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Refactoring and Rename Dialog Box (Visual Basic)

Use Visual Basic's built-in Rename dialog box to rename identifiers in your code for symbols such as fields, local variables, methods, namespaces, properties, and types. You can open the Rename dialog box by right-clicking the element declaration.

  • New Name
    Specifies the new name for the code element.

  • Location
    Identifies the namespace to search when you perform the rename operation.

Rename Operations

The Rename dialog box performs slightly different rename operations, depending on the type of the element renamed.

Element type

Rename Operation

Class

Changes all declarations and all usages of the class to the new name. For partial classes, the rename operation propagates to all parts.

Field

Changes the declaration and usages of the field to the new name.

Local variable

Changes the declaration and usages of the variable to the new name.

Method

Changes the name of the method and all references to that method to the new name.

Namespace

Changes the name of the namespace to the new name, in the declaration, all Imports statements, and all fully qualified names.

Property

Changes the declaration and usages of the property to the new name.

Refactoring

To provide a complete refactoring experience, Visual Basic has partnered with Developer Express Inc. to obtain refactoring support. See Refactor! on the MSDN Visual Basic Developer Center for additional details and instructions on how to download this tool. Refactor! supports more than 15 individual refactoring features. This includes operations such as Reorder Parameters, Extract Method, Encapsulate Field, and Create Overload.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Rename an Identifier (Visual Basic)

Other Resources

Using the Visual Basic Development Environment