---
title: PSI Cookbook
---


This page gives a list of recipes for the most common operations for working with the PSI (Program Structure Interface) of IntelliJ Platform. Unlike 
[Developing Custom Language Plugins](/reference_guide/custom_language_support.html), 
it talks about working with the PSI of existing languages (such as Java).

### How do I find a file if I know its name but don't know the path?

```FilenameIndex.getFilesByName()```

### How do I find where a particular PSI element is used?

```ReferencesSearch.search()```

### How do I rename a PSI element?

```RefactoringFactory.createRename()```

### How can I cause the PSI for a virtual file to be rebuilt?

```FileContentUtil.reparseFiles()```

## Java Specific

### How do I find all inheritors of a class?

```ClassInheritorsSearch.search()```

### How do I find a class by qualified name?

```JavaPsiFacade.findClass()```

### How do I find a class by short name?

```PsiShortNamesCache.getInstance().getClassesByName()```

### How do I find a superclass of a Java class?

```PsiClass.getSuperClass()```

### How do I get a reference to the containing package of a Java class?

```java
PsiJavaFile javaFile = (PsiJavaFile) psiClass.getContaningFile();
PsiPackage pkg = JavaPsiFacade.getInstance(project).findPackage(javaFile.getPackageName());
```

### How do I find the methods overriding a specific method?

```OverridingMethodsSearch.search()```