IntelliJ IDEA global search

Question

I would like to search across projects for variable usages, or at least for strings. I've got IndexYourFiles which works well for text searches, but I have to re-index every now and then and would like an integrated solution.

Is there any way that I can search across projects in IntelliJ IDEA? So far I have only been able to search within the currently-open project. I'm guessing IntelliJ can't do this natively; are there any plug-ins out there to support this?

Thanks.

IntelliJ is project-oriented, in the contrary to Eclipse, where you can open as many projects as you want. The IntelliJ way is to have multiple IDE windows. Hence I don't know any way to search across all IntelliJ projects (all opened now? or anytime? or in recent list?) — Tomasz Nurkiewicz, Feb 08 '11 at 19:40
Like Rachel mentioned, I've only been able to search the currently-opened project by doing Ctrl+Shift+F. — Jon Onstott, Feb 28 '11 at 17:02
In some buggy cases you must go "File > invalidate caches" and restart. — J. Chomel, Apr 21 '21 at 05:37

score 123 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 23 '17 at 10:08

123

IntelliJ is project based so you can only search within the open project using Ctrl + Shift + F(Windows) or Cmd + Shift + F(Mac).

When I need to search across a set of projects I use Agent Ransack

edited Aug 23 '17 at 10:08

Maciej Treder

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answered Feb 28 '11 at 14:19

Rachel

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"you can only search within the open project" -->That's not right as of today. You are also able to search through you a folder using Ctrl + Shift + F. – Kamran Bigdely Jul 22 '16 at 17:45
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It might also be ctrl + shift + F on a mac ( tested on version 2017.3 ) – line-o Jul 01 '19 at 14:47

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 06 '13 at 08:15

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IntelliJ 13 (at least) has "Edit/Find/Find in Path...".
It has the Scope option which can be set to a directory, so if all projects are in the same directory (e.g. IdeaProjects) then it will search all projects.

answered Dec 06 '13 at 08:15

ArtemGr

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score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 19 '13 at 15:59

Use grep.

In the terminal, go to the root directory of your project, and type grep -r my_string_here ..

You can add color to your search with --color (just add alias grep='grep --color' to your.bash_profile, and add-i` to make your search case-insensitive.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered May 22 '17 at 07:35

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In the IntelliJ now it is very easy to find the anything through just two clicks and search on the bar.

Double click on shift and enter the keyword in the search bar.
I'm using ubuntu which I found the shortcut.

answered May 22 '17 at 07:35

jsingh

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Double Shift doesn't search plain text; you need Ctrl+Shift+F like the accepted answer says: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000018990-Why-doesn-t-Search-Everywhere-work-?page=1#community_comment_115000032724 – Leponzo Nov 17 '20 at 02:11

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 21 '13 at 16:37

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My workplace eventually set up Atlassian Fisheye which allows us to search for code or specific files across all of our projects, and it's working well.

answered Nov 21 '13 at 16:37

Jon Onstott

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IntelliJ IDEA global search

5 Answers5

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