Renaming instances of an entity in a coding environment

Exemplary embodiments provide computer-implemented methods, computer-readable media, and systems for changing the identifier associated with an entity, such as a variable or function, in a portion of code. During editing, a reference may be maintained that identifies the location of each instance of the entity in the code. When the identifier associated with one instance of the entity is changed, the change in the identifier may be propagated throughout the code to change each instance of the identifier in the code. The identifier may be changed without interrupting the workflow of the user and without the need to change to a separate refactoring mode. In some embodiments, a syntactical analysis may be performed and some or all instances of the identifier may be changed based on one or more rules.