'How to indent/format a selection of code in Visual Studio Code?

I want to indent a specific section of code in Visual Studio Code.

I read How do you format code in Visual Studio Code? that gives shortcuts to indent the whole code, but it doesn't work when selecting a specific section of code.

I tried Ctrl + Shift + F after selecting some line in my code, but the whole file is indented. I'm on Windows with Visual Studio Code Insider 1.8.0. How can I do it?



Solution 1:[1]

  • you can also indent a whole section by selecting it and clicking TAB
  • and also indent backward using Shift+TAB

And of course for auto indentation and formatting, following the language you're using, you can see which good extensions do the good job, and which formatters to install or which parameters settings to enable or set for each language and its available tools. Just make sure to read well the documentation of the extension, to install and set all what it need.

Up to now the indentation problem bothers me with Python when copy pasting a block of code. If that's the case, here is how you solve that: Visual Studio Code indentation for Python

Solution 2:[2]

On OS X, choose "Document Format", and select all lines that you need format.

Then Option + Shift + F.

Solution 3:[3]

(This works at least up to version 1.52.0, 10 Dec 2020)


On macOS Visual Studio Code version 1.36.1 (2019)

Visual Studio Code version 1.36.1 (2019)

To auto-format the selection, use ?K ?F (the trick is that this is to be done in sequence, ?K first, followed by ?F).

Auto-format selection or document

To just indent (shift right) without auto-formatting, use ?]

Indent options

As in Keyboard Shortcuts (?K ?S, or from the menu as shown below)

Keyboard shortcuts

Solution 4:[4]

This should be able to set to whatever keybindings you want for indent/outdent here:

Menu File ? Preferences ? Keyboard Shortcuts

editor.action.indentLines

editor.action.outdentLines

Solution 5:[5]

F1 ? open Keyboard Shortcuts ? search for 'Indent Line', and change keybinding to Tab.

Right click > "Change when expression" to editorHasSelection && editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly

It will allow you to indent line when something in that line is selected (multiple lines still work).

Solution 6:[6]

For German keyboard layout, the standard settings are:

  • Indent selection: Strg + ´
  • Outdent selection: Strg + ß

Solution 7:[7]

As you've seen there are two ways to indent the code (this for Windows).

  1. Reindenting the entire file

    Shift+Alt+F


  1. Reindenting only selected lines

    First set the shortcut for Reindent Selected Lines

    Menu File ? Preferences ? Keyboard Shortcuts ? In the Search in keybindings type in Reindent Selected Lines ? Select it and press Enter ? Type in your own shortcut, e.g. Shift + 5, followed by Enter

    Now select your code lines in the editor and use the shortcut set above, e.g. Shift + 5, to automatically indent those lines only.

Solution 8:[8]

For me on windows it was Ctrl+¡ , indent line. It adds a tab at the beggining of each line.

Solution 9:[9]

For me, using a mac in 2022 it was CMD + ] to indent multiple lines after selecting the desired indented lines.

Solution 10:[10]

Crtl + Alt + F can also formate (windows)

Solution 11:[11]

Windows - 2022

Shift+Alt+F

Solution 12:[12]

On windows its "Ctrl+[" and "Ctrl+]" for indent and unindent You can find rest of the shortcuts here

For mac, you can find the shortcuts here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings

Solution 13:[13]

Many of the answers were not able to solve my problem too.

Just go for fn+tab

Welcome in advance.