I find a lot of the time when I am coding if statements, if I alter them to have an if become an if && || instead, I'll end up with indents all over the place. Some will be tabbed once, some tabbed twice, turning back to once and back to twice sometimes - depending on how many changes I have done.
I was curious if there was a key that would auto format indents so my code would look like it was properly indented again. Thanks a lot for any answers.
The default shortcut key to auto-format code in Visual Studio is Ctrl + E, D
Other environment settings might also have it configured as Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D
Related
This seems like something I would have found hundreds of topics on. Yet I didn't find a single one. I wonder if no one cares or if I just overlooked something obvious.
In Visual Studio when you select a column and want to select the word your cursor is at in each line, when you do CtrlShift+(ARROW KEY), then it doesn't select by word as it SHOULD, but instead it selects a square.
BAD BEHAVIOUR (which VS has):
GOOD BEHAVIOUR (which would be expected, and is in every other IDE):
The Visual Studio ALT select is rendered useless in half the cases, actually in every case where you don't have the "coordinates" precisely the same on every line.
EDIT
I seem to have to explain why the VS behavior is bad, people apparently consider it ok. So the problem is that when you column select in VS, and you have it exactly like in the example, or even without tabs, you'd copy some =, though they won't be everywhere.
If you select a column like VS Code or JetBrains has it, you'll just copy WHAT IS NEEDED and that OBVIOUSLY being just the words in the column.
I have a solution for you, but you may not like it. It's using the new Multi-Caret Support in Visual Studio 2017.
Here is my example code where I want to copy only the property names (sorry for lack of inline images):
Multi-Caret Code Example
Using Ctrl + Alt + Click to click and add a caret to the end of each word. (If you screw up and click somewhere you didn't mean, like I do many times, then reclick to remove that caret and click on the correct spot.)
Multi-Caret End of Line
Now hold Ctrl + Shift and hit the ← Left Arrow. This will select to the beginning of the current word on each line.
Multi-Caret Word Selected
Copy/paste as you wish
Normally, to create a new bracket block I would type:
"{" then enter
This produces:
{
}
however, (I have seen this on two different machines so far, it might be the default setting) if like me, you like to keep shift held down, or accidentally keep it down and instead press shift + enter, it creates a new line underneath.
{ }
//current cursor position
Leaving the un-formatted brackets behind!
This is really annoying as I nearly always do this, and have to fiddle around for a little second to get the brackets back to where I want them. What can I do to change the behavior of shift + enter?
Go to Options > Environment > Keyboard
Search for Edit.SmartBreakLine and remove the assigned shortcut (Shift + Enter)
Search for Edit.BreakLine, click on "Press shortcut keys:" textbox, press Shift + Enter and click Assign
If it doesn't work try restarting Visual Studio.
Update: This issue is fixed in Visual Studio 2015 Update 1 - SmartBreakLine works as expected.
We stumbled on this thread and it felt like we could make a nice improvement here to Shift+Enter (SmartBreakLine).
So, in cases where a block was opened { } and if shift was held down intentionally or unintentionally, we now do this:
{
|
}
instead of
{ }
|
this way people who are used to using shift+enter to complete the line (in C#, it adds a semicolon to the end of line if needed, formats the line, adds a new line after current line) do not have to lose those functionalities by remapping the shortcut to BreakLine.
See: https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/pull/5790
this should make it in the next update of Vs2015 and we hope you like it.
It works well in my VS 2015. Try resetting all the settings.
Tools > Import and Export Settings > Reset all settings > Next > Visual C#
You can reset for all other languages similar like this.
Hope this helps!
All right, this is stupid, but I have no clue how people deal with this and I'm hoping I'm missing something...
When I write something like this:
if (n == 0)
...The closing parenthesis gets added as soon as I type the opening one. The only way I know of to get out of them now is to reach over and tap the End key or something, which kind of ... Damages my shui, you know? And yet apparently they thought this feature was a cool idea, so...
What do you normally do to tell the IDE that you're done with this bit and you're ready to move on to the next? Same question applies to automatic quotes and stuff in the XAML editor, I guess.
Just keep typing - if you type your own ) when the cursor is just before the automatic one, it should not create another ), but just move the cursor over it.
(Disclaimer: I'm not certain this works on a vanilla Visual Studio - I have a bunch of extensions installed)
You can press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open a new line below the current one without moving the cursor to the end of the line.
To add to this, Tab is another option and I find it easier:
In your example, type the logic, press Tab to skip passed the end bracket.
If you are inside auto quotes, type your text, then press Tab twice.
Like the other answer, it only applies when first being typed, so if you go back to edit something, you are left using the End and Arrow keys.
In Visual Studio 2015 with Productivity Power Tools installed (probably works earlier as well), when being inside an auto-complete block (quotes or braces):
end goes to line end ( typically slow to type/find)
"/) typing same key as auto-complete already inserted will simply replace the auto-inserted character
tab jumps over end of auto-complete (e. g. braces or quotes)
shift+enter adds ; at end of line, goes to new line (often what you want)
ctrl+shift+enter goes to new line
There is a short key in VS - "Edit.LineEnd" - pressing "End" you get to the end of the current line. I've re-assigned it (for me the best variant was "Alt-Enter") and use it to get outside of parentheses and quotes.
Hit the enter key when you are done typing.
I have been searching for months for a way to map a key combination (CTRL + something) to a directional key (like down or up).
I desperately want in Visual Studio to be able to press CTRL + j and have the cursor move down a line. I hate having to move my hands off of the home row to move up and down for things like intellisense or even just navigating up and down lines.
Does anyone have a solution for this? I would be ok with a Visual Studio-only solution, but something that works at the OS level would be ideal since this kind of navigation would be nice in any editor window and for instance SQL Server Management Studio also has intellisense.
I haven't considered any macro hotkey type solutions since they could conflict with in-app hotkeys (for instance if CTRL+j were assigned to something in Visual Studio already)
I think the answer is nothing out there exists that would do this. I have done a lot of research.
I am now using Autohotkey instead of what would have been ideal. I have been familiar with this application for years and it does a pretty good job, but doesn't work across remote desktop for instance and so doesn't quite fill the need.
I mapped ctrl + i to do up, ctrl + k to be down, ctrl + j as left and ctrl + l for right.
VS-only solution is simple.
At least in Visual Studio 2017 you can assign Ctrl+XXX key combinations to corresponding commands for Text Editor.
CharLeft
CharLeftExtend
CharRight
CharRightExtend
LineUp
LineUpExtend
LineDown
LineDownExtend
PageUp
PageUpExtend
PageDown
PageDownExtend
LineStart
LineStartExtend
Delete
DeleteBackwards
WordPrevious
WordPreviousExtend
WordNext
WordNextExtend
and so on.
All using standard Tools / Options / Environment / Keyboard settings dialog.
Just wondering if anyone knows the keyboard shortcut to swap around two sides of a statement. For example:
I want to swap
firstNameTextbox.Text = myData.FirstName;
to
myData.FirstName = firstNameTextbox.Text;
Does anyone know the shortcut, if there is one? Obviously I would type them out, but there is a lot of statements I need to swap, and I think a shortcut like that would be useful!
Feel free to throw in any shortcuts you think are cool!
My contribution would be CTRL + E, D - this will format your code to Visual Studio standards! Pretty well known I'm guessing but I use it all the time! :)
UPDATE
Just to let everyone know, using a bit of snooping of the article that was posted, I managed to construct a regular expression, so here it is:
Find:
{.+\.Text = myData\..+};
And replace with:
\2 = \1;
Hopefully people can apply this to their own expressions they want to swap!
I think the following thread is a good place to begin with
Invert assignment direction in Visual Studio
Here's how I would go about doing that without a specific keyboard shortcut:
First, select the text you want to modify and replace
" = " with " = "
(the key here is to add a lot of spaces).
If you hold down Alt and use the mouse, you can select a "block" of code. Use this to select only the text on the right side of the equation (it's helpful to add extra white space here in your selection)
Use the same Alt + Left-Click combination to select the beginning of the left side (just select a blank area). You should be able to paste text into here.
If you added extra white space to the text you just added, just should be able to easily insert an = using the Alt + Click technique. Use the same trick to remove the equal sign that's dangling on the right side of your code block.
While this might not do exactly what you're looking for, I've found these tricks quite useful.
If you're using ReSharper, you can do this by pressing CtrlAltShift + ← or →
The feature is in Resharper. Select the code segment and click the content wizard, which is a pencil icon in the left corner reading View Actions List, then choose Reverse Assignment.
It is done.
swap-word is a VSCode extension which sounds like it would do what you want.
Quickly swap places two words or selections...
But I'm not sure if it is compatible with VS.
Since I was not happy with the answers where I need to enter complicated strings into the Visual Studio search/replace dialog, I wrote myself a little AutoHotkey script, that performs the swaps with only the need to press a keyboard shortcut. And this, no matter if you are in VS or in another IDE.
This hotkey (start it once simply from a textfile as script or compiled to exe) runs whenever Win+Ctrl-S is pressed
#^s Up::
clipboard := "" ; Empty the clipboard
Sendinput {Ctrl down}c{ctrl up}
Clipwait
Loop, Parse, clipboard, `n, `r ; iterates over seperates lines
{
array := StrSplit(RegExReplace(A_LoopField,";",""),"=") ; remove semicolon and split by '='
SendInput, % Trim(array[2]) . " = " . Trim(array[1]) . ";{Enter}"
}
return
Many more details are possible, e.g. also supporting code where lines end with a comma
...and I can put many more hotkeys and hotstrings into the same script, e.g. for my most mistyped words:
::esle::else ; this 1 line rewrites all my 'else' typos
I recommend using the find-replace option in Visual Studio. IMHO the REGEX string is not that complicated, and moreover, you don't need to understand the expression in order to use it.
The following regex string works for most programming languages:
([\w\.]+)\s*=\s*([\w\.]+)
For Visual Studio's you want to use $ argument in the replace text.
$2 = $1
Make sure to enable regex.
To do this in one shot, you can select a section of the document, and click the replace-all option.
Before:
comboBoxAddOriginalSrcTextToComment.SelectedIndex = Settings.Default.comboBoxAddOriginalSrcTextToComment;
comboBoxDefaultLanguageSet.SelectedIndex = Settings.Default.comboBoxDefaultLanguageSet;
comboBoxItemsPerTransaltionRequest.SelectedIndex = Settings.Default.comboBoxItemsPerTransaltionRequest;
comboBoxLogFileVerbosityLevel.SelectedIndex = Settings.Default.comboBoxLogFileVerbosityLevel;
comboBoxScreenVerbosityLevel.SelectedIndex = Settings.Default.comboBoxScreenVerbosityLevel;
After:
Settings.Default.comboBoxAddOriginalSrcTextToComment = comboBoxAddOriginalSrcTextToComment.SelectedIndex;
Settings.Default.comboBoxDefaultLanguageSet = comboBoxDefaultLanguageSet.SelectedIndex;
Settings.Default.comboBoxItemsPerTransaltionRequest = comboBoxItemsPerTransaltionRequest.SelectedIndex;
Settings.Default.comboBoxLogFileVerbosityLevel = comboBoxLogFileVerbosityLevel.SelectedIndex;
Settings.Default.comboBoxScreenVerbosityLevel = comboBoxScreenVerbosityLevel.SelectedIndex;
IMHO: It's better for a developer to learn to use the IDE (Integrated Development Environment), then to create new tools to do the same thing the IDE can do.