Exclude comments when searching in Visual Studio

Question

Is there a way to perform searches (Find / Find in Files) in visual studio that will exclude matches in comments? While sometimes it is useful, other times it is the opposite. For all of the options presented, I figured it would be in there, but I can't find it if it is. I am using VS 2010/2012 about equally by the way.

Accepted Answer

Here's the regex that works for me for newer versions of Visual Studio:

```
^(?![ 	]*//).*your_search_term
```

Note that the syntax changed as of VS 2012:

Visual Studio 2012 uses .NET Framework regular expressions to find and replace text. In Visual Studio 2010 and earlier versions, Visual Studio used custom regular expression syntax in the Find and Replace windows.

Reference: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/2k3te2cs(v=vs.110).aspx

Exclude comments when searching in Visual Studio

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