In most IDE's I've used, including VS Code, the "Edit.LineDelete" keyboard shortcut deletes the line and tries to keep the cursor in the same place on the following line. For example, this shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+K in VS Code and Ctrl+Y in IntelliJ, and does the following:
// I've used a pipe here to represent the cursor movement...
/* BEFORE line delete */
{
...
int foo = 0; |
foo++;
}
/* AFTER line delete */
{
...
int foo = 0;
foo++;|
}
However, Visual Studio Community Edition (both 2017 and 2022) seem to have a unique way of handling this. Instead of trying to keep the cursor in the same position, it immediately sends the cursor to the very beginning of the line (even before tab spaces). See the following:
/* AFTER line delete on Visual Studio Community */
{
...
int foo = 0;
| foo++;
}
This is extremely annoying for me, as it requires extra work (mouse or End key) to get the cursor back to a useful location. I'm not even sure why they would make this work nicely in VS Code but not VS Community Edition.
Is there a way to change this functionality to mirror the behavior in VS Code or IntelliJ? I don't know of any built-in support for macros, and it seems like overkill to get an extension just for this change. Am I missing something?
NOTE: A similar question was asked here, but I'm looking to do the exact opposite.
The default shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + L
see: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/keyboard-shortcuts.pdf
In Visual Studio 2019, it likes to try to guess where it should put the semicolon when you hit it. Often it will jump to a completely different line or insert newlines. Every time it does anything besides append it as the next character, this is extremely disruptive, and I have to go back and fix what it broke. This is akin to the disruptive "Automatic brace completion" which always puts braces where I don't want them, but can be turned off. I can't find anywhere to turn off the semicolon behavior. Is there any way to turn this feature off?
Most of the time when the semicolon misbehaves, it's because I hit it by mistake, but rather than hitting backspace, I now have a bigger mess to clean up. And I've never had a situation where it did something extra that I wanted it to do.
Some examples, with * being the cursor location:
// between a ) and ;
Foo()*;
// inserts an extra space
Foo();* ;
// before an existing semicolon:
return null*;
// moves the old semicolon to the next line:
return null;*
;
// pressing semicolon in the middle of a multi-line function call:
string path = Path.Combine(
"C:\\",
"b"*
"filename.txt");
// moves the cursor to the end of the block and inserts a "; " before ";":
string path = Path.Combine(
"C:\\",
"b"
"filename.txt");* ;
Visual Studio 16.10 adds a new configuration option to control this:
Text Editor -> C# -> Intellisense -> Automatically complete statements on semicolon
With that checked, I get the problematic behavior described in the question. When I uncheck that option, it works as it did before.
I have linked list containing few tens of objects like this:
struct Item {
Item * next;
const char * name;
....
};
When I want to see in debugger in visual studio what item list holds, I need to hover/click on next many times to expand whole list until I hit nullptr. This is slow, error-prone (hand slips and I can start all over again) and not very organized.
Is there any scripting for VS2015 debugger available in which I could iterate whole list and just dump the name into console or whatever?
EDIT: I found about concord extensibility api ( https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/visualstudioalm/2015/10/02/announcing-visual-studio-debug-engine-extensibility-samples/ ) but it seems rather complex.
This is supposed to be in-house tool, so speed/ease of development is more important than robustness and/or easy of deployment.
If the data set you are working with is small, I would go with the tried and true method of std::cout.
Or just dump the contents of the list into a file and put a break point after that file is written to so you can check its contents before the program continues.
You can do it. Insert a Tracepoint (Right mouse button> Breakpoint >Insert Tracepoint) and READ CAREFULLY to whole text of that window. Then you will know HOW to print to the Output window WHAT you want.
Insert also a breakpoint on another line that is CONDITIONAL. Just put a normal breakpoint, then over the red ball, Right mouse button > Condition, then input
!next
Notice the !
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Visual Studio is such a massively big product that even after years of working with it I sometimes stumble upon a new/better way to do things or things I didn't even know were possible.
For instance-
Crtl + R, Ctrl + W to show white spaces. Essential for editing Python build scripts.
Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor"
Create a String called Guides with the value "RGB(255,0,0), 80" to have a red line at column 80 in the text editor.
What other hidden features have you stumbled upon?
Make a selection with ALT pressed - selects a square of text instead of whole lines.
Tracepoints!
Put a breakpoint on a line of code. Bring up the Breakpoints Window and right click on the new breakpoint. Select 'When Hit...'. By ticking the 'Print a message' check box Visual Studio will print out a message to the Debug Output every time the line of code is executed, rather than (or as well as) breaking on it. You can also get it to execute a macro as it passes the line.
You can drag code to the ToolBox. Try it!
Click an identifier (class name, variable, etc) then hit F12 for "Go To Definition". I'm always amazed how many people I watch code use the slower right-click -> "Go To Definition" method.
EDIT: Then you can use Ctrl+- to jump back to where you were.
CTRL+SHIFT+V will cycle through your clipboard, Visual Studio keeps a history of copies.
Sara Ford covers lots of lovely tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/tags/Visual+Studio+2008+Tip+of+the+Day/default.aspx
But some of my favourites are Code Snippets, Ctrl + . to add a using <Namespace> or generate a method stub.
I can't live without that.
Check out a great list in the Visual Studio 2008 C# Keybinding poster: http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=E5F902A8-5BB5-4CC6-907E-472809749973&displaylang=en
CTRL-K, CTRL-D
Reformat Document!
This is under the VB keybindings, not sure about C#
How many times do you debug an array in a quickwatch or a watch window and only have visual studio show you the first element? Add ",N" to the end of the definition to make studio show you the next N items as well. IE "this->m_myArray" becomes "this->m_array,5".
Incremental search: While having a source document open hit (CTRL + I) and type the word you are searching for you can hit (CTRL + I) again to see words matching your input.
You can use the following codes in the watch window.
#err - display last error
#err,hr - display last error as an HRESULT
#exception - display current exception
Ctrl-K, Ctrl-C to comment a block of text with // at the start
Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U to uncomment a block of text with // at the start
Can't live without it! :)
Stopping the debugger from stepping into trivial functions.
When you’re stepping through code in the debugger, you can spend a lot of time stepping in and out of functions you’re not particularly interested in, with names such as GetID(), or std::vector<>(), to pick a C++ example. You can use the registry to make the debugger ignore these.
For Visual Studio 2005, you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio \8.0\NativeDE\StepOver and add string values containing regular expressions for each function or set of functions you wish to exclude; e.g.
std::vector.*::.*
TextBox::GetID
You can also override these for individual exceptions. For instance, suppose you did want to step into the vector class’s destructor:
std::vector.*::\~.*=StepInto
You can find details for other versions of Visual Studio at http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2004/02/06/69004.aspx
Ctrl-F10: run to cursor during debugging. Took me ages to find this, and I use it all the time;
Ctrl-E, Ctrl-D: apply standard formatting (which you can define).
TAB key feature.
If you know snippet key name, write and click double Tab. for example:
Write
foreach
and then click tab key twice to
foreach (object var in collection_to_loop)
{
}
2. If you write any event, write here
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Click +=
and then click tab key twice to
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Click += new EventHandler(btn_Click);
}
void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
}
btn_Click function write automatically
in XAML Editor, Write any event. for example:
MouseLeftButtonDown then click tab
MouseLeftButtonDown="" then click tab again
MouseLeftButtonDown="Button_MouseLeftButtonDown" in the code section Button_MouseLeftButtonDown method created.
Sara Ford has this market cornered.
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/default.aspx
More Visual Studio tips and tricks than you can shake a stick at.
Some others:
The Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 3-month trial editions are fully-functional, and can be used indefinitely (forever) by setting the system clock back prior to opening VS. Then, when VS is opened, set the system clock forward again so your datetimes aren't screwed up.
But that's really piracy and I can't recommend it, especially when anybody with a .edu address can get a fully-functional Pro version of VS2008 through Microsoft Dreamspark.
You can use Visual Studio to open 3rd-party executables, and browse embedded resources (dialogs, string tables, images, etc) stored within.
Debugging visualizers are not exactly a "hidden" feature but they are somewhat neglected, and super-useful, since in addition to using the provided visualizers you can roll your own for specific data sets.
Debugger's "Set Instruction Pointer" or "Set Next Statement" command.
Conditional breakpoints (as KiwiBastard noted).
You can use Quickwatch etc. to evaluate not only the value of a variable, but runtime expressions around that variable.
T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit). T4 is a code generator built right into Visual Studio
Custom IntelliSense dropdown height, for example displaying 50 items instead of the default which is IMO ridiculously small (8).
(To do that, just resize the dropdown next time you see it, and Visual Studio will remember the size you selected next time it opens a dropdown.)
Discovered today:
Ctrl + .
Brings up the context menu for refactoring (then one that's accessible via the underlined last letter of a class/method/property you've just renamed - mouse over for menu or "Ctrl" + ".")
A lot of people don't know or use the debugger to it's fullest - I.E. just use it to stop code, but right click on the red circle and there are a lot more options such as break on condition, run code on break.
Also you can change variable values at runtime using the debugger which is a great feature - saves rerunning code to fix a silly logic error etc.
Line transpose, Shift-Alt-T
Swaps two line (current and next) and moves cursor to the next line. I'm lovin it. I've even written a macro which changed again position by one line, executed line transpose and changed line position again so it all looking like I swapping current line with previous (Reverse line transpose).
Word transpose, Shift-Ctrl-T
When developing C++, Ctrl-F7 compiles the current file only.
Document Outline in the FormsDesigner (CTRL + ALT + T)
Fast control renaming, ordering and more!
To auto-sync current file with Solution Explorer. So don't have to look where the file lives in the project structure
Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> "Track Active Item in Solution Explorer"
Edit: If this gets too annoying for you then you can use Dan Vanderboom's macro to invoke this feature on demand through a keystroke.
(Note: Taken from the comment below by Jerry).
I'm not sure if it's "hidden", but not many people know about it -- pseudoregisters. Comes very handy when debugging, I've #ERR, hr in my watch window all the time.
Ctrl-Minus, Ctrl-Plus, navigates back and forward where you've been recently (only open files, though).
I don't use it often, but I do love:
ctrl-alt + mouse select
To select in a rectangular block, to 'block' boundaries.
As noted in comments,
alt + mouse select
Does just a plain rectangular block.
Here's something I learned (for C#):
You can move the cursor to the opening curly brace from the closing curly brace by pressing Control + ].
I learned this on an SO topic that's a dupe of this one:
“Hidden Secrets” of the Visual Studio .NET debugger?
CTRL + Shift + U -> Uppercase highlighted section.
CTRL + U -> Lowercase the highlighted section
Great for getting my SQL Statements looking just right when putting them into string queries.
Also useful for code you've found online where EVERYTHING IS IN CAPS.
Middle Mouse Button Click on the editor tab closes the tab.
To display any chunk of data as an n-byte "array", use the following syntax in Visual Studio's QuickWatch window:
variable, n
For example, to view a variable named foo as a 256-byte array, enter the following expression in the QuickWatch window:
foo, 256
This is particularly useful when viewing strings that aren't null-terminated or data that's only accessible via a pointer. You can use Visual Studio's Memory window to achieve a similar result, but using the QuickWatch window is often more convenient for a quick check.