I’m getting hooked to Visual Studio Code more and more thesedays … it’s light and fast! Here’s my cheatsheet when using VS Code.

Frequently used (but forgotten) shortcuts

• Copy current line up or down: Option + Shift + up/down
• Delete current line : ⌘ + Shift + K
• Move current line up or down: Option + up/down
• Prettify flat JSON: Option + Shift + f
• Show or hide sidebar: ⌘ + b
• Quick select the language: ⌘ + k then m
• Quick open file: ⌘ + p

PDF poster here.

Multiple selection and replace

How to replace all parseFloat to parseInt ?

const payload = {
  t: values.t ? parseFloat(values.t) : 0,
  a: parseFloat(values.a),
  b: parseFloat(values.b),
  c: parseFloat(values.c),
  d: parseFloat(values.d),
  e: parseFloat(values.e),
  f: parseFloat(values.f),
  g: parseFloat(values.g),
  h: parseFloat(values.h)
}

1. Select parseFloat
2. ⌘ + d will select other matching string. ⌘ + d again to select the next matching string
3. Start typing parseInt

Preferences

Disable preview

By default, when you click any file from the file tree, it will open a tab. If you don’t modify that file, VSCode will replace it with the next file that you click. However, I want VSCode not to close files that I clicked.

Hit ⌘ + ,, type enablePreview. Uncheck the Workbench > Editor: Enable Preview.

String processing using regex

Single line selection

Let’s say I have these lines, shortened from a long list of enum cases.

.header: "HEADER",
.responseText: "02",
.merchantNameAddress: "D0",
.transactionDate: "03",
.transactionTime: "04",
.stan: "H6",
.terminalId: "16",
.merchantId: "D1",

I can select each line by pressing shortcut to find (⌘+f), activate the regex icon .* or by pressing (⌘ + option + r) and type ^(.+)$. Once again, make sure the Regex button is selected. In this case, ^(.+)$ is the regex, and anything selected is put into variable $1.

Thing is, I just want the case name with dot e.g. .merchantId. How can I remove the trailing? I’ll go over Regex101, copy paste a sample line .merchantId: "D1", and play around!

First, I got (:\s\"\w+\",) to select everything beginning from : to the ,.

But I realise that I still need the comma, so I ended up using (:\s\"\w+\").

So, hit ⌘+f , enter the regex and click the Replace All button.

In case I want to add : for each line again, I can select each line with ^(.+)$, and replace it with $1:! Magic!

Multi line selection

Let’s say I have a long JSON text. I want to search and replace the entire value of type from null to null, string.

"partnerName": {
  "type": "null"
},

I could use this regex (partnerName".*\n\s*"type":\s*)"null" and replace with $1"string, null"

If the partnerName value is string and I need to change the regex to (partnerName".*\n\s*"type":\s*)"string".

Yep, I should credit to Mark, the guy who answered my question on Stackoverflow.

Sample snippet:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "node": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "id": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "name": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "description": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "type": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "frequency": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "maxCount": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "points": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "startAt": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "endAt": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "partnerName": {
          "type": "null"
        },
        "action": {
          "type": "null"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "id",
        "name",
        "description",
        "type",
        "frequency",
        "maxCount",
        "points",
        "startAt",
        "endAt",
        "partnerName",
        "action"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "node"
  ]
},