Question

I have a problem with a some include file in one of my Visual Studios projects and I need to change some lines of code in that include file. I want to be able to search the External Dependencies folder for the lines of code I need to change. Is their a way to do that?

Note: the includes files of part of a much larger build ball. I could search the build ball but than I would need up with some false positives.

Answer 1

“Find in Files” dialog (Edit > Find and Replace > Find in Files) provides two ways to search for arbitrary folders. First is to type in folders in “Look in” edit box, and search them one at the time. You could also type in all the folders in one line separated by semicolon (;).

Second way is to define a set of folders and then search all of them. This is handy if you’re going to do this search more often. To define a folder set click on button labeled “…” just next to Look in edit box. In new window find all the folders manually, store them in list box “Selected folders”, enter some name for your list in “Folder set” edit box and click Assign. After that the list will be available along with other predefined lists in Find in Files dialog.

But before doing any of this consider options in “Look in” drop-down list, “Entire Solution” and “Visual C++ Include Directories”. Maybe they already do what you need. Also, keep in mind all available search options (mostly “Include sub-folders”).