Visual Studio Code: Search Within Files but Exclude Folder

Question

In Visual Studio Code (not to be confused with Visual Studio) there is a search interface (click the mag glass at top left).

It has a "files to include" field, and a "files to exclude" field.

I know that I can include or exclude a file from my search by entering the name of the file, or using a wildcard like *.js.

Is there a way to specifically include or exclude a directory by using these fields? If not, how would I do that?

Edit: Some have said that this question may be similar to How can I choose folders to be ignored during search?

I think it is fundamentally the same question, but as I said in a recent comment on that question: "There is nothing in the title of this question to indicate that you are asking a question about a specific tool (Visual Studio Code). And while you do have it tagged visual-studio-code - making it appear in searches about that tool - the searcher will not necessarily know that this question is about VS Code. Also, you use a Mac specific keyboard command that is not really relevant to the question at hand, and makes the question seem non-relevant to non-Mac users."

So, yes, I guess it's the same question. But I don't think it's reasonable to expect me to have found it.

Take a look at this, its the same question: stackoverflow.com/a/33418660/8726546 — lekterable
– lekterable, Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 0:09
Just putting the folder name in the "files to exclude/include" boxes works for me - you don't need to do anything special for folders. — Mark
– Mark, Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 0:23
I searched, but I didn't see that other question. Anyway, thank you both for the info. — zumafra
– zumafra, Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 1:33
I just made a suggested edit to How can I choose folders to be ignored during search? to clarify that it involves Visual Studio Code. Hopefully, people will find it in the future. :-) — Super Jade
– Super Jade, Commented Feb 7, 2019 at 6:04
Possible duplicate of How can I choose folders to be ignored during search? — Super Jade
– Super Jade, Commented Feb 7, 2019 at 6:06

Dan Atkinson · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-10 10:37:37Z

22

You could either change the global settings (CTRL + , by default), for example to ignore anything in node_modules

"search.exclude": {
  "**/node_modules": true
}

Or if you don't want to set a global setting, you can just add the foldername\* to the "files to exclude" field. So in our example

files to exclude node_modules\*

Hope this helps anyone searching for it in the future.

For reference: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics#_advanced-search-options

edited Feb 10, 2023 at 10:37

Dan Atkinson

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answered Feb 12, 2019 at 9:23

Lavariet

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colbyham · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-10 23:17:13Z

1

Update 1.73.1 finally addresses this issue and provides an easy way to include/exclude folders in the tree view

answered Nov 10, 2022 at 23:17

colbyham

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Ananda · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-29 06:41:38Z

0

you can exclude or include a folder by using the files to include/exclude text boxes.

https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/17164#issuecomment-311750417

answered Nov 29, 2019 at 6:41

Ananda

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