Are there any context-sensitive code search tools?

Posted by Vicky on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Vicky
Published on 2010-05-20T10:42:13Z Indexed on 2010/05/20 11:00 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 184

Filed under:

search

|

context

|

language-agnostic

I have been getting very frustrated recently in dealing with a massive bulk of legacy code which I am trying to get familiar with.

Say I try to search for a particular function call, I get loads of results that turn out to be completely irrelevant; some of them are easy to spot, eg a comment saying

// Fixed functionality in foo() so don't need to handle this here any more

But others are much harder to spot manually, because they turn out to be calls from other functions in modules that are only compiled in certain cases, or are part of a much larger block of code that is #if 0'd out in its entirety.

What I'd like would be a search tool that would allow me to search for a term and give me the choice to include or exclude commented out or #if 0'd out code. Then the search results would be displayed alongside a list of #defines that are required in order for that snippet of code to be relevant.

I'm working in C / C++, but other than the specific comment syntax I guess the techniques should be more generally applicable.

Does such a tool exist?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about search

"Error in the Site Data Web Service." when performing crawl

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Installed SharePoint Services v3 (SP2, october 2009 cumulative updates, Language Pack), attached to a content database I had previously (all works). Installed Search server 2008 Express (with language pack) on top of WSS and crawl does not work. However it works for newly created web application +… >>> More
Search Alternative Search Engines from within Bing’s Search Page

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
So you love using Bing Search but may still be curious to see what another search engine will provide if used. Now you can search using another search engine from within the Bing Search page and enjoy numbered results using two simple user scripts. Note: These user scripts may also be added to other… >>> More
CONVERT(int, (datepart(month, @search)), (datepart(day, @search)), DateAdd(year, Years.Year - (datepart(year, @search)))

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In the query the top part is getting all the years that will run in the stored procedure. Works fine But at first i just wanted to run the queries for yesterdays date for all the years, but now i realized i want the user to select a date that will be in a parameter @search Booked <= CONVERT(int… >>> More
Am?lioration du Search MOSS: synonyme et Best Bet - La gestion des synonymes dans MOSS Search

as seen on ASP-PHP.net - Search for 'ASP-PHP.net'
Le moteur de recherche de MOSS permet la configuration d'une liste de synonymes. Nous verrons donc dans cet article comment effectuer cette tache et ce que cela peut apporter ? vos utilisateurs. Nous verrons aussi comment automatiser un peu plus cette configuration par l'utilisation de code ou d'outils… >>> More
Utiliser un MOSS 2007 Search avec SPS 2003 - Comment utiliser un MOSS Search avec SPS Portail

as seen on ASP-PHP.net - Search for 'ASP-PHP.net'
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) fournit de nombreuses fonctionnalit?s qui ne sont pas disponibles sous SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS). C'est particuli?rement vrai pour le moteur de recherche. Ce moteur de recherche peut pourtant ?tre utilis? sans attendre une ?volution du site… >>> More

Related posts about context

loadbalancing with difference nginx location context and backend context

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I used nginx and upstream module for load balancing with the following config upstream lb { server 127.0.0.1:8080; server 127.0.0.1:8081; } server { listen 88; server_name localhost; location /cas/ { proxy_pass http://lb; proxy_redirect off; proxy_connect_timeout… >>> More
loadbalancing with difference nginx location context and backend server context

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I used nginx and upstream module for load balancing with the following config upstream lb { server 127.0.0.1:8080; server 127.0.0.1:8081; } server { listen 88; server_name localhost; location /cas/ { proxy_pass http://lb; proxy_redirect off; proxy_connect_timeout… >>> More
linking the EF 4.0 context to the WCF call context

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I would like to create an Entity Framework 4.0 context when a call is received and invoke to save changes when it finish, (something like JPA). I think it is a good idea because I can use the state for all the call, It is short and encapsulate enogh to be threadsafe and long enough for caching… >>> More
Spring - PropertiesPlaceholderConfigurer not finding properties file

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Not sure what could be wrong. I had an app that worked all along with this <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:my.properties"/> No problems finding the properties file and hooking things up. Now, I needed to encrypt some fields in the properties file. So I ended up writing… >>> More
How to set parameters of CGContextAddArcToPoint method using a slider

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
am making an app in which i have to control a smile of a face like graphics. For example if i slide the slider down(to a value less than middle) it should give the arc a sad face(like :-( ) effect and if i slide the slider up the arc should give the effect of smile(like :-) ).initially lips are like… >>> More