I had to reinstall VS Code recently, I rember using Ctrl+W to kind of smart select everything between quotes but now what that command does is move me to another file/tab instead? Is there a way to do this in VS Code, Ctrl+W was just so easy to me, really helped with deleting or copying strings of text.
5 Answers
As @Mark says in the comment, you can use the "Expand Selection" shortcut, this will first select everything between the quotes.
The shortcut on Windows by default:
Shift + Alt + →
And OS X:
Ctrl + Shift + ⌘ + →
Try using the Quick and Simple Text Selection extension.
On a Mac, the extension's default shortcut is ⌘ k, "
- Press
⌘andk - let go of of
⌘andk - press
"
This will select everything in double quotes.
If you want to select everything in single quotes use ⌘ k, "
It also works for brackets
⌘k,[⌘k,{⌘k,(
On Windows, replace ⌘ with Ctrl
Shift + Alt + (Right Arrow) for the word next to cursor Shift + Alt + (Right Arrow)x2 for entire sentence between quotes
After re-reading your question, I noticed that you want to press Ctrl + W to press multiple times to expand your selection
To see and set the shortcut, you can
- Press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P
- Go to Keyboard Shortcuts by typing
Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts - Search for the command:
editor.action.smartSelect.expand - Double click the keybinding to set a new keybinding
Summary of answers
- Most use cases: use @colinD's answer (Alt + Shift ← or →) which expands the selection word by word
- Press Ctrl + Shift + → multiple times to expand the selection's scope
- it might be different on Windows
- If you want to select all of the text in quotes and there's a lot of spaces and your cursor is in the middle of the quotes
- Use the Quick and Simple Text Selection extension
The best / simplest way to do it I've found on Mac is to click the text anywhere in the quote marks, then hold down Control + Shift and tap the right arrow twice.
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