Searching and Replacing

There are several different ways to find and replace text. On the Edit menu, Find and Replace offers four choices: Quick Find, Quick Replace, Find in Files, or Replace in Files. Each of these opens versions of the Find and Replace dialog box. You can also search without a dialog box by using incremental search keyboard shortcut keys. These techniques allow you to control the scope of find and replace, and choose the method of reviewing search matches and replacements.

You should consider the following when you search and replace text:

  • Options set in the Find and Replace dialog box affect all the searches. These options include Match case, Match whole word, Search up, Search hidden text, Wildcards, Regular Expressions, Look in All Open Documents, and Look in Current Project. All options are not available in all versions of the Find and Replace dialog box.
  • Undo is available only for documents left open after a replace operation.
  • Undo for a Replace All operation that spans more than one file is considered a single, bulk action across all the affected files. That is, you cannot undo the change in some files while retaining the change in other files.

Generally, you cannot search items with graphical views.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Search an Active Document Incrementally
How to: Search Documents Interactively
How to: Search Documents Using Results Lists
How to: Search with Wildcards
How to: Search with Regular Expressions

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance