Can I copy multiple rows from the Visual Studio "Find Symbol Results" window?

Question

Does anyone know how to copy all the lines in the Visual Studio "Find Symbol Results" window onto the clipboard? You can copy a single line, but I want to copy them all.

I can't believe that I'm the first one to want to do this, but I can't even find a discussion about this apparently missing feature.

Answer 1

Here is some code that uses the .Net Automation library to copy all the text to the clipboard.

Start a new WinForms project and then add the following references:

• WindowsBase
• UIAutomationTypes
• UIAutomationClient
• System.Xaml
• PresentationCore
• PresentationFramework
• System.Management

The code also explains how to setup a menu item in visual studio to copy the contents to the clipboard.

Edit: The UI Automation only returns visible tree view items. Thus, to copy all the items, the find symbol results window is set as foreground, and then a {PGDN} is sent, and the next batch of items is copied. This process is repeated until no new items are found. It would have been preferable to use the ScrollPattern, however it threw an Exception when trying to set the scroll.

Edit 2: Tried to improve the performance of AutomationElement FindAll by running on a separate thread. Seems to be slow in some cases.

Edit 3: Improved performance by making the TreeView window very large. Can copy about 400 items in about 10 seconds.

Edit 4: Dispose objects implementing IDisposable. Better message reporting. Better handling of process args. Put window back to its original size.

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Management;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Automation;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace CopyFindSymbolResults {

// This program tries to find the 'Find Symbol Results' window in visual studio
// and copy all the text to the clipboard.
//
// The Find Symbol Results window uses a TreeView control that has the class name 'LiteTreeView32'
// In the future if this changes, then it's possible to pass in the class name as the first argument.
// Use TOOLS -> Spy++ to determine the class name.
//
// After compiling this code into an Exe, add a menu item (TOOLS -> Copy Find Symbol Results) in Visual Studio by:
// 1) TOOLS -> External Tools...
//      (Note: in the 'Menu contents:' list, count which item the new item is, starting at base-1).
//      Title: Copy Find Symbol Results
//      Command: C:\<Path>\CopyFindSymbolResults.exe             (e.g. C:\Windows\ is one option)
// 2) TOOLS -> Customize... -> Keyboard... (button)
//      Show Commands Containing: tools.externalcommand
//      Then select the n'th one, where n is the count from step 1).
//
static class Program {

    enum Tabify {
        No = 0,
        Yes = 1,
        Prompt = 2,
    }

    [STAThread]
    static void Main(String[] args) {

        String className = "LiteTreeView32";
        Tabify tabify = Tabify.Prompt;

        if (args.Length > 0) {
            String arg0 = args[0].Trim();
            if (arg0.Length > 0)
                className = arg0;

            if (args.Length > 1) {
                int x = 0;
                if (int.TryParse(args[1], out x))
                    tabify = (Tabify) x;
            }
        }

        DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;
        Data data = new Data() { className = className };

        Thread t = new Thread((o) => {
            GetText((Data) o);
        });
        t.IsBackground = true;
        t.Start(data);

        lock(data) {
            Monitor.Wait(data);
        }

        if (data.p == null || data.p.MainWindowHandle == IntPtr.Zero) {
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Cannot find Microsoft Visual Studio process.");
            return;
        }

        try {

        SimpleWindow owner = new SimpleWindow { Handle = data.MainWindowHandle };

        if (data.appRoot == null) {
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(owner, "Cannot find AutomationElement from process MainWindowHandle: " + data.MainWindowHandle);
            return;
        }

        if (data.treeViewNotFound) {
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(owner, "AutomationElement cannot find the tree view window with class name: " + data.className);
            return;
        }

        String text = data.text;
        if (text.Length == 0) { // otherwise Clipboard.SetText throws exception
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(owner, "No text was found: " + data.p.MainWindowTitle);
            return;
        }

        TimeSpan ts = DateTime.Now - startTime;

        if (tabify == Tabify.Prompt) {
            var dr = System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(owner, "Replace dashes and colons for easy pasting into Excel?", "Tabify", System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);
            if (dr == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Yes)
                tabify = Tabify.Yes;

            ts = TimeSpan.Zero; // prevent second prompt
        }

        if (tabify == Tabify.Yes) {
            text = text.Replace(" - ", "\t");
            text = text.Replace(" : ", "\t");
        }

        System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText(text);

        String msg = "Data is ready on the clipboard.";
        var icon = System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon.None;

        if (data.lines != data.count) {
            msg = String.Format("Only {0} of {1} rows copied.", data.lines, data.count);
            icon = System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon.Error;
        }

        if (ts.TotalSeconds > 4 || data.lines != data.count)
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(owner, msg, "", System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK, icon);

        } finally {
            data.p.Dispose();
        }
    }

    private class SimpleWindow : System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window {
        public IntPtr Handle { get; set; }
    }

    private const int TVM_GETCOUNT = 0x1100 + 5;

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, int wparam, int lparam);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern bool MoveWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int X, int Y, int Width, int Height, bool Repaint);

    private class Data {
        public int lines = 0;
        public int count = 0;
        public IntPtr MainWindowHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
        public IntPtr TreeViewHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
        public Process p;
        public AutomationElement appRoot = null;
        public String text = null;
        public String className = null;
        public bool treeViewNotFound = false;
    }

    private static void GetText(Data data) {
        Process p = GetParentProcess();
        data.p = p;

        if (p == null || p.MainWindowHandle == IntPtr.Zero) {
            data.text = "";
            lock(data) { Monitor.Pulse(data); }
            return;
        }

        data.MainWindowHandle = p.MainWindowHandle;
        AutomationElement appRoot = AutomationElement.FromHandle(p.MainWindowHandle);
        data.appRoot = appRoot;

        if (appRoot == null) {
            data.text = "";
            lock(data) { Monitor.Pulse(data); }
            return;
        }

        AutomationElement treeView = appRoot.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, data.className));
        if (treeView == null) {
            data.text = "";
            data.treeViewNotFound = true;
            lock(data) { Monitor.Pulse(data); }
            return;
        }

        data.TreeViewHandle = new IntPtr(treeView.Current.NativeWindowHandle);
        data.count = SendMessage(data.TreeViewHandle, TVM_GETCOUNT, 0, 0);

        RECT rect = new RECT();
        GetWindowRect(data.TreeViewHandle, out rect);

        // making the window really large makes it so less calls to FindAll are required
        MoveWindow(data.TreeViewHandle, 0, 0, 800, 32767, false);
        int TV_FIRST = 0x1100;
        int TVM_SELECTITEM = (TV_FIRST + 11);
        int TVGN_CARET = TVGN_CARET = 0x9;

        // if a vertical scrollbar is detected, then scroll to the top sending a TVM_SELECTITEM command
        var vbar = treeView.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Vertical Scroll Bar"));
        if (vbar != null) {
            SendMessage(data.TreeViewHandle, TVM_SELECTITEM, TVGN_CARET, 0); // select the first item
        }

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();

        int chunk = 0;
        while (true) {
            bool foundNew = false;

            AutomationElementCollection treeViewItems = treeView.FindAll(TreeScope.Subtree, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.TreeItem));
            if (treeViewItems.Count == 0)
                break;

            if (ht.Count == 0) {
                chunk = treeViewItems.Count - 1;
            }

            foreach (AutomationElement ele in treeViewItems) {
                try {
                    String n = ele.Current.Name;
                    if (!ht.ContainsKey(n)) {
                        ht[n] = n;
                        foundNew = true;
                        data.lines++;
                        sb.AppendLine(n);
                    }
                } catch {}
            }

            if (!foundNew || data.lines == data.count)
                break;

            int x = Math.Min(data.count-1, data.lines + chunk);
            SendMessage(data.TreeViewHandle, TVM_SELECTITEM, TVGN_CARET, x);
        }

        data.text = sb.ToString();
        MoveWindow(data.TreeViewHandle, rect.Left, rect.Top, rect.Right - rect.Left, rect.Bottom - rect.Top, false);
        lock(data) { Monitor.Pulse(data); }
    }

    // this program expects to be launched from Visual Studio
    // alternative approach is to look for "Microsoft Visual Studio" in main window title
    // but there could be multiple instances running.
    private static Process GetParentProcess() {
        // from thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2531837/how-can-i-get-the-pid-of-the-parent-process-of-my-application
        int myId = 0;
        using (Process current = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
            myId = current.Id;
        String query = String.Format("SELECT ParentProcessId FROM Win32_Process WHERE ProcessId = {0}", myId);
        using (var search = new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2", query)) {
            using (ManagementObjectCollection list = search.Get()) {
                using (ManagementObjectCollection.ManagementObjectEnumerator results = list.GetEnumerator()) {
                    if (!results.MoveNext()) return null;
                    using (var queryObj = results.Current) {
                        uint parentId = (uint) queryObj["ParentProcessId"];
                        return Process.GetProcessById((int) parentId);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern bool GetWindowRect(IntPtr hWnd, out RECT lpRect);

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    private struct RECT {
        public int Left;
        public int Top;
        public int Right;
        public int Bottom;
    }
}
}

Answer 2

I solved this by using Macro Express. They have a free 30-day trial which I used because this is a one-off for me. I wrote a simple macro to copy all of the Find Symbol Results, one line at a time, over into a Notepad document.

Sequence: * Repeat (x) times (however many symbol results you have) * Activate Find Symbol Results window * Delay .5 seconds * Simulate keystrokes "Arrow Down" * Clipboard Copy * Activate Notepad window * Delay .5 seconds * Clipboard Paste * Simulate keystrokes "ENTER" * End Repeat

Answer 3

Had the same requirement and were solving this by using a screenshot tool named Hypersnap which also has some basic OCR functionality.

Answer 4

If you can encode your symbol as an expression for global Find, then copy-pasting all results from the Find Results window is easy.

eg finding all references of property 'foo' you might do a global find for '.foo'

Answer 5

I'm using Visual Studio 2017 (Version 15.6.4) and it has the functionality directly. Here's an example screenshot (I hit Ctrl+A to select all lines):

The text output for that example is this:

Status  Code    File    Line    Column  Project
    Console.WriteLine(xml); C:\Users\blah\Documents\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs  30  12  ConsoleApp1
    static void Console.WriteLine(object)               
    Console.WriteLine(xml); C:\Users\blah\Documents\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs  18  12  ConsoleApp1
    Console.WriteLine(xml); C:\Users\blah\Documents\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs  25  12  ConsoleApp1

Answer 6

I had the same problem. I had to make a list of all the occurences of a certain method and some of its overloaded version.

To solve my problem I used ReSharper. (ReSharper -> Find -> Find Usages Advanced).

It also has a very nice tabulated text export feature.

Answer 7

From my previous experience and a few tests I just did, there is no built in feature to do this.

Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to copy all of the references to the clipboard? As I understand it the speed of these features would make having a static copy of all the references would be relatively useless if you can generate a dynamic and complete copy quickly.

You can always extend visual studio to add this functionality, see this post at egghead cafe.

Answer 8

Hey Somehow you can achieve this in another way,

Just 'FindAll' the selected text and you will be able to catch all the lines

Answer 9

Visual Studio Code works as a browser. it is possible to open the developer tools and search for that part of the code

Menu: Help > Toggle Developer tools

write the following instructions to the developer tools console:

var elementos = document.getElementsByClassName("plain match")
console.log(elementos.length) 
for(var i = 0; i<elementos.length;i++) console.log(elementos[i].title)

and you can see the match results.

Now if you can copy the results