Visual Studio Toolbox: Creating and Using Code Snippets
- Posted: Jun 08, 2011 at 9:32 AM
- 41,744 Views
- 20 Comments
Download
How do I download the videos?
- To download, right click the file type you would like and pick “Save target as…” or “Save link as…”
Why should I download videos from Channel9?
- It's an easy way to save the videos you like locally.
- You can save the videos in order to watch them offline.
- If all you want is to hear the audio, you can download the MP3!
Which version should I choose?
- If you want to view the video on your PC, Xbox or Media Center, download the High Quality WMV file (this is the highest quality version we have available).
- If you'd like a lower bitrate version, to reduce the download time or cost, then choose the Medium Quality WMV file.
- If you have a Zune, WP7, iPhone, iPad, or iPod device, choose the low or medium MP4 file.
- If you just want to hear the audio of the video, choose the MP3 file.
Right click “Save as…”
- High Quality WMV (PC, Xbox, MCE)
- MP3 (Audio only)
- Mid Quality WMV (Lo-band, Mobile)
- High Quality MP4 (iPad, PC)
- MP4 (iPod, Zune HD)
In this episode, we explore code snippets, an underappreciated feature of Visual Studio.
Code snippets are existing pieces of code. All you have to do is type the snippets shortcut and Visual Studio writes the code for you. Watch as we first use a couple of snippets that ship with Visual Studio. Then, see how to use the Snippet Designer extension and create your own snippets. With this extension, you can highlight code, right-click, and Export as Snippet. Very cool!!
Comments Closed
Comments have been closed since this content was published more than 30 days ago, but if you'd like to continue the conversation,
please create a new thread in our Forums,
or
Contact Us and let us know.
Follow the Discussion
I'm disappointed that snippets only work for vb and c#.
But that does explain why this feature isn't used so much.
Microsoft owned languages gets "special" treatment yet again.
Disgusting !
thanks for the vid. I didn't use it because it was confusing. But, now it make sense.
Question:
Why does VS C# Express doesn't have the same amount of Extensions? Like your Snippet Designer is not in there. I have VS Pro, but, I prefer to use Express and I wasn't able to get the extention for Express. Any reason why? Thanks.
@magicalclick:The Express editions do support extensions, but not all extensions support the Express SKUs. The author of the Snippet Designer built the VSIX to install on Pro and above. I don't know if this is because it won't work as well in Express, but I will ask him.
Robert
Snippets can be a real time saver! I've been using them for about year now, wish I had started using them earlier.
@magicalclick: I would love if I could have Snippet Designer support Express but the Express Sku's only support certain extensions which are specially signed by Microsoft. Even if I added Express to the list of editions in my VSIX it would still not run since Express won't let it.
it's very hard to understand the code... quality is quite law
any chance for high quality video?
great video though !
Thanks
@danfromisrael2: Are you watching the video in the browser? Did you download the High Quality WMV? The quality on that should be good.
Robert
Great demonstration Robert.
I'm a beginner in VS2010 and I can't make the ide to show the snippets directly with intellisense, How can you do that? Is a special command needed to get that?
@HugoAgueroR:
What version of Visual Studio do you have? Is it one of the Express products (VB, C#, Visual Web Developer)? Or is it Professional or Premium or Ultimate?
And what type of project are you building and what type of file is open when you are trying to get snippets to work? Is it a vb or cs code file? An HTML page? An XML or XAML page?
Robert
Thanks Robert
I'm working with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. I'm using the snippets on a multilayer aplication that use WPF as a Presentation layer. If I use the command Insert Snippet I can find my own snippets but It's not displayed directly on intellisense. The shorcut options works fine.
@HugoAgueroR:
I apologize, but I am still not clear what isn't working. If you type ctrl+k+ctrl+x or if you right-click and select Insert Snippet or use the Insert Snippet command, you get a popup that shows the categories of snippets. Do all 3 of those work for you?
If you type the snippet's shortcut and then press Tab twice, VS adds the code. Is that working for you?
Robert
Informative, thank you, but god damn the poor quality of this video is making my head hurt.
@nocaffeine:Are you watching the video in the browser or did you download the WMV?
Robert
@rogreen: Thanks Robert, all the methods work perfectly what I mean is that the name of the snippet don't appear automatically as I type. If you look at the video at 11:57 as you type "propwithnotify" you have intellisense showing the rest of the snippet name. I don't know why or I'm just a beginner but I thought that will help even more for a quick coding. Maybe I'm just doing the things wrong
@HugoAgueroR:Ahah! Now I see. Go to Tools|Options|Text Editor|C#. Make sure you check Show completion list after a character is typed. Click OK and see if it works now.
Robert
@rogreen: OK perfect. Thanks
@HugoAgueroR:Glad we got this figured out!
thanks for the video. I didn't use it because it was confusing.
Great toolbox video! Snippets has been one of those things I was always 'going to look at one day'.
Now I see the joy of those mysterious entries on the intellisense drop downs.
Remove this comment
Remove this thread
close