Life Change vs Code Abbreviations Every coder should know

Have you ever learned a keyboard shortcut that changed your life? I still remember how much I felt when I learned how to copy and climb using Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V in elementary school: just think about how much time I have spared since then!

Just as the keyboard cuts can save you time and annoyance when writing in a document, the same is true to write the code! Even just the switch from clicking the “Run” button to VS code to execute from my keyboard (Ctrl-Enter if you are not known) has stored me at least a few hours of code writing. I have compiled a list of my favorites, most lifestyle Shortcuts in code notebooks vs.

For my examples, I will use VS code in Sas Viya workbench. This allows me to show how these shortcuts can be applied when using both Python and Sas notebooks. For SAS programmers, for whom notebooks are a relatively new way to arrive along with the release of SAS Viya Workbench, these shortcuts are likely unknown. However, this is a post for Python lovers too! As a Python programmer who has used Jupyter Notebooks for years, I still found only these recently and am amazed as soon as I can encode.

To create and modify cells in notebooks using keyboard shortcuts, an essential discovery was Command mode. By simply clicking ESC, we enter the command mode and we can use simple shortcuts to create new cells code and marking, cell movement, change of cell types and delete cells.

Before using the following cuts, make sure you are in command mode by pressing ESC. To exit the command mode, press ENTER.

Outside of the creation and editing of cells, we can also use the keyboard shortcut to navigate the Vs. From opening a terminal to copying a file path, here are my favorite savings of the time:

File search

Use this command to quickly search for a file without having to look through the explorer panel (or even touch the mouse!)

Terminal

Open the terminal quickly. When coding in Python, this is my most used shortcut when I have to install new packages!

Copy the active file path

When getting into the data, I often need to copy the file of a CSV file or another type of data. With this shortcut, I can quickly refer my data to my code – both in Sas and Python!

Control of the source of entry

When using Github inside workbench, the source control panel is a commonly used feature. Access quickly with a shortcut.

Open and close the left panel

Use this shortcut when you need more space for your code and do not need to access explorer, source control, additions or other features on the left panel.

Open the command bar

If there are commands you do not use quite often to memorize a keyboard shortcut, you can look for them in the command bar. Use this shortcut to easily access any command from your keyboard.

If you find yourself doing the same function over and over in the VS code, but there is no integrated keyboard shortcut, it is easy to create one yourself! In this section, I will show the process for creating your shortcuts and will show some of what I have created that I have seen most useful in workbench.

Below, I show how to create a new shortcut. In this example, I create a shortcut for creating a new SAS notebook in workbench. First, navigate to the VS Code keyboard shortcut files, then find your desired command, click +and enter your desired shortcut and click Enter. Now you have a new keyboard shortcut you can use!

Here are the most useful shortcuts I have created in workbench:

Creating new SAS files

Create shortcuts to quickly open a new SAS or SAS file.

Run all cells

While the abbreviations exist for SAS notebooks and Jupyter notebooks separately, you can create a shortcut for the Notebook: Run All. This way, I can use the same shortcut to execute both SAS notebooks and Jupyter notebooks.

Navigon to the SAS libraries

When I codify in SAS, I often refer to the SAS libraries that have left the panel. I can create a keyboard shortcut for the “SAS command: Focus on the View Library” to quickly refer to the names of your libraries.

Restart the kernel

Finally, when you codify in Python and import new libraries, I often have to restart the kernel to use my new library. Using this shortcut, it is easy to re-restore quickly and re-direct.

Anything else you can think about!

No one knows how you use vs code like you! Commandsdo command you find yourself by hand using again and again, consider making a shortcut to save you time. Hope you find this as useful as I have!

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