Does Visual Studio Code have box select/multi-line edit?

Question

I heard Microsoft released a new editor called Visual Studio Code and it looks pretty good. One key feature that I need is multi-line edit and I can't seem to find anything about it having it.

Related post [here](https://stackoverflow.com/q/29953479/465053). — RBT, Oct 21 '17 at 03:05
From April 2018 (version 1.23), we can use middle mouse button to select multiple columns. https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_23#_column-selection-using-middle-mouse-button — Ahmad Ismail, May 28 '18 at 03:20
Related solution here https://stackoverflow.com/a/55580788/585398 — suraj_fale, Apr 08 '19 at 19:51

score 355 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:05

355

Box Selecting

Windows & Linux: Shift + Alt + 'Mouse Left Button'

macOS: Shift + option + 'Click'

Esc to exit selection.

MacOS: Shift + Alt/Option + Command + 'arrow key'

edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:05

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 15 '16 at 14:53

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Is there any way to change this shortcut? I can't find the related entry in the key bindings. – GuiSim Nov 03 '16 at 16:17
Here I am having a box selection issue. I can select a box, but pasting does not work for me, I tried Command + V and a few variations, but I just get a usual paste and never a box-paste. – Michel Jan 02 '17 at 06:48
Probably issue is related to your environment, i can only recommend to reinstall vscode as i don't have information about configurations. – Jan 03 '17 at 20:44
Who the hell, just down voted this answer while I was reading and gonna + 1 this.... ~_~ – Abdul Rehman Jan 12 '17 at 12:49
to paste, use the same keys used to select, and select just a straight column (0-width), then paste. – Dev Null Apr 17 '17 at 02:24
This should be the accepted answer. – benihana21 Jun 29 '17 at 16:53
I just tested this on July 23 2017 and it seems like just holding `alt` does the trick in windows. It had some weird behavior if holding `shift` + `alt` as described above. This is what you want if your goal is simply to paste contents of the clipboard into multiple lines at once. – agm1984 Jul 24 '17 at 04:08
This is correct answer – onmyway133 Aug 08 '17 at 12:26
shift+option+click doesn't work on my macbook. any idea how to resolve this? – monodev Dec 27 '17 at 16:43
check your settings `cmd+,` and keyboard bindings `cmd+k s` – Dec 27 '17 at 17:16
4

This just creates a selection _from_ the current cursor, _to_ where you click. What if you wanna just "drag a square" to create one, ala Sublime (middle-click mouse + drag) or VS (alt + drag)? – Alex McMillan Mar 09 '18 at 02:13
the original answer was with cmd and not with shift i don’t know why someone changed this, actually i rejected this change – Mar 09 '18 at 07:06
@HovhannesSanoyan Shouldn't it be _Shift + Alt + 'Mouse Left Button'_ for Windows? That's the default for me anyway and I just installed Code yesterday – Boregore Mar 16 '18 at 07:32
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@AlexMcMillan You can start dragging from where you want the selection to start **before** you hold down _Shift + Alt_ down to create a block selection as you describe it :) – Boregore Mar 16 '18 at 07:38
rollback of correct, original answer – Mar 16 '18 at 14:13
@Boregore that's better, but still not what I'm after. Try grabbing the last few chars of several lines, which have shorter lines between them... you *have* to be careful about where you start - it's got a very "terminal" feel to it, as opposed to the "whiteboard" feel of eg Sublime. – Alex McMillan Mar 20 '18 at 22:31
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Fantastic. This is super useful though I don't understand why VS Code can't just be like every other major editor (on Windows) and use ALT+left mouse button to do this. Gotta be different, I suppose – Nick Gotch Nov 13 '18 at 14:19
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It's a shame, that it is not working the same as in normal Visual Studio, especially because the combination of [Shift]+[Alt] changes language settings. – gtu Jul 17 '19 at 09:08
when it does work its not as good as any other idea. you can't box select unless characters already exist such as spaces – Matthew Whited Mar 18 '21 at 12:48

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited May 03 '17 at 07:41

34

Press Ctrl+Alt+Down or Ctrl+Alt+Up to insert cursors below or above.

edited May 03 '17 at 07:41

Sahan Serasinghe

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answered Mar 27 '16 at 06:42

Joe Daley

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Note: Your graphics card provider might overwrite these default shortcuts. – pearpages Apr 26 '16 at 13:40
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You may want to edit your shortcuts. Go to File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. As an example:[ { "key": "ctrl+alt+numpad2", "command": "editor.action.insertCursorBelow", "when": "editorTextFocus" },{ "key": "ctrl+alt+numpad8", "command": "editor.action.insertCursorAbove", "when": "editorTextFocus" } ] – pearpages Apr 26 '16 at 13:53

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:11

21

The shortcuts I use in Visual Studio for multiline (aka box) select are Shift + Alt + up/down/left/right

To create this in Visual Studio Code you can add these keybindings to the keybindings.json file (menu File → Preferences → Keyboard shortcuts).

{ "key": "shift+alt+down", "command": "editor.action.insertCursorBelow",
                                 "when": "editorTextFocus" },
{ "key": "shift+alt+up", "command": "editor.action.insertCursorAbove",
                                 "when": "editorTextFocus" },
{ "key": "shift+alt+right", "command": "cursorRightSelect",
                                     "when": "editorTextFocus" },
{ "key": "shift+alt+left", "command": "cursorLeftSelect",
                                     "when": "editorTextFocus" }

edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 26 '16 at 13:43

Jimmy Hannon

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This is good, but not great as it doesn't _quite_ act the same as box selection in other applications. e.g. If I do `shift+alt+down` 3 times and then `shift+alt+up` once, rather than undoing my last down arrow key press so that only 2 rows are selected, it adds the row above the 1st one I had selected, so I end up with 4 rows selected. Also, you need to press `Esc` to get out of the box selection mode. I wish VS Code would provide native keyboard-box-selection support, but this answer is the next best thing – deadlydog Apr 13 '18 at 18:27

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:12

13

For multiple select in Visual Studio Code, hold down the Alt key and starting clicking wherever you want to edit.

Visual Studio Code supports multiple line edit.

edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:12

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 07 '16 at 13:41

Jalasem

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I expected this to work, but it doesn't. Instead it acts like a regular mouse-click-n-drag. – jmoreno Nov 14 '19 at 16:54
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@jmoreno I had the same issue - only Shift+Alt+Click worked, until I did this: go to Selection menu, and select Switch to Alt+Click for Multi-Cursor. – Kon Jan 07 '20 at 20:31
You may also want to go to Selection and choose 'Switch to Ctrl+Click' for multi-cursor selection if you find alt clicking to not work.. – Ian Smith Jan 22 '20 at 21:41

score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:13

-1

On Windows it's holding down Alt while box selecting. Once you have your selection then attempt your edit.

edited Jul 04 '19 at 17:13

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 07 '16 at 13:47

codemonkeyliketab

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Does Visual Studio Code have box select/multi-line edit?

5 Answers5

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