Visual Studio Code (VS Code), is a free and open-source code editor developed by Microsoft.
It has become one of the most popular code editors as it is highly extensible and customisable, due to the number of features and plugins, making life much easier for programmers.
One of the significant benefits of using VS Code is its flexibility.
It has built-in support for a wide range of programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, and Java.
It also has a vast library of extensions that add additional functionality and support for other languages.
This flexibility makes it an ideal choice for developers who work on multiple projects or use multiple programming languages.
One of the great things about VS Code is the keyboard shortcuts that can help a programmer to work more efficiently.
Here are the top 10 VS Code shortcuts that every developer should know:
- Ctrl + P – This shortcut opens the quick search menu, which is one of the most useful features in VS Code. You can use it to quickly navigate to any file in your project by simply typing a few characters of its name.
For example, if you want to open a file named “index.html”, press Ctrl + P and then type “index” to find and open the file. You can also use this shortcut to search for text within a file or to jump to specific lines in a file.
- Ctrl + Shift + P – This shortcut opens the command palette, which is another powerful feature in VS Code. You can use it to execute any command in VS Code, from creating a new file to debugging your code. Just like with Ctrl + P, start typing the command that you want to execute and VS Code will give you suggestions. This is a great way to access features that you don’t use very often or to learn about new features that you didn’t know existed.
- Ctrl + Shift + L – This shortcut selects all occurrences of the selected text. This can be useful when you want to edit multiple lines of code at once.
For example, if you want to change the name of a variable that appears multiple times in a file, simply select one instance of the variable and then use this shortcut to select all other instances.
- Ctrl + Shift + K – This shortcut deletes the current line. It’s a quick way to remove unnecessary code or to restructure your code.
For example, if you want to move a line of code to a different location in the file, simply delete it using this shortcut and then paste where you want it to go.
- Shift + alt + down/up – This shortcut allows you to copy multiple lines in a file. It’s a quicker way to copy than traditional Ctrl + C.
- Ctrl + k/f – This shortcut allows you to format your code to make it easily readable, which is recommended practice.
For example, if you have a block of code that is not properly indented, select it and then use these shortcuts to format the selected code.
- Ctrl + / – This shortcut comments or uncomments the selected lines of code. It’s a quick way to add or remove comments from your code. Comments are useful for documenting your code or for temporarily disabling parts of your code that you don’t want to execute.
- Ctrl + D – This shortcut selects the next occurrence of the selected text. You can use it to quickly select multiple occurrences of a variable or function name.
For example, if you want to rename a variable that appears multiple times in a file, simply select one instance of the variable and then use this shortcut to select all other instances.
- Ctrl + Shift + F – This shortcut opens the ‘search and replace’ dialog, which is a powerful tool for finding and replacing text in multiple files at once. You can use it to search for specific text, to replace text with something else, or to use regular expressions to find and replace complex patterns.
- Ctrl + Home/End – This shortcut takes you at the start or end of the line.