10 Visual Studio Navigation Productivity Tips

A large code base is a complex asset. Visual Studio is a complex environment. In this context developers spend a significant part of their time searching and navigating across code elements and the multiple IDE tools and options.

Fortunately Visual Studio proposes many features to simplify navigation that I am going to present.  Note that this post won’t go through the Find in Files Ctrl+Shift+F feature that I guess all developers already use.

Short GIF animation is an excellent way to quickly learn Visual Studio productivity tips. See others related posts based also on short GIFs here:

• 10 Visual Studio Solution Explorer Productivity Tips
• 10 Visual Studio Ninja Code Editor Productivity Tips
• 12 Visual Studio Debugging Productivity Tips
• Top 10 Visual Studio Refactoring Tips
• 10 Visual Studio Navigation Productivity Tips
• 10 Visual Studio Files and Layout Productivity Tips
• 14 Visual Studio Web Development Productivity Tips

1) Title Bar Search Box

The Visual Studio title bar proposes a search box. This feature is quite convenient because it let’s search through various kinds of assets: code elements, files, Visual Studio commands, Visual Studio settings… For example in the GIF below:

• We first search for the interface IAffiliateService
• Then we type IAS to search again for the interface IAffiliateService: this is Camel Case searching and this is quite convenient to locate large identifier
• Then we search for Go to: many Visual Studio commands are then matched
• Finally we search for line number: several Visual Studio settings related to line numbering are then matched.

At first glance being able to search various kinds of assets is a bit weird but once you’ll get used to it this is quite helpful. Personally I use this box to mostly search through commands and settings and use Go to all to search in code.

2) Go to All

When it comes to searching for code elements Go to All (hotkey Ctrl+t) is my preferred Visual Studio feature. Unlike the title bar search box it cannot be used to search for Visual Studio commands or settings.

Go to All offers several filters to define the kind of element to search. These filters can be listed with Ctr+t and then ?:

In the GIF below:

• We first search for all code elements that start with IAffiliateService: both source files and interfaces are matched
• Then we prefix the same research with the filter “t ” to narrow the search on types only.
• Then again we use the Camel Case searching on type with “t IAS”
• Finally we list filters by typing “?”

There are also two scopes tickbox to:

• Search only in Current Document (Ctrl+Alt+C)
• Include contents of external items (Alt+X)

There are also 3 settings:

3) Peek Definition and Go To Definition

When the code editor carret is over an identifier you can use the hotkeys:

• Alt+F12 to peek the identifier definition
• F12 to open the source file that contains the definition

I believe those two hotkeys must be in the toolbelt of all Visual Studio developers.

Now let’s present other navigation hotkeys available when the carret is over an identifier in the source code: they are all available through the right-click menu.

4) Find All References

When the code editor carret is over an identifier you can use the hotkey Shift+F12 to find all references:

Typically the Find all references results window is a vertical windows so I like to get rid of all columns except the code one to obtain a result easier to browse.

A Group-By combo box let’s choose among various options:

I hope that in the future (post Visual Studio 2019) this result list will be improved this ways:

• I’d like to group by Project, Namespace, Type, Member but this grouping option is not available.
• On the screenshot above we see an unnecessary [Containing Member: Unknow] row that consumes space without adding any value.
• The parent rows are in bold, I am not sure why, this makes the source code row less readable.
• The same way the reference counting (3) (1) shouldn’t be in bold.
• The parent rows should be prefixed with the corresponding icon (project icon, class icon, method icon…).

5) CodeLens

Visual Studio Code Lens is an intuitive an immediate way to see all references of an identifier. It is only available at the identifier declaration, not at the identifier usage locations.

I remember when Code Lens was introduced a few years ago I didn’t like the extra vertical space between lines and that some extra info were added in the middle of source code. So I used to disable it. However with time I got used to it and learnt to like it because it also displays more information than just references (code changes, branch… see the details here).

6) Go to Base and Go to Implementation

When the code editor carret is over an identifier representing a class name or an interface name:

• The shortcut Alt+Home (Go to Base) can be used to go to the base class(es) or implemented interfaces.
• The shortcut Ctrl+F12 (Go to Implementation) can be used to go to derived classes or classes that implement the interface.

7) Call Hierarchy

When the code editor carret is over an identifier representing a member, the shortcut Ctrl+K Ctrl+T opens the Call Hierarchy Window. With this window you can browse callers and also callers of callers (recursive).

When it comes to call hierarchy I prefer to have a dependency graph view. The NDepend dependency graph is well suited for that. The GIF below illustrates this list of action:

• Right click the definition of a method, a field, a type or a namespace.
• Then click Show on Dependency Graph
• Then click callers in the graph navigation bar
• Then, if needed, adjust Group-By and Layout Horizontal / Vertical.

8) Navigate TODO comments in Task List

The Visual Studio Task List Window can display all comment lines starting with the predefined token TODO (case sensitive).

You can define your own set of tokens in Options > Environment > Task List:

9) Shortcut on a line of code

A shortcut can be placed to any line of code with the hotkey Ctrl+K-H. The same hotkey can be used to remove the shortcut.

These shortcuts are listed in the Task List Window. Notice that shortcuts are persisted and if you close and restart Visual Studio they will still be there.

Notice that this feature is different that the Bookmark feature already presented in 10 Visual Studio Ninja Code Editor Productivity Tips (item 10).

10) Go to Matching Brace

When the carret is over an opening brace or a closing brace { }, the hotkey Ctrl+} goes to the matching brace. This also work for these pairs: ( )  [ ] <>

Conclusion

I hope that you’ve learnt some tricks to improve your productivity.

It is important to train a bit and get used to all these features and which one to favor for which scenario.

• Title Bar Search box is well suited to search across Visual Studio menus and options
• Ctrl+t Go to All is well suited to search files and code element identifiers.
• Then it is important to get used to all navigation features around the F12 key: F12 Go to Definition, Alt+F12 Peek Definition, Shift+F12 Find all References, Alt+Home Go to Base, Ctrl+F12 Go to Implementation

I mentioned the NDepend dependency graph in the Call Hierarchy tips. This tool can help a lot when it comes to navigating and understanding a large code base. Here is a short introduction video: