Find code using Go To commands

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Visual Studio's Go To commands perform a focused search of your code to help you quickly find specified items. You can go to a specific line, type, symbol, file, and member from a simple, unified interface.

How to use it

Input Function
Keyboard Press Ctrl+T or Ctrl+,
Mouse Select Edit > Go To > Go To All

A small window is displayed at the top right of your code editor.

Go To All window

As you type in the text box, the results appear in a drop-down list below the text box. To go to an element, choose it in the list.

Navigate To window

You can also enter a question mark (?) to get additional help.

Go To All Help

Filtered searches

By default, the specified item is searched for in all solution items. However, you can limit your code search to specific element types by prefacing the search terms with certain characters. You can also quickly change the search filter by choosing buttons on the Go To dialog box toolbar. Buttons that change the type filters are on the left side, and buttons that change the scope of the search are on the right side.

Go to members

Filter to a specific type of code element

To narrow your search to a specific type of code element, you can either specify a prefix in the search box, or select one of the five filter icons:

Prefix Icon Shortcut Description
: Line icon Ctrl+G Go to the specified line number
f Files icon Ctrl+1, Ctrl+F Go to the specified file
r Recent files icon Ctrl+1, Ctrl+R Go to the specified, recently visited file
t Types icon Ctrl+1, Ctrl+T Go to the specified type
m Members icon Ctrl+1, Ctrl+M Go to the specified member
# Symbols icon Ctrl+1, Ctrl+S Go to the specified symbol

Filter to a specific location

To narrow your search to a specific location, select one of the two document icons:

Icon Description
Current Document Search current document only
External Documents Search external documents in addition to those located in the project/solution

Camel casing

If you use camel casing in your code, you can find code elements faster by entering only the capital letters of the code element name. For example, if your code has a type called CredentialViewModel, you can narrow down the search by choosing the Type filter (t) and then entering just the capital letters of the name (CVM) in the Go To dialog box. This feature can be helpful if your code has long names.

Navigate To window - searching with capitals

Settings

Selecting the gear icon Gear icon lets you change how this feature works:

Setting Description
Use preview tab Display the selected item immediately in the IDE's preview tab
Show details Display project, file, line, and summary information from documentation comments in the window
Center window Move this window to the top-center of the code editor, instead of the top-right

See also