Title: doesn't vs2012+ support regular expression shortcuts like :b, :i in Find & Replace?
Tags: regex;visual-studio
Question: In vs2010 Find &amp; Replace with regular expressions, :i can be used to match an identifier. However in vs2012+ it doesn't work. Instead you must use \b(_\w+|[\w-[0-9_]]\w*)\b. The same for :b, :n etc.
These shortcuts are really helpful to me. Just want to know are they really not supported any more in vs2012+?

Here is the accepted answer: No, Visual Studio 2012 and newer versions do not support those older S&amp;R patterns. This Using Regular Expressions in Visual Studio MSDN page explains it:
Visual Studio 2012 uses .NET Framework regular expressions to find and replace text. In Visual Studio 2010 and earlier versions, Visual Studio used custom regular expression syntax in the Find and Replace windows. This topic explains how to convert some of the more commonly-used custom regular expression symbols to the .NET versions.
As for identifier :i matching, please check my previous answer for Shorthand for matching identifier with Visual Studio regex question.
Comment for this answer: Usually as the owner of the question I consider my accepting an answer as a confirmation of the helpfulness and just leave the additional upvoting to other people who found this answer useful, but I don't mind upvoting it since you asked. :)


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