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bob.ts
bob.ts

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VS Code: Collapse-and-Expand

I recently had a large amount of data to refactor out of HTML and into JSON. The details about how I achieved this is a whole different article. What I want to document for myself (and maybe others will find it useful, even if it's only a refresher) are the various code expand and collapse options.

Rather than doing things the easy way and combing through the VS Code documentation, I did a search on Stack Overflow and found the following ...

Folding has been rolled out and is now implemented since Visual Studio Code version 0.10.11. There are these keyboard shortcuts available:

  • Fold folds the innermost uncollapsed region at the cursor:

    • Ctrl + Shift + [ on Windows and Linux
    • + + [ on macOS
  • Unfold unfolds the…

And, while this looked exactly like what I was looking for, I found that even a simple answer can have its own complications.

Terminology

It is not called Collapse and Expand, rather Folding.

Folding has been rolled out and is now implemented since Visual Studio Code version 0.10.11. There are these keyboard shortcuts available:

Fold folds the innermost uncollapsed region, while Unfold unfolds the collapsed region at the cursor.

Fold Keys Unfold Keys System
Ctrl + Shift + [ Ctrl + Shift + ] on Windows and Linux
⌥ + ⌘ + [ ⌥ + ⌘ + ] on macOS

Fold All folds all regions, while Unfold All unfolds all regions in the editor:

Fold Keys Unfold Keys System
Ctrl + (K => 0) (zero) Ctrl + (K => J) on Windows and Linux
⌘ + (K => 0) (**zero(() ⌘ + (K => J) on macOS

NOTE: Watch out for the ZERO listed, it is not an "O" key. Additionally, The K => 0 and K => J are meant to be pressed while the Ctrl and ⌘ are held down. I kept releasing the Ctrl key before pressing the second key while caused some heartache.

As I said before, this is a personal documentation of this process for that point in time when I need this useful information again.

Top comments (2)

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vikasjk profile image
Vikas-jk

Great article, but you should also note, VS code should also have this settings enabled in VS Code JSON settings
{
"editor.showFoldingControls": "always",
"editor.folding": true,
"editor.foldingStrategy": "indentation",
}

Source: What is shortcut for expand-collapse sections of code in VS Code?

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axelsomerseth profile image
Axel Somerseth Cordova

Thanks!