Renaming a class or method safely
A class or method name rarely appears in only one place. Renaming by hand means finding every caller, and missing one turns a tidy change into a build failure.
Use the rename tool
Put the cursor on the name, open the rename command, type the new name and confirm. The editor finds every reference in the project and updates them together.
Why find and replace is risky
- It also changes text inside strings and comments, which you usually do not want.
- It cannot tell a method from a variable that happens to share the name.
- It may miss references in files you forgot were open.
Rename early. The cost of a poor name grows with every caller. Change it while the class is still small. This habit matters most once you start building your own types.
Renaming is the first refactor most developers learn. It is also the one that teaches the value of letting a tool understand your code rather than treating it as plain text.