XCode C++ Method/Function references

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XCode C++ Method/Function references

Is there a way to find where a given function or method is called in a XCode project? Suppose I have the following:

class MyClass
{
void theMethod();
};

I want to know where theMethod() is referenced in my project.

Mac OS X (10.4.11), XCode 2.4

Posted on Jun 6, 2008 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 9

56,572 points

Jun 6, 2008 9:48 AM in response to agiannetti

Use "Find in Project".

Xcode can find where functions are defined, but can't easily tell you where they are used.

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Answer 2

agiannetti Author

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Jun 6, 2008 9:59 AM in response to etresoft

I am not clear, can I look for c++ method references in my code or not? A simple text search ala grep won't make it because it will return a ton of unrelated lines. My method is MyCalss::add(). There are other classes with the same method name, but I am specifically looking for references to that method.

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

56,572 points

Jun 6, 2008 10:24 AM in response to agiannetti

That is correct. Find in Project is just a simple text search. If you use a common word like "add", it will find lots of things. You can narrow it down with a regular expression or maybe by searching for "->add(" or ".add(".

Unfortunately, because of the polymorphic nature of an object-oriented language like C++, what you are asking for is extraordinarily difficult. I have seen tools that attempt to do it, but they are horribly expensive, slow, and hard to use.

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Answer 4

agiannetti Author

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Jun 6, 2008 5:49 PM in response to etresoft

I only need to find references to specific class methods, no polymorphisms or runtime lookup required. Visual Assist X for Visual Studio and GNU gtags for emacs do exactly that.

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Answer 5

agiannetti Author

Level 1

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Jun 6, 2008 8:20 PM in response to agiannetti

Feature not available in Xcode.

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Answer 6

etresoft

Level 9

56,572 points

Jun 7, 2008 10:37 AM in response to agiannetti

Visual Assist X costs some money. You could probably write a script to integrate gtags/ctags into Xcode if you really wanted to do this. Someone may have written such a script.

It is just something that is hard enough to do that few people want to do it and the Xcode market isn't big enough to attract those few people who do want to attempt it.

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