README.md

VS code advanced search and replace

This extension allows you to do a structured search on the code and replace it. This is much more powerful than the built-in search and replace which is limited to regex at the best.

Checkout https://youtu.be/J11cLFDFXTk for the demo video

Setup:

1. Follow https://pnpm.io/installation to install pnpm.
2. Run pnpm install to install dependencies.
3. Go to packages/webview and run pnpm dev. This will build the UI of the extension.
4. Install workspace recommended extensions from VS code marketplace. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=connor4312.esbuild-problem-matchers
5. Install comby from https://comby.dev/docs/get-started
6. Open the "Run and debug" panel in VS code and click "Run Extension" to run the extension

Basic example

Here is a simple js program written using AMD modules

define(['utils/crashDetection', 'utils/selfDriving'], function (crashDetection, selfDriving) {
    // full self driving
    while (true) {
        if (crashDetection.goingToCrash()) {
            selfDriving.dontCrash();
        }
    }
})

Now if we want to convert it to use ES6 dynamic import instead:

Enter the following search query in the search box:

define([:[s1], :[s2]], function (:[v1], :[v2]) {:[body]})

And the following replace query:

import(
    Promise.all([import(:[s1]), import(:[s2])]).then(([:[v1],:[v2]]) => {
        :[body]
    })
)

and press replace button.

in the right pane we can see the applied change:

import(
    Promise.all([import('utils/crashDetection'), import('utils/selfDriving')]).then(([crashDetection, selfDriving]) => {
        // full self driving
        while (true) {
            if (crashDetection.goingToCrash()) {
                selfDriving.dontCrash();
            }
        }
    })
);

This change is impossible to do with regex since it cannot understand balanced parentheses.

You can make changes in the diff view and save and close the diff view to apply the changes.

VS code default search uses ripgrep. But we're using comby. Please refer comby docs for more info on the search and replace syntax

Future roadmap:

• Release on VS code marketplace.
• Extend UI to support comby rules for writing where and rewrite expressions.
• Ability to inject custom hole (:[a]) substitution using js. This will allow us to do more complex transformations based on from the AST and filtering of nodes.

Citation:

https://github.com/comby-tools/comby (Special thanks to Rijnard van Tonder for starting the project)