In the procedure editor, the editor that’s invoked when working with PL/SQL objects, you will notice a slightly new user interface when invoking a search or a replace.
Let’s cover search first.
![The highlighted control, start typing there, and the search will start...](https://www.thatjeffsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/search1.png)
Already searched for something, and want to do it again? Check out the history.
![Just hit the dropdown on the search button to access the search history.](https://www.thatjeffsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/search2.png)
Start searching, immediately highlight all of the ‘hits.’
![Start typing, the search begins, no need to hit](https://www.thatjeffsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/search3.png)
Remember how you can just double-click on a word to find all of the occurrences? Yeah, that still works, and it’s independent of the search highlighting.
![I double-clicked on the highlighted text](https://www.thatjeffsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/search4.png)
So what are the options? Instead of a popup dialog, now you have a toolbar to toggle the search options.
And Replace?
You get a similar toolbar.
![The replacement text also gets a history list!](https://www.thatjeffsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/search6.png)
Regular expression replacement wasn’t working correctly in version 4. It’s fixed now in version 4.1. We now use $ notation in the replace field – this matches also what Netbeans and other Java IDEs use for back replacement in regex search and replacements [Docs]. Specifically, $2 will refer to the 2nd group and /2 means insert a two.
And the SQL Worksheet?
The UI remains the same. We’re finding and fixing bugs being logged in both editors now in the Forums. If you find something, report it!
4 Comments
I sometimes search and replace rather long strings when reusing bits of code. The new Find and replace fields are too narrow to display the entire string. Other than that, I like the new search and replace better than the old.
Search replace doesn’t seem to work when trying to replace a string with an empty string (more like search and remove capability). Using Version 4.1.0.17.29
I think we have that fixed for EA2, see animated GIF here and let me know if that covers your test case.
Thanks Jeff for sharing