Visual Studio find text in code editor auto jumps from the current line to another one

Liviu Ionut Olteanu 11

Hello,

Does someone knows how to fix an annoying behaviour in the code editor of Visual Studio.?
I have a .cs file with 10 000 lines of code.
I am positioned within the file to see the lines from 920 to 950
I am trying to find a specific text (let's say "contract")
While i am typing the "contract" word, Visual Studio automatically jumps to the closest occurence of the "contract" word, even i did not clicked on the Find Next button.
If the .cs file is very large (and it is) it's very hard to know if the found occurrence is in the scope you are interested or not.

Would be better to remove this behaviour and make Visual Studio act lke a normal editor:

Do not jump to the first occurrence until you click on Find Next button, because you just want to analyse the code that is in your sight, for highlighted words

It's the only text editor from Microsoft Stack that has this issue, Visual Studio Code and Sql Server Management Studio acts normal.

Thanks,

Liviu

Peter Fleischer (former MVP) 19,336 Reputation points

2021-12-14T16:27:38.74+00:00

.cs file with 10 000 lines of code in dotnet-visual-basic?
Karen Payne MVP 35,566 Reputation points

2021-12-15T03:03:23.847+00:00

Seems like this would not happen if you split your code up in a logical fashion but if that is not an option report this behavior to Microsoft using the feedback button in Visual Studio.
Anna Xiu-MSFT 30,991 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2021-12-15T09:22:20.623+00:00

Hi Liviu, could you tell us which version of VS you are using? Can you create a new project to check again?
OLTEANU Liviu 0 Reputation points

2023-10-04T08:04:20.23+00:00

@Peter Fleischer (former MVP) , yes .cs files with more than 10k of rows in .NET Framework projects.
OLTEANU Liviu 0 Reputation points

2023-10-04T08:05:26.2666667+00:00

@Karen Payne MVP , project cannot be split because would take way to much time, it's a project developed during 10 years by 2-3 people and i am currently maintaing it.
OLTEANU Liviu 0 Reputation points

2023-10-04T08:07:23.1866667+00:00

@Anna Xiu-MSFT I am currently using Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 (64-bit) - Current

Version 17.6.2 but the version doesnt matter as i noticed this behaviour since some time ago, on previous versions too.

7 answers

Anna Xiu-MSFT 30,991 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2021-12-22T02:19:20.943+00:00

Hi @Liviu Ionut Olteanu ,

When you type string through the shortcut ‘Ctrl + F’, it will immediately jump from your focus position to the next position of search string.
It is designed like this. For any suggestions about the feature, please report it to product team in the Developer Community.

Thank you for helping us build a better Visual Studio!

Sincerely,
Anna
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Rory Apperson 11 Reputation points

2022-06-03T15:28:00.957+00:00

Please see my answer below, or go here to the feedback item I created. It contains a valid use case for disabling this "as designed" behavior. https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/When-using-Ctrl--F-in-Visual-Studio-cod/10061633?entry=suggestion&space=8

Orion Hughes 5 Reputation points

2023-09-11T18:37:16.9833333+00:00

I think its worse than what you reported, as soon as you type "C" it goes, it does not wait for you to type "Contract" as you said, does it? And lets say your code file is only 200 lines and you're looking at line 50, you dont want to start typing something into Find, and go to the letter Z and lose where you were anyway. Maybe you changed your mind, maybe you dont want to search for zebra anymore, maybe when you cancelled the Find dialog without having pressed Enter that meant you didnt want to do the search.

QuickBooksDev 1 Reputation point

2024-07-17T19:53:19.1833333+00:00

It was not designed this way. In VS2017 it would not jump until you hit the arror or enter.

Things seem always to get worse not better.
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Sandro Rudin 1 Reputation point

2022-05-27T04:00:03.287+00:00

I am fully with the OP here. This behavior is not helpful at all. I have been using Resharper for many years and thus never realized how bad VS behaves out of the box.
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Rory Apperson 11 Reputation points

2022-06-03T15:10:17.47+00:00

I totally agree with the OP as well. My use case is I'm copying a small bit of code -- a method, etc., and I want to replace all instances of the text "abc" with "def" in the new copy. I can of course do that manually, but just to do an idiot check I use Ctrl+F and look for "abc", but unfortunately, it jumps right to the other method that I copied from. That method might be very far away in the code which is completely unhelpful. I agree with the sentiments expressed above that files should be short, etc. but when you join a team that has an established code base which consists of hundreds of long files, you can't just say "hey guys, let's drop what we're doing and refactor all these long files because convention says they should be short". In the real world, the OPs issue is valid. This is just one use case.

Jeff Spindler 0 Reputation points

2023-08-10T17:51:41.1033333+00:00

I tried to add the following comment to Rory's: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/When-using-Ctrl--F-in-Visual-Studio-cod/10061633?entry=suggestion&space=8

... but the page wouldn't let me. ^_^

Because Ctrl + Shift + F is not equivalent. It brings up a dialog, then opens a window, rather than going to the line of code I want. I use it to search the entire solution, so I’d have to change the options when I’m just looking in the current file. Why can’t Ctrl + F not start moving the cursor until Enter is pressed (as an option)? If I’ve collapsed all the functions to definitions, the eager searching expanding random functions I don’t care about as I type more letters in the Find dialog. Irritating.

Rose Kenner 0 Reputation points

2025-05-01T19:43:58.4+00:00

The OP is correct. This feature is a nightmare.

Context is extremely important to a programmer. The 735th line of the 32nd method in the 43rd source file of the decades old source code that has been cobbled and patched and updated beyond recognition that I have inherited and that it is my job to fix should not move out from under my eyeballs. I would like to know if method XYZ is called from the section of code I am currently examining. How can I accomplish this task? ctrl+f 'XYZ' you say... oh lovely. Now I am looking at line 3452. Backspacing over 'XYZ' does not take me back. Undo does not take me back.

The default behavior should require a button, enter, tab or other express action before changing context. I would say the same of find in file results - the default should be to select the line, not jump to the file. Context preservation should always be first priority.

AgaveJoe 30,036 Reputation points

2025-05-01T22:06:59.4233333+00:00

I would like to know if method XYZ is called from the section of code I am currently examining. How can I accomplish this task?

Need to see where a specific method is being used in your Visual Studio project? The "Find All References" feature is your go-to. Just right-click on the method and select it. The resulting window provides a detailed overview, including code snippets and contextual information like file, line, project, and the surrounding code structure. You can then either click on a specific entry to jump to it or use the F8 and Ctrl+F8 keys to navigate through the list.

To quickly access the definition of any code element, simply select it and press F12.

Reference documentation.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/finding-references?view=vs-2022

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/navigating-code?view=vs-2022
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Visual Studio find text in code editor auto jumps from the current line to another one

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