06Sep

Visual Studio Code, insert console.log snippet with a keyboard shortcut

I like using a shortcut to add console.log statement using my code editor. When switching from Sublime Text to VS Code, I looked into recreating a snippet to insert a console.log with a shortcut. Here is the snippet to bind a keyboard shortcut to create a console log statement.

Console.log snippet in Visual Studio Code (insert with keyboard shortcut)

Follow those steps:

  1. Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
  2. Above the search bar on the right you’ll see the icon for Open keyboard shortcuts (JSON), click on it (rollover icons to see the name)
  3. Add this to the JSON settings:
// Place your key bindings in this file to override the defaults
[
    {
        "key": "cmd+e",
        "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
        "when": "editorTextFocus",
        "args": {
            "snippet": "console.log('=== ${TM_SELECTED_TEXT}$1 ${TM_FILENAME} [${TM_LINE_NUMBER}] ===', ${TM_SELECTED_TEXT}$1)$2;"
        }
    }
]

Pressing CMD+E will output the console snippet. Also, if you already have text selected, it will be put inside the log statement.

You can change this keyboard key to whatever you wish, I like CMD+E.


Variables you can use in VS Code

  • TM_SELECTED_TEXT: The currently selected text or the empty string,
  • TM_CURRENT_LINE: The contents of the current line,
  • TM_CURRENT_WORD: The contents of the word under cursor or the empty string,
  • TM_LINE_INDEX: The zero-index based line number,
  • TM_LINE_NUMBER: The one-index based line number,
  • TM_FILENAME: The filename of the current document,
  • TM_FILENAME_BASE: The filename of the current document without its extensions,
  • TM_DIRECTORY: The directory of the current document,
  • TM_FILEPATH: The full file path of the current document,
  • CLIPBOARD: The contents of your clipboard,
  • WORKSPACE_NAME: The name of the opened workspace or folder.
  • CURRENT_YEAR: The current year,
  • CURRENT_YEAR_SHORT: The current year’s last two digits,
  • CURRENT_MONTH: The month as two digits (example ’07’),
  • CURRENT_MONTH_NAME: The full name of the month (example ‘July’),
  • CURRENT_MONTH_NAME_SHORT: The short name of the month (example ‘Jul’),
  • CURRENT_DATE: The day of the month,
  • CURRENT_DAY_NAME: The name of day (example ‘Monday’),
  • CURRENT_DAY_NAME_SHORT: The short name of the day (example ‘Mon’),
  • CURRENT_HOUR: The current hour in 24-hour clock format,
  • CURRENT_MINUTE: The current minute,
  • CURRENT_SECOND: The current second,
  • CURRENT_SECONDS_UNIX: The number of seconds since the Unix epoch.

Source for those variables: Visual Studio Code Snippets – the Definitive VS Code Snippet Guide for Beginners

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