Calling All Coders: Bing Code Search Arrives

As a developer, how many times have you had to go to your browser and search for code samples? Have you copied code from code repositories like StackOverflow and used it in the code editor? Have you often felt that it is difficult to pass the project context to your search query to get proper results?

We’re here to help.  We worked in collaboration with Visual Studio and Microsoft Research and are excited to announce the availability of the Bing Code Search Visual Studio extension. Bing Code Search helps you find relevant code samples inside Visual Studio providing you with the ability to review and add that code in the code editor. The search is also in context so, the samples you get back in the results use the same variable name as declared in your original code.

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Code sources include top code repositories on the web like MSDN, StackOverflow, Donnetperls and CSharp411. Bing uses signals and metadata including project type and semantic context (e.g. C#/VB compiler) combined with our vast index to deliver relevant code samples directly into the Visual Studio experience. In a few short clicks, you have a set of code snippets for review and copy into the Visual Studio editor without missing a beat.

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Over the past few years, we have been working hard to deliver the capabilities of Bing to products across Microsoft. Whether you’re using Xbox, Windows Phone, Office, Windows 8 or now Visual Studio we’ve begun a journey to make it easier to find the stuff you are looking for and take action. You can find out more in this short video or read more about the release on the Visual Studio blog here. You can download the Visual Studio extension here.

Happy coding.

– Shabbar Hussain, Senior Program Manager, Bing