Code snippet or shortcut to create a constructor in Visual Studio

Question

What is the code snippet or shortcut for creating a constructor in Visual Studio?

Visual Studio 2010 and C#.

score 363 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:47

363

Type "ctor" + TAB + TAB (hit the Tab key twice). This will create the default constructor for the class you are in:

public MyClass()
{

}

It seems that in some cases you will have to press TAB twice.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 06 '10 at 14:45

Amra

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Not for me (typing `ctor` only shows the intellisense box, then I have to type `Tab` once to close that and once to "use" the snippet), but might be some setting somewhere... – Hans Olsson Oct 06 '10 at 16:02
1

In addition to this technique. If you make use of the class with a specific signature, you can refactor to get visual studio to generate the constructor for you. Also if this is a default constructor and you are not doing anything with it, then it is assumed to be there by default. – James Jul 15 '12 at 10:49
1

Once or twice is a setting thing. I had this issue with a 1-letter-snippet and changed some (IntelliSense) settings to make 1 `Tab` work. `ctor` works for me with 1 hit though. – Bitterblue Mar 03 '14 at 07:54
1

@Eve What setting did you change? – Travis Jul 24 '14 at 19:35
@Travis I'm translating: Go to Options → Text-Editor → C# → IntelliSense. Disable auto completion after 1 key. That's the key setting. – Bitterblue Jul 25 '14 at 06:07
@Eve Hmm...thanks. Doesn't exist in my VS, but thanks for the reply. :) – Travis Jul 25 '14 at 15:16
@Travis How much of the path does exist in your VS ? I use VS 2010 Express and it's language is not English so you have to look around a bit and understand what I mean. In "IntelliSense" it's the very top option that must be disabled. – Bitterblue Jul 29 '14 at 13:27
@Eve Turns out that ReSharper is interfering with the behavior, and that's where my issue is coming from. Thanks for your help, though. :) – Travis Jul 29 '14 at 16:52
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@RayLoveless, I had the same issue that I was able to fix in VS2019. Go to Options > Text Editor > C# > IntelliSense then change "Snippets Behavior" to "Always include snippets". – ScubaSteve Sep 23 '19 at 14:27

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 19:21

34

If you want to see the list of all available snippets:

Press Ctrl + K and then X.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 19:21

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 28 '15 at 07:23

ANewGuyInTown

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This *is* actually an answer to the question as you can not only see the available snippets, but also invoke it: *"Visual C#"* → ctor → (and only slightly higher number of key presses, 9 instead of 5 (using only the keyboard)). – Peter Mortensen Sep 04 '20 at 23:04
See also [Marleen Schilt's answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3873702/code-snippet-or-shortcut-to-create-a-constructor-in-visual-studio/31404344#31404344). – Peter Mortensen Sep 04 '20 at 23:12
It must be mentioned, that the correct snippet is Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X. Ctrl+K, X specifically doesn't work – NotAPro Aug 04 '21 at 17:05

score 15 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:42

In case you want a constructor with properties, you need to do the following:

Place your cursor in any empty line in a class;
Press Ctrl + . to trigger the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu;
Select Generate constructor from the drop-down menu;
Pick the members you want to include as constructor parameters. You can order them using the up and down arrows. Choose OK.

The constructor is created with the specified parameters.

Generate a constructor in Visual Studio

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:55

9

Type ctor, and then press TAB twice.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 28 '14 at 11:00

ssmsnet

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Marleen Schilt · Answer 5 · 2015-07-24T07:11:44.080

8

For the full list of snippets (little bits of prefabricated code) press Ctrl+K and then Ctrl+X. Source from MSDN. Works in Visual Studio 2013 with a C# project.

So how to make a constructor

Press Ctrl+K and then Ctrl+X
Select Visual C#
Select ctor
Press Tab

Update: You can also right-click in your code where you want the snippet, and select Insert Snippet from the right-click menu

edited Jul 24 '15 at 07:11

answered Jul 14 '15 at 10:41

Marleen Schilt

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score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:53

5

In Visual Studio 2010, if you type "ctor" (without the quotes), IntelliSense should load, showing you "ctor" in the list. Now press TAB twice, and you should have generated an empty constructor.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:53

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 04 '13 at 17:07

Sifou13

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score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:44

5

If you use ReSharper, you can quickly generate constructors by typing:

'ctor' + Tab + Tab (without parameters),
'ctorf' + Tab + Tab (with parameters that initialize all fields) or
'ctorp' + Tab + Tab (with parameters that initialize all properties).

edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:44

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 20 '19 at 09:20

Alon Gweta

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score 4 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:38

4

As mentioned by many, "ctor" and double TAB works in Visual Studio 2017, but it only creates the constructor with none of the attributes.

To auto-generate with attributes (if there are any), just click on an empty line below them and press Ctrl + .. It'll display a small pop-up from which you can select the "Generate Constructor..." option.

edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:38

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 10 '18 at 19:14

Nuwan Jayawardene

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I realize this is an old answer, but OMG this saved me so much typing when doing object mapping. Thank you x1000. – MadHenchbot Mar 16 '22 at 18:03

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 14 '15 at 12:33

3

Simply type ctor then press TAB.

edited Jul 14 '15 at 12:33

Marleen Schilt

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answered Oct 06 '10 at 14:46

Oded

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Two TABs (instead of one) are necessary in at least one version of Visual Studio (possibly depending on configuration). – Peter Mortensen Jun 03 '19 at 12:45

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:45

3

Press Alt + Enter
Select "Generate Constructor"
Select required members

A parameterized constructor is generated with the selected members.

edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:45

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 14 '19 at 11:19

SujayM

31
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score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:50

2

Type ctor and Tab.

ََََََََََ

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:50

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 11 '12 at 16:30

Jay

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Two TABs (instead of one) are necessary in at least one version of Visual Studio (possibly depending on configuration). – Peter Mortensen Jun 03 '19 at 12:46

score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:55

2

Type the name of any code snippet and press TAB.

To get code for properties you need to choose the correct option and press TAB twice because Visual Studio has more than one option which starts with 'prop', like 'prop', 'propa', and 'propdp'.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 05 '13 at 09:29

denish

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score 2 · Answer 13 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:24

2

I don't know about Visual Studio 2010, but in Visual Studio 2008 the code snippet is 'ctor'.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:24

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 06 '10 at 14:46

M_J_O_N_E_S

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It is the same for vs-2008 and vs-2008, and I think is also the same for vs-2005 but not 100% sure. – Amra Oct 06 '10 at 14:48

score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:48

2

Type ctor, and then press the Tab key.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 18:48

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 06 '10 at 14:49

Muhammad Hani

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Two TABs (instead of one) are necessary in at least one version of Visual Studio (possibly depending on configuration). – Peter Mortensen Jun 03 '19 at 12:46

score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 19:23

Should you be interested in creating the 'ctor' or a similar class-name-injecting snippet from scratch, create a .snippet file in the C# snippets directory (for example C:\VS2017\VC#\Snippets\1033\Visual C#\C#Snippets.snippet) with this XML content:

<CodeSnippets>
    <CodeSnippet>
        <Header>
            <Title>ctor</Title>
            <Shortcut>ctor</Shortcut>
        </Header>
        <Snippet>
            <Declarations>
                <Literal Editable="false"><ID>classname</ID><Function>ClassName()</Function></Literal>
            </Declarations>
            <Code>
                <![CDATA[public $classname$($end$)
                {

                }]]>
            </Code>
        </Snippet>
    </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

This snippet injects the current class name by way of calling C# code snippet function ClassName(), detailed on this docs.microsoft page.

The end result of expanding this code snippet:

score 1 · Answer 16 · edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:37

1

For Visual Studio 2017, press Ctrl + ..

edited Sep 04 '20 at 22:37

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 20 '17 at 12:21

sadrag

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I tried and it's working.. Please read this link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/reference/generate-constructor?view=vs-2017 – sadrag Aug 24 '18 at 12:25

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered May 28 '19 at 19:52

I have created some handy code snippets that'll create overloaded constructors as well. You're welcome to use them: https://github.com/ejbeaty/Power-Snippets

For example: 'ctor2' would create a constructor with two arguments and allow you to tab through them one by one like this:

public MyClass(ArgType argName, ArgType argName)
{

}

Code snippet or shortcut to create a constructor in Visual Studio

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