Find and Replace

Finds text across the whole diagram, takes you to each match on the ERD canvas, and replaces one match or all of them.
It searches five kinds of text: table names, table comments, column names, column comments, and memo text — see What It Searches.

It is a panel over the top-left corner of the ERD canvas, below the toolbar, or at the top of the canvas in zen mode. Its header reads Find and Replace, or Find in a readonly editor — see Read-only Editors.
On a short canvas the result list gives up its height first, so the fields, the options, and the count stay whole.

Opening and Closing

Open it with Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac), or with any of these:

• The toolbar button right after Search, with a text-search icon. Its tooltip reads Find and Replace (Ctrl + F) (Windows/Linux) or Find and Replace (⌘ + F) (Mac).
• Find and Replace in Quick Search, listed on every tab. Typing find, replace, or rename brings it up.
• Find and Replace in the canvas context menu: right-click an empty spot on the ERD canvas. It sits after New Table and New Memo, before Relationship.

The quick search and context menu entries show the shortcut on the right.

The shortcut and the toolbar button work from every tab. Opening from the Visualization, Schema SQL, Code Generator, or Settings tab switches to the ERD tab first, since the matches are shown and edited there.
Pressed while quick search is open, the shortcut closes the palette and opens the panel. It does nothing while a table cell or memo is being edited.
Opening the panel closes Table Properties and the theme builder.

With the panel showing, the shortcut, the toolbar button, and the two entries do not close it. They put the caret back in the Find field with its text selected, and the current match stays current.

Opening Table Properties or the theme builder hides an open panel without closing it, and so does switching to another tab. The panel comes back as you left it once the dialog closes or you return to the ERD tab.
The shortcut, the toolbar button, and the two entries bring a hidden panel back too, but with its query searched again and no match current.
While the diff viewer, time travel, or the Auto Layout preview is open, the panel cannot open: the toolbar button is dimmed and does nothing, quick search leaves out Find and Replace, and the shortcut is left to the browser or host — see The Browser's Find Bar. A panel that was already open is hidden until they close.

Close it with Escape, or with the x button in its header, whose tooltip reads Close (ESC). Closing gives the keyboard back to the editor.

• Escape pressed in the panel closes it and leaves the selection as it is, so the table or memo of the last match you went to stays selected.
• Escape pressed on the canvas closes it too, and in the same press clears the selection and the focused cell, as it does with no panel open — see Shortcuts.
• An open cell or memo editor, a relationship being drawn, or an open quick search takes the press first, and the panel stays open.

Reopening keeps the last query, selected and searched again, along with the Replace text, the options, and the kinds of text that were on.
They are kept while the editor stays open and are not saved in the document. A newly loaded editor starts with every option off and only Table names and Column names on.

The Browser's Find Bar

While the editor has the keyboard focus, Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac) belongs to it on every tab, in its own text fields as well, so the browser's find bar does not open.
The key goes on to the browser or host while the diff viewer, time travel, or the Auto Layout preview is open, and while the focus is outside the editor.

• Web app and Google Drive: the browser's find bar opens only in those two cases.
• VS Code: the extension leaves VS Code's own find widget off in the ERD Editor, so the key never opens one there.
• Obsidian: the key reaches the editor whenever the diagram's tab is active, in place of Obsidian's Search current file.
• JetBrains IDE: if the IDE's keymap keeps Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac) for itself, open the panel from the toolbar button, quick search, or the canvas context menu.

A page that embeds the editor can move or remove the key — see Changing the Shortcut.

What It Searches

Five buttons under the fields choose the kinds of text searched, in this order: Table names, Table comments, Column names, Column comments, and Memos.
A highlighted button is on. Click one to turn it on or off, and the panel searches again. With all five off, nothing is found.

The panel first opens on Table names and Column names alone, so a rename does not reach comments and memos unless you turn them on.

Nothing else is searched: not data types, default values, index names, the database name, or the Schema SQL and generated code.
A comment hidden by a table view option is still searched.

Options

Three toggles to the right of the Find field, named in their tooltips, change how the query matches. All three start off, and changing one searches again.

• Match Case: with it off, matching ignores case.
• Match Whole Word: a match counts only where it does not run on into a word on either side. Letters, digits, and marks of any script count as word characters, and so does the underscore. user therefore matches in user id and user.id, but not inside users, user_id, or superuser. An end of the query that is not a word character itself, such as the dot in .id, needs no boundary there.
• Use Regular Expression: the query is a JavaScript regular expression, always in Unicode mode, so \p{L} works. ^ and $ match at the start and end of each line of a multi-line comment or memo, and . does not cross a line break. Escapes often typed in names, such as \_ and \-, are accepted.

A regular expression that does not parse, such as user(, lists nothing: the count reads Invalid regular expression in red, and the Find field is outlined in red.
Match Case and Match Whole Word apply to a regular expression too. A match of no length, such as ^ on its own, is never listed.

Plain text is searched as you type. A regular expression is searched once typing pauses, or at once when you press Enter, a navigation button, Replace, or Replace All, or click a row.
The search has no time limit, so a regular expression that backtracks heavily can leave the editor unresponsive until it finishes.

The Results

The count line under the kinds of text says where you are. It is empty while the Find field is empty.

Count	When
No results	Nothing matches.
12 matches	Before you move to one of them; 1 match for a single one.
3 of 12	The third match is current.
Invalid regular expression	The regular expression does not parse.
Replaced 12 matches	Replace All changed that many matches; Replaced 1 match for a single one.
No changes	Replace All changed nothing.
No more matches	A run of Replace has come back to where it began — see Replacing.

The list below it has one row per occurrence, so a text that holds the query twice gives two rows.
Rows follow the document rather than the canvas: table by table, the table's name and then its comment, then each of its columns' name and comment in column order, with the memos last.

Each row shows:

• An icon for the kind of text: a table for a table name, columns for a column name, a speech bubble for a table or column comment, and a sticky note for a memo.
• An excerpt of the text with the match highlighted. A long text is cut with …, and line breaks show as spaces. Hover the row to see the whole text.
• Where the match is and its kind, such as orders.user_id · Column, users · Table comment, or just Memo. A table or column with a blank name shows as unnamed.

The current match's row is highlighted and scrolled into view.
With more than 200 matches, the list draws 200 rows around the current match and says which part it shows, for example Showing 1–200 of 523. The window moves as you move through the matches.

The list follows the document while the panel is open. Any change to a searched text, whether an edit on the canvas, an undo or redo, an import, or an edit by a collaborator or a coding agent, searches again, and the current match stays current if it is still there. Selecting, scrolling, and hovering do not.
Edits made while the panel is hidden are searched as soon as it shows again.

Going to a Match

Enter in the Find field goes to the next match, and Shift + Enter to the previous one. The up and down arrow buttons to the right of the count do the same; their tooltips read Previous Match (Shift+Enter) and Next Match (Enter). Click a row to go to that match.
Movement wraps at both ends. No match is current until you first move, so the first Enter goes to the first match and the first Shift + Enter to the last.

Going to a match switches to the ERD tab if needed, then:

• For a table name or comment, or a column name or comment, it selects the table alone, brings it to the front, and puts the focused cell on the cell that holds the match. A match in a comment hidden by a table view option puts the focused cell on the name beside it instead.
• For a memo, it selects the memo alone and brings it to the front.

The canvas scrolls only when the table, the column's row, or the memo is not already fully in view beside the panel, and then centers it in the part of the canvas the panel leaves clear. On a canvas too narrow to leave room beside the panel, it centers it on the whole canvas instead.
A table taller than the screen is scrolled to its header, and a cell wider than the screen, such as a long comment, to the matched text. At 70% zoom and below, where tables collapse to their name, a column match brings its table into view.
Such a scroll is recorded in the undo history like any other change of view position.

Moving with Enter keeps the caret in the Find field, so what you type next still goes to the panel, not to the selected table.
Going to a match never starts or finishes a relationship being drawn.

Replacing

The row under the Find field holds the Replace field and two buttons, whose tooltips read Replace (Enter) and Replace All. Both buttons are disabled while there is no match.

Replace runs on Enter in the Replace field, or on its button:

• With no match current, the first press only goes to the next match, so you see what it would change before anything changes.
• With a match current, it replaces that one occurrence, leaving any other occurrence in the same text, and goes on to the next match after the text it wrote. What it wrote is skipped even when it contains the query: replacing user with super_user does not then stop inside super_user.
• The replacement and the scroll to the next match are one undo step.

A run of Replace presses stops once it comes round to where it began. The count reads No more matches, no match is current, and further presses replace nothing.
Customer replaced with Big Customer is therefore replaced once, instead of growing into Big Big Customer.
Going to a match, changing the query, an option, or a kind of text, reopening the panel, or Replace All starts a new run, and so does an undo or any other edit that changes the text the run began in. Changing the Replace text does not.

Replace All runs on Ctrl + Enter (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Enter (Mac) in the Replace field, or on its button:

• It replaces every match in the kinds of text that are on and leaves the other kinds alone. With the default kinds, comments and memos are untouched.
• Everything it changes is one undo step — see One Gesture, One Step.
• The count reads Replaced N matches, counting only the occurrences whose text actually changed. When none did, it reads No changes and nothing is recorded in the history, as when replacing the regular expression (user) with $1.
• The list is then searched again with no match current, so it may list matches that the new text contains.

Both read each text as it is when you press, not as the last search found it.

How the Replace text is used:

• Without Use Regular Expression, it is inserted exactly as typed. $ has no special meaning, and the case of the matched text is not carried over: with Match Case off, replacing user with member turns Users into members.
• With Use Regular Expression, $1 to $99, $<name>, $&, $`, $', and $$ expand as they do in JavaScript's String.prototype.replace.
• An empty Replace field deletes the match.

A replacement is an ordinary edit, the same as typing the new table name, comment, column name, or memo text yourself.
It is recorded in the history and reaches collaborators and a coding agent like any other edit.

Keys in the Panel

While the caret is in the panel:

• Enter and Shift + Enter in the Find field move through the matches, Enter and Ctrl + Enter (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Enter (Mac) in the Replace field replace, and Escape closes the panel.
• A few editor shortcuts still work: Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac) puts the caret back in the Find field with its text selected, Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + K (Mac) toggles quick search, Undo and Redo undo and redo the diagram rather than the text in the field, and Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Zoom Reset zoom the canvas — see Shortcuts.
• Every other editor shortcut, the arrow keys, and Tab stay in the panel and act as ordinary text-field keys: Ctrl + A (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + A (Mac) selects the field's text, Space types a space, and Tab moves the focus between the panel's controls.
• Keys the editor does not bind, such as the host's own save, reach the host as usual.

Read-only Editors

In a readonly editor the panel only finds. Its header reads Find, and it has no Replace field or buttons.
Searching, the options, the kinds of text, the list, and going to a match all work.
The toolbar button's tooltip reads Find (Ctrl + F) (Windows/Linux) or Find (⌘ + F) (Mac), while the quick search and context menu entries keep the name Find and Replace.

A diagram VS Code opens read-only, such as a git revision or a merge preview, gets this find-only panel.

From Quick Search

Under the #, @, and : prefixes, Quick Search lists at most 100 rows.
When that cut leaves out text that contains the keyword itself, one more row follows those 100: Show all N matches in Find and Replace, or Show 1 match in Find and Replace. It opens this panel on the same search:

• The keyword becomes the query, and Match Case, Match Whole Word, and Use Regular Expression are turned off.
• Only the prefix's kinds of text are on: Table names for #, Column names for @, and Table comments, Column comments, and Memos for :.
• @table.column hands over the column part alone, so the panel lists the matching columns of every table.
• N is the number of matches the panel opens on.

The row is not offered while the diff viewer, time travel, or the Auto Layout preview is open.
The options and kinds of text it sets stay that way for later openings, so after # only Table names is on until you turn the others back on.

Changing the Shortcut

A page that embeds the editor can rebind Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac), or remove it, under the name findReplace with setKeyBindingMap.
With it removed, the key is left to the page on every tab. The toolbar button, quick search, and the canvas context menu still open the panel but show no shortcut, and neither does the Find and Replace row on the Shortcuts tab of Settings.