Intellij IDEA extract constant through entire project

Question

Let's say I have a "magic string" in four classes and I want it to be replaced in all places by one constant from some constants class. (I'm speaking about Java/Groovy classes but any other languages would be helpful too.) The best solution I can think of is to extract the constant in one class and then use the Replace in Path dialog for the others. But that doesn't solve imports of the constants class and it's quite a lot of work. Is there a better way?

I've found this documentation page but there is no mention of this functionality.

Answer 1

A better way is to use the Find and Replace Code Duplicates... refactoring.

Extract the constant like normal and then invoke Find and Replace Code Duplicates... on the introduced constant. It can find all places in your project where the "magic string" is used and offers to replace it with a reference to the constant.

Answer 2

This actually isn't so hard to do with the normal Replace in Path action.

Firstly, you need to go into Settings and enable this: Editor -> General -> Auto Import -> Add unambiguous imports on the fly

Now, create your constant in a class some place, and do a Replace in Path (ctrl-shift-R)

Text to find: "foo"

Replace with: Constants.FOO

Now, use Find and keep hitting Replace to change this magic value in all files except the Constants class where it is defined.

You should observe that the imports are automatically added in each file (given that the constant is unique).