Make selected block of text uppercase

Question

Can I make a multi-line selection of text all capitals in Visual Studio Code?

In Visual Studio it's Ctrl+Shift+U to do this.

The extension that exists that I have seen only do non-multi-line blocks.

Note: The UI of VSCode has changed since this question was asked .

score 713 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 13 '21 at 01:43

713

The question is about how to make CTRL+SHIFT+U work in Visual Studio Code. Here is how to do it in version 1.57.1 or above.

Steps:

Open Visual Studio Code.
Press CTRL+SHIFT+P.
Type
```
open keyboard shortcuts
```
Select

Open keyboard shortcuts (json)

An editor will appear with keybindings.json file. Place the following JSON in there and save:

[
    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+u",
        "command": "editor.action.transformToUppercase",
        "when": "editorTextFocus"
    },
    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+l",
        "command": "editor.action.transformToLowercase",
        "when": "editorTextFocus"
    }
]

Now CTRL+SHIFT+U will capitalise selected text, even if multi line. In the same way, CTRL+SHIFT+L will make selected text lowercase.

These commands are built into VS Code and no extensions are required to make them work.

Update August 2021

There is a UI to see and update keyboard shortcuts:

File-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

Find "Transform to Uppercase":
Click the + icon.
In the popup, press the desired key combination and hit enter:

Do the same for lower case.

Note

In the new versions (eg 1.57.x) of VS Code, Ctrl+Shift+L is a shortcut for bulk selecting all selected text occurrences. So you can use another combination, like Ctrl+Shift+/ etc.

edited Dec 13 '21 at 01:43

informatik01

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answered Jan 17 '17 at 03:18

Sunil Purushothaman

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15

As others have said on Ubuntu 17.10 CTRL-SHIFT-U just gives you a `u` but CTRL-SHIFT-L works fine. Anybody got any ideas? – Mark Lawrence Dec 30 '17 at 18:34
4

I want a Toggle shortcut like PhpStorm instead of two separated shortcut: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/toggling-case.html – vikyd Jun 14 '18 at 09:35
@MarkLawrence I had the same problem. I just picked a different letter (I used `Q`) and it works. – Stack Underflow Sep 23 '19 at 15:58
@MarkLawrence see this SO: https://superuser.com/questions/358749/how-to-disable-ctrlshiftu-in-ubuntu-linux – zvi Oct 28 '19 at 11:31
4

@MarkLawrence I ended up using `ctrl` + `alt` + `u` and `l` – Munib Nov 22 '19 at 22:11
I couldn't access the preferences JSON. It shows an aweful GUI with no obvious way to access the JSON file, then binded my shortcuts there. – Jefferson Quesado Mar 03 '20 at 19:10
1

THE UI HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS QUESTION WAS ASKED. – Warren P Jun 14 '21 at 20:17

user3413723 · Answer 2 · 2021-12-14T18:14:45.647

258

Whenever you want to do something in VS Code and don't know how, it's a good idea to bring up the command palette with CTRL+SHIFT+P (CMD+SHIFT+P on mac), and try typing in a keyword for you want. Oftentimes the command will show up there so you don't have to go searching the net for how to do something.

Highlight the text you want to uppercase. Then hit CTRL+SHIFT+P to bring up the command palette. Then start typing the word "uppercase", and you'll see the Transform to Uppercase command. Click that and it will make your text uppercase.

edited Dec 14 '21 at 18:14

answered May 18 '17 at 21:04

user3413723

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Use option-x to bring up the command palette on OSX (VSCode v1.27). Even quicker if you're using the Emacs Friendly Keymap: highlight the text, then ^X^U to uppercase, or ^X^L to lowercase (where ^=ctrl). – Trutane Oct 10 '18 at 19:13
18

I like this answer because it doesn't require a keybinding. – Kyle Jul 10 '19 at 21:32
I think this answer is better if you just need the function for a moment. – Pue-Tsuâ Dec 04 '20 at 07:48

score 70 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 04 '18 at 19:40

70

Creator of the change-case extension here. I've updated the extension to support spanning lines.

To map the upper case command to a keybinding (e.g. CTRL+T+U), click File -> Preferences -> Keyboard shortcuts, and insert the following into the json config:

{
  "key": "ctrl+t ctrl+u",
  "command": "extension.changeCase.upper",
  "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

EDIT:

With the November 2016 (release notes) update of VSCode, there is built-in support for converting to upper case and lower case via the commands editor.action.transformToUppercase and editor.action.transformToLowercase. These don't have default keybindings. They also work with multi-line blocks.

The change-case extension is still useful for other text transformations, e.g. camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case, etc.

edited Sep 04 '18 at 19:40

Trevor Jex

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answered Feb 13 '16 at 21:51

Wayne Maurer

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When I set a key binding to "ctrl+t ctrl+u" it stops the "ctrl+t" binding from working. I'm not sure if this is a vscode bug, or if it is intended behavior. – Alexis Winters Nov 19 '19 at 22:43
1

@AlexMussell I believe this is the indented behaviour of VSCode – Wayne Maurer Nov 20 '19 at 20:15

score 27 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 08 '18 at 02:06

27

Update on March 8, 2018 with Visual Studio Code 1.20.1 (mac)

It has been simplified quite a lot lately.
Very easy and straight forward now.

From "Code" -> "Preferences" -> "Keyboard shortcuts"
From the search box just search for "editor.action.transformTo", You will see the screen like:
Click the "plus" sign at the left of each item, it will prompt dialog for your to [press] you desired key-bindings, after it showing that on the screen, just hit [Enter] to save.

edited Mar 08 '18 at 02:06

Stephen Rauch

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answered Mar 08 '18 at 01:28

Billy Qiu

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Actually this is the best answer -- the functions are already there, and we just need to change the shortcut keys. Others require too many changes. – William Hou Oct 10 '19 at 17:38

Daniel Delgado · Answer 5 · 2020-01-21T16:22:15.333

22

In Linux and Mac there are not default shortcuts, so try to set your custom shortcut and be careful about don't choose a hotkey used (For example, CTRL+U is taken for uncomment)

File-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.
Type 'transfrom' in the search input to find transform shortcuts.
Edit your key combination.

In my case I have CTRL+U CTRL+U for transform to uppercase and CTRL+L CTRL+L for transform to lowercase

Just in case, for Mac instead of CTRL I used ⌘

edited Jan 21 '20 at 16:22

answered Jun 10 '18 at 18:33

Daniel Delgado

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Valeu dêmáás :) – R. Karlus Jul 08 '20 at 17:55

simhumileco · Answer 6 · 2021-05-20T17:08:15.020

15

Change letter case in Visual Studio Code

Updated answer

Show All Commands: Ctrl+Shift+P

and start typing "upper" or "lower" whichever command is highlighted, press Enter:

Note 1. The next time you use the function, it is usually enough to type the first letter of "upper" or "lower" words.

Note 2. You can also assign your own shortcut to these functions as they currently don't have any by default:

Original answer from 2017 (no longer valid for newer VSC versions)

To upper case: Ctrl+K, Ctrl+U

and to lower case: Ctrl+K, Ctrl+L.

Mnemonics:

K like the Keyboard

U like the Upper case

L like the Lower case

edited May 20 '21 at 17:08

answered Aug 04 '17 at 12:33

simhumileco

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Doesn't work. May you talk about VS, not VS-code. – Azriel Berger May 20 '21 at 14:32
Thanks for your attention, @AzrielBerger. This answer was correct in 2017, now VSC has removed the default keyboard shortcuts for these actions, but I have updated the answer to the current version. – simhumileco May 20 '21 at 17:12

score 12 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 02 '21 at 10:44

12

I think you can use

Select text
Ctrl+Shift+P
Enter Transform to Uppercase

edited Mar 02 '21 at 10:44

Rocket Nikita

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answered Mar 21 '20 at 10:38

Huỳnh Văn Thùy

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score 9 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 27 '19 at 14:37

9

Without defining keyboard shortcuts

Select the text you want capitalized
Open View->Command Palette (or Shift+Command+P)
Start typing "Transform to uppercase" and select that option
Voila!

answered Nov 27 '19 at 14:37

Nicolai Lissau

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score 7 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 19 '18 at 23:01

At Sep 19 2018, these lines worked for me:

File-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

An editor will appear with keybindings.json file. Place the following JSON in there and save.

// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[
    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+u",
        "command": "editor.action.transformToUppercase",
        "when": "editorTextFocus"
    },
    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+l",
        "command": "editor.action.transformToLowercase",
        "when": "editorTextFocus"
    },

]

score 6 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 01 '17 at 14:58

6

I'm using the change-case extension and it works fine. I defined the shortcuts:

{ 
  "key": "ctrl+shift+u", 
  "command": "extension.changeCase.upper", 
  "when": "editorTextFocus" 
},
{ 
  "key": "ctrl+u",
  "command": "extension.changeCase.lower", 
  "when": "editorTextFocus" 
},

edited Sep 01 '17 at 14:58

simhumileco

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answered Aug 08 '16 at 07:53

Eve Huguet

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creep3007 · Answer 11 · 2017-09-04T09:49:28.180

2

Standard keybinding for VS Code on macOS:

Selection to upper case ⌘+K, ⌘+U and to lower case: ⌘+K, ⌘+L.

All key combinations can be opened with ⌘+K ⌘+S (like Keyboard Settings), where you can also search for specific key combinations.

edited Sep 04 '17 at 09:49

answered Aug 29 '17 at 06:23

creep3007

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score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 03 '20 at 15:40

2

Select the text to transform.

Use Ctrl + L to selected the whole line

Open Show all commands.

Linux and Windows: Ctrl + Shift + P, Mac: ⇧⌘P

Type in the command, e.g. lower, upper, title

Hit Enter

edited Jan 03 '20 at 15:40

Misha Akopov

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answered Dec 11 '19 at 11:36

Soner from The Ottoman Empire

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered May 28 '21 at 18:57

On a Mac, in Visual Studio Code, its very easy to add a key binding to perform this action, it is not linked to a hotkey combo as a default though.

In the menu bar, navigate to: Code > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
In the search bar that comes up, type: Uppercase
A entry will come up called "Transform to Uppercase"
Hover your mouse over that entry and click the plus sign just to the left of the words "Transform to Uppercase"
In the box that comes up push the keys you want to bind that action to (Cmd +Shift + U is taken so I chose Ctrl + Shift + U) then press enter and you're good to go.

Note this is working at the time of this writing in May of 2021

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 11 '23 at 12:00

there is also a related thread about this where it states (Windows):

Command Palette: CTRL + SHIFT + p (Mac: CMD + SHIFT + p)
type >transform pick upper/lower case and press enter

What is pitty though is that on Notepad++ you are not forced to use the transform function to make simple things like uppercase and lowercase, a simple CTRL + SHIFT + U makes the job very good :)