the proj folder. To restrict the search to only the src folder, use proj/src in the "Where: " box.

Solution 4

Right click on your root folder, find in folder.

Solution 5

Here's the easiest way : File -> Find in files

View more solutions

Comments

[Ivan]

Can you add info about the Where box?

[Ivan]

Thanks! I had to fiddle a bit with the "Where:". I thought it was from the project root, but if the root is proj and I want to search in proj/src, I have to type proj/src in Where.

[Alexander Morland]

Updated with info about Where box and how you can put <project> there

[gmo]

<project> was a very nice trick!... Thank's for that. Also, (in case someone doesn't know and need it) you can define <open folders>, <open files>, filters... or mix them with a comma.

[keyser]

@gmo yup, added info about those and the ... button now

[soundly_typed]

Instead of double-clicking on a line, is there a keyboard shortcut?

[keyser]

@mindeavor You can cycle through the results using F4 (forward) and shift+F4 (backwards) on Windows. See the Find --> Find Results tab.

[soundly_typed]

@keyser Amazing! For the record, in the Find in files tab that opens up after searching, pressing F4 will also open the next result after your cursor! :D

[Jim Hall]

What about using splats or regex in the Where field? For example, I would like to do a search in all files with *-view.js in the file name.

[Giancarlo Gomez]

Thank you so much for the <project> trick. I was having an issue where Sublime 3 search was so slow when I had the full path to the directory project (network volumes only - fast on local) and adding <project> instead made it search FAST as hell again!!!

[Labanino]

@keyser I am using a WordPress starter kit for a new project and I want to replace the name of the theme. In Atom when you hit replace it does just that but in Sublime you get a result page. So, is there a shortcut for not clicking all results? because they are way to many!

[ch271828n]

⇧ means Shift. (I am such a fool to regard ⇧ as up in the very beginning)

[Muhammad Umer]

can i do <project>/frontend

[adibender]

Is there a way to exclude a folder? Or folders with a certain name?

[keyser]

@adibender yes, you exclude stuff using the - prefix followed by a pattern that matches folders as well, for example -Test* to exclude any file or folder that starts with Test

[adibender]

@keyser Fantastic! Thank you very much!

[WesternGun]

This is the way.... it does recursive search in the project. Only specifying folder does not work. Thanks!

[Martin Thoma]

I don't see the "where:" box

[Martin Thoma]

It's not there (anymore)

[Mohammad Heydari]

Although it's not there anymore, it's for version 2

[Merlin]

is there a way to filter or sort results based on file modified date?

[bantya]

The double click on find file line is what I was looking for. You saved my day!

[Stiger]

It doesn't work. When I input Where(folder path on my mac) and File, it returns empty immediately, even that folder has thousand of files.

[Elouan Keryell-Even]

Too bad there are not placeholders, it would be cool to do <project>/sub/path :'(

[hello_there_andy]

@WesternGun thanks you took the words out of my mouth but I still have another question, does it do recursive search from the root /? At which depth does it stop? Can we change this behaviour somehow to make it deeper?

[WesternGun]

@hello_there_andy it does not begin from /, but from the folder you put into "Where". I think it will not stop at certain depth; it will reach till the very deepest, if you understand what I mean :)

[hello_there_andy]

@WesternGun, i totally do know what you mean ;) perhaps the st3 i'm using needs to be updated, because there almost certainly is a max depth i tried it out using a test dir with many many sub dirs, and sub sub dirs... sigh. time to look at the config file

[WesternGun]

In my PC 20 levels seems to be the upper limit for now. Maybe reducing some levels? It now is off-topic.

[medmek]

would it be difficult to select a folder in the left panel and press ctrl+shift+F and have that folder automatically added to the Where field in the search (as jetbrain did)

[medmek]

would it be difficult to select a folder in the left panel and press ctrl+shift+F and have that folder automatically added to the Where field in the search (as jetbrain did)

[Jonathan Rys]

I just updated to Build 4107 and this no longer works the same for me. Searching /Users/my_name/my_folder/ used to search in 3800+ files (with node_modules excluded) now it only searches in 760 files. Any ideas why this is the case? Not excluding node_modules makes it 2650 files searched now.