While the predefined inspections in IntelliJ IDEA and Qodana are very useful, occasionally you might need something different. In this blog post, we will look at how to find specific patterns in your code using IntelliJ IDEA\u2019s various search functions, such as structural search and replace (SSR), as well as how to create custom inspections using either SSR or RegExp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Find and replace strings<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
If you are looking for a specific string in your code, you can use Find in Files<\/em><\/a> (\u2318\u21e7F<\/em> on macOS \/ Ctrl+Shift+F<\/em> on Windows\/Linux). For example, if you are searching for where an error is thrown, or a log line is written. You can use this option to find text strings. To replace text, use Find and Replace<\/em> (\u2318\u21e7R<\/em> on macOS \/ Ctrl+Shift+R<\/em> on Windows\/Linux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can narrow your search by selecting options such as Words<\/em> or Match case<\/em> to find the exact word in a project or match the letter case. Alternatively, you can use the File mask<\/em> option to narrow your search to a specific file type, for example, Java classes or markdown files. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To search for more complicated code patterns, you can use structural search and replace<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Start by opening the Structural Search<\/em> feature via Edit | Find | Search Structurally\u2026<\/em> or by entering it into Search Everywhere<\/em> (\u21e7\u21e7<\/em> on macOS \/ Shift+Shift<\/em> <\/strong>on Windows\/Linux) and finding it there. You can either reuse existing templates or create your own. Below, we will illustrate how each of these methods works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you open Structural Search<\/em>, you\u2019ll see that there are numerous search templates available, and these are grouped by language or type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can reuse existing templates and use modifiers to look for what you need. <\/strong>For example, let\u2019s look for methods or constructors that use more than five parameters, as this could be considered a code smell. The quickest way to do so is to reuse an existing template. As you may know, menus in IntelliJ IDEA are searchable. Select the menu on the left, press Find<\/em> (\u2318F<\/em> on macOS \/ Ctrl+F<\/em> on Windows\/Linux), and search for the template you want. In this case, if you enter the words \u201cconstructor\u201d and \u201cmethod\u201d, you\u2019ll find the existing Constructors & methods<\/em> template. Select this template and change the minimum count value of the method parameters to 5<\/em>. Then, run the search by clicking Find<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, you can create your own template.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, let\u2019s consider the following code: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this example, the Rather than finding each occurrence of this pattern in our code base and changing them manually, you can create a custom inspection to do this for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Select an occurrence of the code pattern you want to change and open the Structural Search<\/em> window via Search Structurally<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you open Structural Search <\/em>with your chosen code selected, the snippet will be prefilled in the Search Template<\/em> field inside the Draft Template<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you want to replace this code pattern, you can click the Switch to Replace<\/em> button in the top right-hand corner. Alternatively, you can go to Edit | Find | Replace Structurally\u2026<\/em> or use Find Action<\/em> (\u2318\u21e7A<\/em> on macOS \/ Control+Shift+A<\/em> <\/strong>on Windows\/Linux) to open it directly. Then, add the desired pattern to the Replace template<\/em> field in the Structural Replace<\/em> popup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, you can define placeholders in the templates and add modifiers where needed. Make sure to match the placeholders from the Search template<\/em> to the corresponding variables in the Replace template<\/em>. In both templates, replace the The resulting template will look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have an example in our code for the template you are creating, you can make sure your template matches the code. IntelliJ IDEA will tell you right away if there are no matches to the specified template in your project. Click the Find<\/em> button to find all matches to the specified search pattern in your code. In the Find<\/em> results, you can choose to Replace All<\/em> or Replace Selected<\/em> to replace code according to the template you defined. Use Preview Replacement<\/em> to see what the replacement will look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, you can create an inspection from our template, either by using the Draft Template <\/em>or by clicking Create Inspection from Template…<\/em> in the Find<\/em> results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the popup, you can fill in the metadata desired for your inspection, including an Inspection name<\/em>, a Description<\/em>, a Problem <\/em>tooltip, and a Suppress ID<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you click OK<\/em>, you\u2019ll see that the code matching the newly created inspection is highlighted in the editor. Now, when you click Alt+Enter<\/em> on the highlighted code, IntelliJ IDEA will suggest replacing the code according to your template.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you wish to edit your custom inspection further, you can find it in Settings<\/em> under Editor | Inspections<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As described above, you can create a custom inspection from a search and replace <\/em>template. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you already know that you want to create a custom inspection, you can go ahead and do this right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To create a custom inspection, go to Settings | Editor | Inspections<\/em>, click Add Custom Inspection<\/em> (\u2318N<\/em> on macOS) \/ Alt+Ins<\/em> on Windows\/Linux), and select the type of inspection you want to create. You can use search and replace templates or RegExp to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To create an inspection using Structural Search<\/em>, select Add Structural Search Inspection<\/em>. To include a quick-fix in the inspection, select Add Structural Replace Inspection<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, you can create an inspection for the example above where you\u2019re looking for methods or constructors that use more than five parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as in the previous example, you can use the existing Constructors & methods<\/em> template and modify the minimum count value of the method parameters to 5<\/em>. You can change the inspection name and add a tooltip that will show in the editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also edit the Severity<\/em> and Highlighting in editor <\/em>fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can edit or remove your custom inspection via Settings<\/em> at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, you can create inspections using regular expressions<\/a> to search for and replace specific patterns of text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To create an inspection, open Settings<\/em> and go to Editor | Inspections<\/em>. Under User defined<\/em>, select Regexp<\/em> and click the +<\/em> button on the right-hand side of the screen. Then, select Add RegExp<\/em> Search Inspection\u2026<\/em>. You can now create your inspection by typing the regular expression. As this example uses Kotlin, select Language = Kotlin<\/em> from the dropdown menu in the top right of the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this example, let\u2019s look for Click OK<\/em> to go to the User Defined Inspection in \u2018Default\u2019<\/em> popup and fill in the details for the inspection. For example, you can enter \u201cprintln\u201d in the Inspection name <\/em>field, \u201cSpot all println in the code\u201d under Description<\/em>, and \u201cSpotted: #ref\u201d in the Problem <\/em>tooltip, where You will now see the created custom inspection under User defined | RegExp<\/em> with an exclamation mark, as the current Severity<\/em> value is Warning<\/em>. You can change the severity level as well as how this inspection will be highlighted in the editor in the panel on the right-hand side of the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, any code that meets this inspection will be highlighted in the editor. You might also want to add a quick-fix to the inspection. To do so, you\u2019ll need to edit the inspection you just defined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Settings, <\/em>go to Editor | Inspections<\/em>, select the RegExp <\/em>pattern in the bottom right-hand corner of the Settings<\/em> screen, and click the Edit <\/em>button. In the RegExp<\/em> popup that opens, click the Enable Replace<\/em> button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Replacement<\/em> field, you can enter any code you like. For example, you might decide to add In order to refer to the code you want to replace, you\u2019ll need to capture the entire piece of code that you want to use in the Replacement<\/em> field. You can do so by wrapping the code with brackets as follows: Now, when you press Alt+Enter<\/em> on the highlighted code, you\u2019ll be given the option to replace the code according to your RegExp template. If you don\u2019t want to replace the code according to the quick-fix, you can also suppress this inspection. Click the kebab menu (three dots) to the right-hand side of the inspection (or press the right arrow key), and select one of the Suppress <\/em>options from the menu to suppress this inspection for the current file, method, or statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Selecting this option will add a While IntelliJ IDEA comes with a large set of useful inspections, sometimes you may want to look for something specific in your project. You can search for specific strings or use Structural Search<\/em> to look for patterns in your code that cannot be captured by a text string. You can also create custom inspections using either Structural Search<\/em> or RegExp<\/em> and even choose to define quick-fixes for them if you wish. This functionality makes improving your code base quicker and easier. In the previous posts of this series, we looked at how to use inspections in the editor<\/a> and how to run inspections on our project<\/a> with JetBrains Qodana<\/a>. We hope you have enjoyed this series and hopefully learned something new. Please let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1342,"featured_media":531001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[4759,5088,4113,2347],"tags":[991,40],"cross-post-tag":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/idea\/530327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/idea"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/idea"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530327"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/idea\/530327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673163,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/idea\/530327\/revisions\/673163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530327"},{"taxonomy":"cross-post-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cross-post-tag?post=530327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXfLZ03DHuVw7N7MwOWRK9c0XoZAZRsLaMwiRHnwNjY5pEVCcU5CTAk_ZOe-V0gJrRgZan-BEuE8gZhdWOgG4ggd2MsYUGkWBx1tyq7fPXt_MIlYNm2ch8vSBj6ToeVWTXrVy0LjTg.png\")
Structural search and replace<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Reuse existing templates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Create your own template<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
String value = opt.orElse(null);\n\nif (value == null) {\n\n throw new IllegalArgumentException("Missing value");\n\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\nnull<\/code> check can be integrated into Optional<\/code> using orElseThrow()<\/code>, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\nString value = opt.orElseThrow(() -> new IllegalArgumentException(\"Missing value\"));<\/code><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXceECxErKlYcuM1ZRSi4cQcJSBb6EIXfMBqgvExji9hAA_0PYJll4le41SzQDK1uDkzfNq24JdwproUyVHEk0mqO50q4wzC4Sgkjexq0ywghNzXDDpY8ztdXx3kH744dcgosT9Y.png\")
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value<\/code> and opt<\/code> variables with the placeholders $result$<\/code> and $Optional$<\/code>, respectively. With the caret on $Optional$<\/code>, click Add modifier<\/em> in the right-hand pane, select Type<\/em>, and set the Type<\/em> to Optional<\/code>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXcKygC_felpXgsTHQon2udo7xgCcCG9gtDuLxHypRklSFpvI4ON9wNMDbCvfv2Kc2cXjhIwhuZbe9Ln50kqTgOlBxMv6Fa8qtApaCjO0ZvpnRlK_4S5kHWMCfB18F1t6z7QrqgP.png\")
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXcv4AOZL6sJ9VTQ3sEGrZx2IqyRv1y5iQnVhqivN-ASrVwBxjcv4MWkOSMwLB08p2Ga1Rl7T5S9eWrrg5SxQzq-WEt5KAvmXq7qiDerJ_sixn2K2fwrz8VDCqiq5fsQtWIgYwE.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXdr-meHKp4NjlCRNIAUoT_TwjjQAOiWLcGPLVnIQqKPiEmoOj1WCxwQZpMgkgioDeNN5EP46fZUxkCzw9K8uXlUnJPBXNnbswxLQtfEm35a9Cd241x9ZiMQAiGoihnu__ogCTot.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXc1WEKhgWVSJ9cQx4WoN_3ftLq4HYfK5mklB37FRCrhqaaSSIzbRBNfHL6OpJUSXKDz4sOmzdN4Hk4d50Bs1EAL-l7cIaePbMwZKHf0e6KsNQptO0Pgc2QIpdEXCVQDvEPxA2WM.png\")
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Custom inspections<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXeY7wfYA0e4yBKNmiFQ120fC3fPbEmdsdxzdmWlQxDYidlhoNjUcGDKbf5zxpXq_LDzvVtOwo_AUqyXTuXR2evf56R_JQroWV_tA6kRkmnTogCv2eTFH-1XRZsaEceqPsFe4Nj4EA.png\")
Custom inspections using Structural Search<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXf6ex62laYdMQnLHtt3ouih3mKjSkwEQ7JKjVcbLt_VYlcxEkJmT9ZF_Vqne8VCSIqspC5hdeU_7oXE8YY8BkHA-2kmCqPj2WHcREj8mIfkOeo6LgVXeHFBDyTGm7bQGEGQFWWaw.png\")
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Custom inspections using regular expressions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXfyITtOMWDC9HQf0RAlQshmKmD3wsaNEj-ODFssRqwvi-ismHEGNSVcx6aVdJkaxFyWQdi4-9DWpr_AILjZ14Uzz4BKrjUpOl5D_bn406pFUz7vYigB8tB-3GIFHYP3oIPY1hlwwg.png\")
println()<\/code> methods, as you probably don\u2019t want your debugging statements to end up in production. Since you are using regex, you\u2019ll need to escape the brackets. Search for println(\".*?\")<\/code> to find any println()<\/code> method with an argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXcXGhtKgC-SqisAzlOYa0z6Bax-U1n9zNS9kthLgxG565u-WgP0bF2fhfvL6vlqy8_LdJmsmLSwpboen-p0vuaMtpPsNAhU1y5DF7gBFZ9OLX5-tVydzMDIXED1XdFjc5OXShMxuA.png\")
#ref<\/code> will refer to the code in which println<\/code> has been found. Finally, enter \u201cPRINTLN\u201d under Suppress ID <\/em>and click OK<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXdQ8KNI0xldkwd7OxOKtihipre6ZZGd9RqSFWgXgx5RGbGpiW0kT6sm3-iA44PdThbkBKnFkdPiHJE0ioHWbyGfoHCJvgLtkXmf2nxjWjeoRIUq3M9ZkkFHVj2DNZ_AxTXM0ufJhQ.png\")
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXcpno8_gW4jDvVqkinO5R4Wvjv3FUUJUVMGCXM4syTWxaW7-MiMrmblsAc91l2ptKtUKNIP5Jg-92MV77FzXm-2jMkXEfwYYaDP-zlz6SuOTfJdoPSo1ROWvdLMtGZRr7Bax3b1pw.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Enable-Replace.png\")
\/\/<\/code> to comment out the code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n(println(\".*?\"))<\/code>. This will now be your first regex group, and you can refer to it in the Replacement<\/em> field as $1<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXeCFGnZSZ3xRZFLpUSJI9N-fAJvcrf1G1Pd7X73GNMhTktTp87e2KJkO6uIIqf2iLlOxzDiuEXdUL61rQNfXGHVQ6_q6um6tiGxzPoe6bi1cA3piVY-XXTesdQ430tJQ72hqvuROw.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXc214jGUEZL9Ej9A6uM6ouKbaKV_4EhokoB2XDhqYfgy-SHaMNp5ryFCwJXFCJpwwnF0Cj-3xtI1XjlKROnO5XUPnRErFB_g2Q8zIIs348FT0c4hqkd0VCRWBlRtRK7mNGLviMriA.png\")
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXfPuMFpEy2AydQMXDtlQURZ9m6MpkWFu5SzOdpGxYXDg__Y3cWcONapKPnadGr-6-q9oCo1XbXLigCIiksjYMi62Ohu0HNXHLEv0uMcYzP2uqlm0yiSBndmB_Gl-qpcpGfYa-zWHA.png\")
@Suppress<\/code> statement to the file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.jetbrains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AD_4nXfJYnv6QiZXpI80nV2uELDH8uDT_cbyw4cRCVzMFCR3HMqiZXQJQSchVZ2yA-yZ2BDD2MxmlpdnA_AEjrIGidVgzaYWygYmrKbbtaLHre8nTFcc55W0Os5ij5xtA7gHwEqxcV8CEw.png\")
Conclusion<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n