Expand and shrink a structured VS Code selection

Start from the code you want to encompass

Place the cursor inside the relevant expression or structure, then expand one step and inspect the highlighted range. A structured selection can be useful for wrapping, extracting or moving a coherent piece of code without manually counting characters. Its boundaries depend on the language information available to the editor.

Stop before the selection becomes too broad

Repeated expansion can eventually encompass more code than the intended edit. Use the shrink variant to return through smaller boundaries rather than typing into an oversized selection. The fact that a range is syntactically recognisable does not mean that replacing or moving it is semantically safe.

Compare with ordinary text selection

Try the commands inside a simple expression and then in a larger block, without modifying the file. If the ranges are not useful, use ordinary selection or inspect the language configuration instead. Smart selection is a context-sensitive convenience, not a universal rule that every document type implements identically.

Documented commands for this workflow

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Keep going

• Format a VS Code document or only the selected code
• Edit selected repeated text with VS Code multi-cursors