How can I convert indentation between spaces and tabs for all files in a workspace in a single action?

Question

How can I use VS Code's Convert Indentation To Spaces or Convert Indentation to Tabs commands on all the files in my workspace in a single action instead of using the command for each file?

Answer 1

If you're on a UNIX system, you can do this via command line using a modified version of this: git ls-files | command grep -E '*.ts$' | awk '{print "expand --tabs=4 --first-only", $0, " > /tmp/e; mv /tmp/e ", $0}' | sh, which lists all files tracked in the git repo for the current working directory, filters for files with the .ts extension, and then uses awk and expand to replace leading indentation of a tabs to a specified number of spaces.

To go from spaces to tabs, use the unexpand command instead.

If you're not working with a git repo, you can replace git ls-files with find -type f (the advantage of git ls-files is that it won't touch anything that's not tracked).

Just change the regular expression in the grep filter to whatever you need.

The command replaces leading groups of 4 spaces with tab characters. Just change the --tabs argument to the unexpand command with whatever number of spaces your indentation is.

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If you want a VS Code way of doing it, you can use rioV8's extension: Command on All Files ^{_{(I have no affiliation with this extension)}} (use the editor.action.indentationToTabs or editor.action.indentationToSpaces command). I found this from this Q&A: How to execute command across multiple files in VS Code?.

See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/76386322/11107541.