Introduction

I can do a symbol search in a Python workspace with VS Code, but it has stopped working for some time. I was waiting for it to come back soon, but I didn't come back, so I looked it up. The premise is that Microsoft's Python extension is installed in VS Code. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python

Conclusion earlier

The symbol search function in the workspace of the Python extension was simply disabled by default. If you enable it in the settings, it will work as before. Personally, I use it because it is effective and there are few problems. https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/issues/9046

It is OK if you set the setting item python.workspaceSymbols.enabled to true. From the setting UI, it looks like this.

By enabling this setting, the symbol search in the workspace will work.

bonus

Shortcut key

The shortcut key for symbol search in the workspace is Ctrl + T. From the command palette, it is Go to Symbole in Workspase.

Install ctags

Since the Python extension uses ctags to search for symbols in the workspace, it is necessary to install ctags separately to operate this function. For Windows, you can download the ctags executable file from GitHub and place it in a location where the path passes. Alternatively, you can specify the ctags path in the extension settings. https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags-win32/releases

The symbol search function will automatically generate a tags file in the .vscode directory in your workspace. (It seems that this function was turned off by default because of this specification.)

Microsoft Python Language Server

If you use Microsoft Python Language Server as the engine of IntelliSense, it seems that you can search for symbols in the workspace without using ctags. To switch to Microsoft Python Language Server, set python.jediEnabled to false in the Python extension settings. If true, a static analysis tool for Python called Jedi is used. Jedi is used by default. https://pypi.org/project/jedi/

Personally, the standard library completion seems to work better with the Jedi, so I'm using the Jedi with the default settings.

Symbol search in file

You can search for symbols in a file with Go to Symbole in Editor of Ctrl + Shift + O. This does not use ctags even if you are using Jedi. (It works even if python.workspaceSymbols.enabled is false)

I think it is good to use it properly with the search in the workspace. Also, if you enter : at the beginning, it will be sorted by category, which is convenient.