search-code

name	search-code
trigger	search / rewrite code
description	Search and rewrite R source code by syntax using astgrepr. Use when asked to find patterns in code, search for function calls, identify usage of specific arguments, locate structural patterns across R files, or perform find-and-replace on code structure.

Search and rewrite code with astgrepr

{astgrepr} enables AST-based code search — structural queries that regex can't express cleanly. If not installed: install.packages("astgrepr")

library(astgrepr)

src <- "
add    <- function(x, y)                x + y
greet  <- function(name, greeting, sep) paste0(greeting, sep, name)
square <- function(x)                   x^2
"
root <- src |> tree_new() |> tree_root()  # or tree_new(file = "R/my_file.R")

# µNAME/µA/µB capture matched nodes; only `add` matches (2 params)
matches <- node_find_all(root,
  ast_rule(id = "two_arg", pattern = "µNAME <- function(µA, µB) µBODY")
)
matches                   #> <List of 1 rule>  |--two_arg: 1 nodes
node_text_all(matches)    # source text of each match
lapply(matches$two_arg, \(n) node_get_match(n, "NAME") |> node_text())  #> "add"

Reference

Metavariables: µVAR captures one node (uppercase only); µµµ captures zero or more (ellipsis). In replacement strings, refer to captures as ~~VAR~~.

ast_rule() — see ?ast_rule. Key args:

• pattern — code pattern with metavariables
• kind — tree-sitter node kind; see the R grammar
• regex — match node text with a Rust regex
• id — names the rule; results accessible as matches$id
• inside, has, precedes, follows — relational rules, each takes another ast_rule()
• all, any, not — boolean combinators, each takes a list of ast_rule()s

For advanced pattern syntax: ast-grep pattern docs.

Searching across files

lapply(list.files("R", pattern = "\\.R$", full.names = TRUE), \(f) {
  root  <- tree_root(tree_new(file = f))
  texts <- node_find_all(root, ast_rule(id = "r", pattern = "YOUR_PATTERN")) |>
    node_text_all() |> _$r
  if (length(texts) > 0) list(file = basename(f), matches = texts)
}) |> Filter(Negate(is.null), x = _)

Patterns

ast_rule(pattern = "if (µµµ) { return(µµµ) } else µµµ")   # if-else with return()
ast_rule(pattern = "util_fun(debug = µµµ)")                 # named argument
ast_rule(kind    = "while_statement")                       # by node kind
ast_rule(pattern = "df$µCOL")                              # df$col, any column
ast_rule(pattern = "print(µA)",                            # relational: inside loop
         inside  = ast_rule(any = ast_rule(kind = c("for_statement", "while_statement"))))
ast_rule(any = list(ast_rule(pattern = "any(is.na(µµµ))"), # boolean OR
                    ast_rule(pattern = "any(duplicated(µµµ))")))

Find and replace

See ?node_replace_all, ?tree_rewrite.

root  <- tree_root(tree_new(file = "R/my_file.R"))
fixes <- root |>
  node_find_all(
    ast_rule(id = "any_na",  pattern = "any(is.na(µVAR))"),
    ast_rule(id = "any_dup", pattern = "any(duplicated(µVAR))")
  ) |>
  node_replace_all(any_na  = "anyNA(~~VAR~~)",
                   any_dup = "anyDuplicated(~~VAR~~) > 0")
tree_rewrite(root, fixes)                                  # preview
writeLines(tree_rewrite(root, fixes), con = "R/my_file.R") # write back