Text search though all .xib files in Xcode?

Question

This seems like such a basic task, but I'm stumped.

How, in Xcode, do you execute a textual search though (the XML contents of) all the .xib files in a project?

For example, all of our .xib files contain this string on the second line: com.apple.InterfaceBuilder3.CocoaTouch.XIB. So I'd think that searching all project files for that string would return all .xib files, but Xcode insists "0 occurrences". I've double checked that the Project Find Options look correct.

I must be missing something obvious. (Or Xcode is somehow hard-coded to skip .xib files.)

I'm trying to find all the .xib files that reference a particular class (and a text search seems like the most direct way).

Thanks!

user_1776683 · Answer

grep -i -r --include=*.xib "TextToFindHere" /PathToSearchHere

response: no matches found: --include=*.xib

cd /PathToSearchHere
grep "TextToFindHere" ./ -r | grep ".xib"

this work fine.

user_1189569 · Answer

In the current Xcode version (13), I could not make it work for searching plain text, like stackView in storyboard and xib files.

But it is possible to search for the UI element's id or userLabel, like

you will find this stackView if you provide id kBd-Vg-03c in Xcode find field.

So, combining a couple of the answers regarding find and Terminal in this question, I created a script that returns

all ids of the elements in storyboard and xib files that contain the text that I am searching for.

You call the script from the project's root folder.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

SEARCH=$1
RESULT=""

for ITEM in $(find . $ -name "*.xib" -o -name "*.storyboard" $ -exec grep ${SEARCH} {} \;);
do
    if [[ ${ITEM} =~ "id=" ]]; 
    then
        ITEM=${ITEM#*'"'}; 
        ITEM=${ITEM%'"'*};
        RESULT="${RESULT}${ITEM}|";
    fi
done
RESULT="${RESULT%'|'*}";
echo "${RESULT}"

The result is the combination of all ids with regex's | (or condition). You then copy this result and in Xcode, Find choose Regular Expresion and then paste the script's result string.

You will then get results like this:

Text search though all .xib files in Xcode?

11 Answers