[snippets] Cannot override/disable snippets defined in extensions

[ramya-rao-a]

One of the Go Extension users talks about the ability to override/disable the snippets defined in the Go extension.
vscode-go/#385

This applies to all extensions that define snippets and so adding this issue as a feature request

[zertosh]

I was just wondering this too. Seems like you can't turn off languages at all. I want to disable javascript snippets, and the language features (like suggestions, hover, etc.) from typescript, so I can run my own language service for javascript. I'd still want to keep the syntax though.

[aeschli]

IMO the best is if snippets are contributed by separate external extensions, so it's possible to uninstall them.
Note that if you don't like snippets at all you can disable them in code assist with
"editor.snippetSuggestions": "none"

[Davilink]

Sometimes you don't want to shutdown all snippet suggestion, but just override some of them, like the "cw" for C#. the default will write « System.Console.WriteLine(""); », i would like « Console.WriteLine("") », i perfectly know the the first one will work with a charm, but i just LIKE the second syntax, but when i add a snippet it's show 2 suggestion with the same prefix and that is confusing. We know, we are picky, but we like to have to possibilities to custom our editor at our taste.

[gluons]

I'm using JavaScript snippets extension and I always see 2 if snippet, 2 for, and more....
I can't type prefix and press enter immediately. I have to move arrow key to find snippets.
That really annoy me. 😔

[JohnWeisz]

Also, some snippets just make no sense at all. For example, the for snippet in TypeScript creates this:

for (var index = 0; index < array.length; index++) {
    var element = array[index];
    
}

I... I don't even...

1. Why would I use a for loop to iterate an array in the first place? (unless I'm iterating MB-sized arrays in a worker)
2. Why does the snippet assume I would ever user var for block-scoped variables?
3. (And who uses index as a loop counter variable name for a simple iteration?)

I support the above request. Please, either make built-in snippets overridable, or nuke them, and let users create their own, without having to put up with the additional noise.

[nakamorichi]

Although currently it seems disabling particular snippets is not possible, it is possible to put your custom snippets first in the list in order to avoid skimming through the snippet menu. Just name your snippet so that the sorting algorithm puts it before the unwanted snippets (such a 1-<name of your snippet>).

[ramya-rao-a]

Like @Kitanotori mentioned most of the scenarios listed here will be solved with the user defined snippets being sorted above the built-in snippets and the ones from extensions.

So if you don't like the for snippet, create your own, and that would be sorted before the other for snippet.
The label for the snippets will include both the name of the snippet and the prefix, making it easy to know which one is yours and which is from built-in or from the extension.

There is another scenario where this does not help. Say you have 5 javascript related extensions and all of them have the for snippet. Now your suggestion list just bloats up.

So it is still valuable to have a way to disable snippets not only built-in but also from extensions. We need to be able to provide the extension id and the snippet prefix and ask to disable it.

[ramya-rao-a]

My proposal would be to add a new field while snippet creation

    "For Loop":{
         "prefix": "for",
         "body": "",
         "disableFromExtension": "typescript"
     }

When snippets are registered in https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/1.11.2/src/vs/workbench/parts/snippets/electron-browser/snippetsService.ts#L58 we can maintain a separate map of languageId -> snippets-to-disable

And they can be filtered out in https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/1.11.2/src/vs/workbench/parts/snippets/electron-browser/snippetsService.ts#L65

@jrieken Thoughts?

[nakamorichi]

Just noticed that identifiers (e.g. import { log } from '...') have preference over snippets, so in such case it seems to be impossible to have custom snippets come first.

[MilyMilo]

Also, it would be great to be able to disable keywords suggestions. It basically blocks snippets because we have to use arrow down instead of just hitting enter.

[amackintosh]

This is incredibly annoying especially coming from Atom Editor.

I think we should be able to disable them from the snippet menu, such as a 'hide' option so you can just clean the snippet menu as it gets bad items in it. In the post above mine, imagine the 'hide' option appearing along the right side of the menu for each item.

I think this would be the most efficient and noob-user friendly solution, that would make it very intuitive to discover and clean up.

I also find it comical how you cannot set user defined snippets as the default (but, I wouldn't care about if I could simply disable them from the snippet menu).

While I am mentioning, I also find it annoying how I have to press tab twice to access the snippet. There comes a point where typing at 100WPM, its literally faster to just type it out rather than performing what is essentially some "cryptic video game cheat code input" to use a time saving device.

[ramya-rao-a]

@amackintosh What's the "tab twice" scenario you mentioned?

[amackintosh]

I added a user snippet for "log", and then after in the code: when I type "log", it displays the snippet menu, then I press tab and nothing happens, then I press tab again and it puts in <log> </log>.

I am used to Atom, using which I type "log" and then press tab and it puts console.log().

To confirm my gripe, I cannot find a way to achieve this in VSCode without doing:
type "log", press down-arrow key, press tab

I was able however, to change the name of my snippet to "1Console Log" and now it sometimes displays as the first and/or only snippet entry for "log". I haven't been able to figure out the logic yet. Sometimes it displays two logs (at which time I need to press tab twice), and other times it works as intended without having to press tab twice.

[ramya-rao-a]

@amackintosh

it displays the snippet menu

Do you mean the suggestion/auto completion list?

When no suggestion list is present, log followed by tab expanding to <log></log> is due to emmet which gets triggered on tab. You can avoid that by setting emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab to false.
We are moving away from this model of tab being tied to emmet, that will be out in the next update.

When you end up pressing tab twice do you get the snippet you configured or you get ?

[gluons]

@amackintosh "editor.snippetSuggestions": "top" may help you to get rid of arrowing down. 🙂

I'm using it now while waiting for this issue to be resolved.

[amackintosh]

I get that snippet when I press tab twice. (also, yes I mean't suggestion/auto completion list)

Thanks @gluons, that solved my issue 100%.

Keep up the good work everyone.

[jiayihu]

Related: for some reason, in .tsx (Typescript React) files the built-in import snippet expands to import $2 = require('$1') instead of import { $2 } from '$1'. The possibility to change default snippets would allow me to override the former behaviour.

[aristotele]

I've tried to edit built-in snippets code, use notepad++ in admin mode and it will work.

[ioquatix]

I found the snippet and added:

'.ruby.source':
  'Add ‘# =>’ Marker':
    'prefix': '#'

to my ~/.atom/snippets.cson and it stopped the snippet from firing.

[ghost]

All I want is,

• Snippet has an option to hide
• There will be three dots in suggestion window to control to hide or not.

So I can choose good one left, bad one hidden.

[VijayaKatikireddy]

This will be a great feature, and helps avoid overloading.

[antonmyrberg]

The plugin wasn't was I was looking for, I didn't want to disable all snippets for a lang, just overwrite the existing one.

What I ended up with was just prefixing all my snippets like >ue and >us (useEffect and useState).
Never collides with the built-ins, but I would really prefer to be able to declare snippets like @ramya-rao-a suggested using "disableFromExtension": "typescript" or similar.

[siimsepp]

I had the same problem of annoying default snippets. I found a file named javascript.code-snippets there:
C:\Users<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\extensions\javascript\snippets
After removing it and restarting VS Code I see only my own snippets. If you only want to remove some default snippets then you can edit that file. Simply cut out annoying for-loop snippet and only that one is gone. This may be a temporary fix until the next update but it is easy to repeat if you keep your own version of the file and replace the default one with it after the update.

[connesy]

On linux, the default code snippets can be found in /usr/share/code/resources/app/extensions/[language]/snippets/[language].code-snippets, so for JavaScript that would be /usr/share/code/resources/app/extensions/javascript/snippets/javascript.code-snippets.
As with siimsepp's answer, these changes take effect after restarting VSCode.

[PabloLION]

these are nice workarounds but not the ultimate solution.

[ghost]

This issue has been open since 2016, seriously, my favovurite editor? All of the options are just work arounds, I really do hope that someone does something about this. 😞

[bakape]

I took a stab at it a few years ago. It's non-trivial, unless you already know your way around the snippet codebase.

…

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[ghost]

I know it's pretty easy but hey, it wouldn't be too hard to directly implement it.

[AllanDaemon]

There is a major extension that provides a snippet with the prefix ., so every time I use a . it changes to self..

This is so bad that many times I wast more time undoing this than doing the task I supposed to. The fact that I can't type . is pretty annoying and this has 4 years is frustrating.

[jrieken]

This will happen for 1.52 and works like so:

• Select F1 > Insert Snippet
• find an extension snippet that you want to hide
• select the eye-icon to hide/show it in IntelliSense

Note that hidden snippets are synced across devices when using setting-sync, so this needs to be done only once per extension snippet.

[danielo515]

@jrieken does that also apply to built in extensions? Those are the ones that I find more annoying (all those old-style snippets like for loops, selfs, this, etc)

[jrieken]

@danielo515 Yes - it will apply to all snippets from extensions - builtin or user-extensions.

This will be in next 1.52 insiders: https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/

[jrieken]

To verify

• make sure that you can hide/show extension snippets, not user nor workspace snippets, via "F1 > Insert Snippet"
• make sure that hidden snippets do not show in IntelliSense
• make sure that hidden snippets still show in "F1 > Insert Snippet"

[ghost]

spam, or gmail thinks so