The extension supports:

• Create files from defined templates
• current file Save As N times

File Templates

Create files from defined templates. Templates can be defined at different levels: Extension, User, Workspace and Folder.

Based on the extension File Templates for VSCode by Venkatesh Boddu.

This extension can be used as a replacement for File Templates for VSCode. It uses the same command names and key bindings.

It fixes a number of problems and adds a few features.

• command template.newTemplateFromFile is renamed to templates.newTemplateFromFile
  Change this if you have a custom key binding.
• no restriction on naming the template
• add a few variables for File Path and Custom Date, User input and Snippets

Features

• Create new files from defined templates.
• Create new File Templates either from an existing file or a blank file.
• Edit User defined Templates.
• Use variables for Author Name, Date, File Path, User input, calling command results and Snippets.
• Construct the file name with variables on first line of template
• Insert a template with a key binding

Known problems

• If you have opened a Multiroot Workspace and you have no editor/file open and you select the command Files: New File from Template from the Command Palette, or use the a shortcut key, you get a QuickPick selection with the text Select a folder to choose templates from and to place the file. If you escape this QuickPick because you want to abort the new file creation you also have to abort the QuickPick selection with the text Select a template to create from. The reason is that if you want to create a new file on an absolute path but you want to choose a global template you can escape the folder selection but you want to choose a template.

Usage

The locations, if needed, for the User Templates and Multiroot Workspace Templates need to be defined by the user in the Templates Location settings.

• If you select an entry in the File Explorer and use the Context menu (Right-click) you will see a menu entry New File from Template.
  If the Explorer entry is a directory the new file will be created in this directory.
  If the Explorer entry is a file the new file will a sibling.
  It shows a menu with existing templates. Select the desired template and enter the new file name without extension. The new file will get the same extension as the selected template.
• In the Context menu (Right-click) of the editor you will see menu entries:
  • New File from Template : Create a new file that is a sibling of the current file.
  • New Template from File : Use the current active document as a start for a new template.
    You are asked in which directory you want this template stored and with which name.
    
    Theme: Light+
  • Next Snippet in File : the ${snippet} variables needs to be evaluated after creation of the file because the editor needs to be put in Snippet mode. This also resolves the ${cursor} variable as a final snippet.
    If there are no ${snippet} or ${cursor} variables nothing happens.
    Any ${input} variables still in the file are also processed.
• From the Command Palette you can select:
  • Files: New File from Template (templates.newFileFromTemplate) - to create a new file from a template
  • Files: New File Template (templates.newTemplate) - to create a new blank file template.
  • Files: New Template from File (templates.newTemplateFromFile) - to create a new template from the current active file.
  • Files: Edit File Template (templates.editTemplate) - to edit a template.
    
    Theme: Light+
  • Files: Next Snippet in File (templates.nextSnippet) - to evaluate the next ${snippet} or ${input} variable.
• You can define variables in the templates for Author Name, Date, File Path, User input and Snippets

If you use snippet variables often it might be handy to define a key binding for the command: templates.nextSnippet

Insert Template in current file

The command templates.pasteTemplate allows to insert a template into the current editor. Every selection is replaced with the template. At the moment the variables ${input}, ${snippet} and ${cursor} are not allowed (yet) in an insert template.

The argument of the command is an object with a parameter text that is an array of lines that make the template.

An example to insert some dates with offsets in the current file:

settings.json

  "templates.dateTimeFormat": {
    "locale": "en-US",
    "options": {
      "year": "numeric",
      "month": "2-digit",
      "day": "2-digit",
      "hour12": false,
      "hour": "2-digit",
      "minute": "2-digit",
      "second": "2-digit",
      "weekday": "long"
    },
    "template": "${weekday} ${year}-${month}-${day} ${hour}:${minute}:${second}",
    "week-schedule-head": {
      "template": "${month}/${day}"
    },
    "week-schedule": {
      "options": {
        "year": "numeric",
        "month": "short",
        "day": "2-digit",
        "weekday": "long",
      },
      "template": "${weekday} ${month} ${day}, ${year}"
    }
  }

keybindings.json

  {
    "key": "ctrl+alt+w",  // or any other combo
    "command": "templates.pasteTemplate",
    "args": {
      "text": [
        "## Week (${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule-head:offset=+1wd0 +1d:}–${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule-head:offset=+1wd0 +5d:})",
        "- [ ]",
        "",
        "### ${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1wd0 +1d:}",
        "- [ ] Snippet",
        "",
        "----"
      ]
    }
  }

Templates Location

The templates can be stored in several locations:

• Extension : The extension has a number of predefined templates that can not be edited or add to. After an update of the extension these edits would be gone.
• User : in a user defined directory from the setting templates.folder in the User settings (a good location is <homedir>/.vscode/templates, the installed extensions are stored in a sibling directory) (Optional)
• Multiroot Workspace : in a user defined directory from the setting templates.folder in the Workspace settings (.code-workspace file) (Optional)
• Workspace/Folder : When a folder is open the templates are stored in the directory .vscode/templates

Each location is more specific of where the template can be used. Templates with the same name override templates on a more generic level. When you need to select a template to create from it shows the location of the template and the more specific ones are listed first

A directory is only created when you store a new template in that directory.

Construct Template Filename

You can construct the filename to use with special formatted first line(s) of the template. The format is

##@@## filePathNoExtension

filePathNoExtension is the absolute/relative path of the file without the file extension. The text can contain variables (not the snippet and cursor). Only ${input:description:} is supported with transforms, not the named variant.

All lines, up to the first line not starting with ##@@## are used to construct the Template Filename. Each line is stripped of the prefix and all whitespace at start and end.

Always use / as directory separator. Also on Windows.

• absolute path
  • ##@@## /filePathNoExtension (Unix)
  • ##@@## driveLetter:/filePathNoExtension (Windows)
• relative path
  • ##@@## ~/filePathNoExtension in User Home directory
  • ##@@## ~w/filePathNoExtension in workspace folder
  • ##@@## ~f/filePathNoExtension in workspace folder
  • ##@@## filePathNoExtension relative to current file or selected entry in File Explorer

You can use it to:

• Some frameworks name the file in a certain way based on the directory stored or the class defined in the file.
• Add a date somewhere in the filename
• Use date and input variables to create part of the directories in the path
• create a template for .vscode/settings.json, .vscode/tasks.json or .vscode/launch.json and specify the path relative to the workspace.

Example 1:

##@@## ${relativeFileDirnameSplit[-1]}

There is a global snippet defined (all languages) with the prefix template-file-name that has this content.

Example 2:

If you have defined a dateTimeFormat named iso and you want to create file names that start with a date and a possible addition you can use:

##@@## ${dateTimeFormat:iso:}${input#Additional#find=^(.+)$#replace=-$1#}

• if you cancel the input box no file is created.
• if you enter the empty string you only get the date file name
• if you type some additional text a separator (here -) will be added

There is a global snippet defined (all languages) with the prefix template-file-name-date-input that has this content.

Example 3:

Save the file in the User Home directory and group the files by year and month in a directory:

##@@## ~/blog/${dateTimeFormat#options={"year":"numeric","month":"2-digit","day":"2-digit"}#template=${year}/${month}/${day}#}${input#Subject#find=^(.+)$#replace=-$1#}

Or on multiple lines:

##@@## ~/blog/${dateTimeFormat#
##@@##          options={"year":"numeric","month":"2-digit","day":"2-digit"}#
##@@##          template=${year}/${month}/${day}#}
##@@##     ${input#Subject#find=^(.+)$#replace=-$1#}

Template variables

In the template you can define a number of variables. They are evaluated at file creation time except for ${snippet} variables that do not have the property noUI.

Variable properties

Some variables can have properties. This is part of the variable and needs to be specified using separator strings.

${variableName separator properties separator}

All separator's used in a variable need to be the same.

The separator is a string of 1 or more characters that are not part of the a to z alfabet, $ or {}, in regular expression [^a-zA-Z{}$]+. Choose a character string that is not used in the properties part. If you need to use more than 1 character be carefull if you use the same character, you can experience unwanted behavior. The reason is that JavaScript regular expression does not have a non-backtrack greedy quantifier. Currently the variable is matched with 1 regular expression. This makes everything easy to implement.

The properties part uses the same separator string to separate the different properties.

In the description the : or ## is used as the separator, choose a different one if you use this in the variable property.

All variables can span multiple lines to make the properties more readable. All whitespace at the start of a property is removed. Prevent whitespace at the end of a property value by ending a line with the separator.

The variable must end with separator}. That means no whitespace after the last separator. Also for variables spanning multi lines.

If the property is a key=value pair the whitespace around = is part of the key or the value.

Variable Transform (Find/Replace)

The variables marked in the description with (Transform) can have the value transformed with 1 or more find-replace operations. The transforms are applied in the order given.

Each transform is defined with the following properties:

find=regex:flags=string:replace=string

The text is searched and replaced with a regular expression. All occurrences of find are replaced if flags has g. The capture groups in the find regex can be used in the replace string with $n (like $1). flags are the regex flags used in the search. If find, flags or replace property are not defined they default to (.*), emptyString and $1 respectively.

You can define as many [0...) find-replace transforms as you like.

Example

Remove 2 directory names from the ${relativeFileDirname} :

${relativeFileDirname##find=^([^/]+/){2}##replace=##}

Variable Description

A number of variables is identical to the variables that can be used in tasks.json and launch.json:

• ${relativeFile} : (Transform) the current opened file relative to workspaceFolder
• ${relativeFileDirname} : (Transform) the current opened file's dirname relative to workspaceFolder
• ${relativeFileDirnameSplit[number]} : number can be -1...-9, get part number of the relativeFileDirname relative to the end, -1 is the last part
• ${workspaceFolderSplit[number]} : number can be -1...-9, get part number of the workspaceFolder relative to the end, -1 is the last part
• ${fileBasename} : (Transform) the current opened file's basename
• ${fileBasenameNoExtension} : (Transform) the current opened file's basename with no file extension
• ${fileExtname} : (Transform) the current opened file's extension
• ${command##command=commandID##args=JSON_object##} : The result of calling the command with the commandID and the given (optional) args JSON object. The args property is passed as is to the command. No variables in the strings are evaluated. The command must know how to handle them. (example)
• ${field[number]} : variable is valid in the command Save As N times (templates.fileSaveAsNTimes), in the file name template we have 1 or more fields. number is the index in the array of fields, number can be positive or negative:
  • positive numbers start counting from the left, 0 is the first field
  • negative numbers start counting from the right, -1 is the last field
• ${expression##expr=JS_expr##size=number##padding=string##base=number##} : If you want to perform a calcualtion and/or base conversion with a field number you describe the JavaScript expression in the expr property.
  The size, padding, base and uppercase properties control the display of the expression result.
  The following properties are defined:
  • expr=JS_expression : A JavaScript expression that has number or sting result.
    The expression can contain field references of the form: field[number]
    For possible values of number see ${field[number]}
    These references are replaced with the string of the field as used in the filename. You have to convert these strings before you can perform a calculation. Use Number.parseInt() or Number() with a prefix (if not in base 10).
    Example: ${expression##expr=Number.parseInt(field[0], 16)+Number('0x'+field[1])##}
  • size=number : (Optional) if size is defined, the result is padded with the padding string on the left to get a string of the given size (default: undefined)
  • padding=string : (Optional) which padding string to use if size is defined, (default: space or 0)
  • base=number : (Optional) if result is a number in which base/radix to show the number, allows you to generate numbers with base, 2, 8, 16. Possible values [2, 36] (default: 10)
  • uppercase : (Optional) flag (no value) to use A-Z for base > 10

The next variables use settings:

• ${author} : use the value for setting templates.author

• ${date} : show the current date and time in a fixed format, for historic reasons this variable is still allowed.

• ${dateTimeFormat} : use the setting templates.dateTimeFormat to construct a date-time.

• ${dateTimeFormat:name:} : use a named format in the setting templates.dateTimeFormat to construct a date-time. The named format properties override what is defined in templates.dateTimeFormat.

• ${dateTimeFormat#properties#} : define properties to construct a date-time.
  Best to use a different separator (#) because : is a character used in JSON strings.
  Allowed properties are:

  • key_only : a property that has no value is equal to name=key_only
  • name=value : use the named format in the setting templates.dateTimeFormat
  • locale=value : override the locale property to use
  • options=JSON-string : override the options property to use. It must be a valid JSON string: {.....}
  • template=value : override the template property to use
  • offset=delta-DateTime-string : a string containing date/time offsets for year, month, day, hour, minute, second, day-of-the-week separated by spaces. They are applied in the order given. The syntax of the offsets is:
    • +numberY or -numberY : set the date number of Years offset, y is also allowed
    • +numberM or -numberM : set the date number of Months offset
    • +numberD or -numberD : set the date number of Days offset, d is also allowed
    • +numberh or -numberh : set the date number of hours offset
    • +numberm or -numberm : set the date number of minutes offset
    • +numbers or -numbers : set the date number of seconds offset
    • +numberWDwd_number or -numberWDwd_number : set the date number of Day of the Week offset, wd is also allowed
      the week-day number (wd_number) has a value of 0..6, with 0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, ..., 6 = Saterday
      Example: to get the next Sunday use: +1WD0
      If the week-day number of today equals wd_number it counts as 1.
      Example: to get next weeks Monday you would use: +1WD0 +1D
+1D +1WD0 will end up on a Sunday.

  The properties locale, options, template, offset are searched for in the following order:

  1. the variable format properties
  2. the named format in the setting templates.dateTimeFormat, if a name is specified.
  3. the templates.dateTimeFormat setting

  The first place where it is defined is used.

The next variables can have a GUI element:

• ${input:description:} : (Transform) Ask the user some text and use the properties part as the description for the InputBox
  Example: ${input:Title of this page:}
• ${input:description:name=name:} : (Transform) Ask the user some text and use the text in all named ${input} variables with the same name. If no name given only for this variable the text is used. If the description starts with name= that ${input} variable is considered a named input variable that uses the default description text.
• ${snippet:definition:} : you can use the full syntax of the Visual Studio Code snippets.
  A snippet is evaluated after the file is created with the command: Next Snippet in File from the Context Menu or Command Palette. The editor needs to be put in Snippet mode. Apply this command for every ${snippet} or ${cursor} variable still in the file.
  Example: ${snippet##${1|*,**,***|} ${TM_FILENAME/(.*)/${1:/upcase}/} ${1}##}
• ${snippet:definition:noUI:} : Adding the property noUI should only be added to ${snippet} variables that do not need User Interaction (variable transforms). These snippets are resolved at file creation.
• ${for-snippet:definition:properties:noUI:} : Loop over a collection of files in the workspace and insert a snippet for each file. At the moment only noUI snippets are supported in a for loop. This variable is resolved at file creation. (example)
  Allowed properties are:
  • definition : is the snippet definition used. Must be the first property. It can contain variables.
    • ${name} : these variables (with or without properties) relate to the file you are creating.
    • $\{name} : these variables (with or without properties) relate to the file iterated by the for loop.
      The variable $\{CLIPBOARD} (a standard snippet variable) contains the value of the ${relativeFile} variable but it allows you to transform the content like other snippet variables
  • files=glob : using vscode.workspace.findfiles this is the include glob pattern. You can use variables to construct the glob pattern.
  • exclude=glob : (optional) using vscode.workspace.findfiles this is the exclude glob pattern. You can use variables to construct the glob pattern. See the doc for the special values undefined and null.
  • newline : (optional) do we have to add a newline character after each snippet.
  • noUI : only No User Interaction snippets are allowed

For template instantiation the ${input} variables are processed at file creation. If you have some file with ${input} variables they are also processed with the Next Snippet in File command. This can happen if you escape an ${input} variable. This way you can later process them.

A final empty variable to place the cursor:

• ${cursor} : If you want the cursor to end in a specific location after the file is created or as a last snippet use this variable

Literal ${...} in result

When you have a template for a tasks.json or launch.json you may want to have variables in the result when you create a file from a template. Variables like ${relativeFile} that are replaced when you create the file. This can be done by wrting $\{relativeFile} in the template.

When the file is created variables are searched with the regular expression \$\{name.*?\}.
This will not match $\{relativeFile}.
At the end the string $\{ is replaced with ${ using the regular expression \$\\\{.

Variable dateTimeFormat

This variable ${dateTimeFormat} uses the setting templates.dateTimeFormat. It can use the unnamed format properties or you can use named format properties: ${dateTimeFormat:name:} (example uses separator :)

Another possibility is ${dateTimeFormat#properties#} to (optionally) name a format and override some of its properties in the variable properties. Or define all 3 properties in the variable properties. See Example 4.

The setting templates.dateTimeFormat is an object with properties that are used to call Intl.DateTimeFormat to create a language-sensitive format of the current date and time.

The locale and options properties are the arguments for the Intl.DateTimeFormat constructor and are optional.

The locale property can be a single string or an array of strings of language tags. If not specified the browser default locale is used.

The template property is an optional template string that uses the same placeholder syntax as the Javascript template strings. You can add as many literal text as needed.

The only expressions valid are the type values returned by the Intl.DateTimeFormat.prototype.formatToParts() method. See example 1.

If there is no template property the value parts of the Intl.DateTimeFormat.prototype.formatToParts() are joined. See example 2.

Named DateTime Formats

Any other property of templates.dateTimeFormat is a named DateTimeFormat object that can define the properties locale, options and template. These properties override the values defined in templates.dateTimeFormat. See Example 3.

Example 1

settings.json

    "templates.dateTimeFormat": {
      "locale": "en-US",
      "options": {
        "year": "numeric",
        "month": "2-digit",
        "day": "2-digit",
        "hour12": false,
        "hour": "2-digit",
        "minute": "2-digit",
        "second": "2-digit"
      },
      "template": "${year}/${month}/${day}-${hour}:${minute}:${second}"
    }

The result is

2020/03/19-18:01:18

Example 2

You can use a different locale and number system and use the long format:

settings.json

    "templates.dateTimeFormat": {
      "locale": "fr-FR-u-nu-deva",
      "options": {
        "dateStyle": "full",
        "timeStyle": "full"
      }
    }

The result is

jeudi १९ mars २०२० à १७:५९:५७ heure normale d’Europe centrale

Example 3 Named DateTime Formats

settings.json

    "templates.dateTimeFormat": {
      "locale": "en-US",
      "options": {
        "year": "numeric",
        "month": "2-digit",
        "day": "2-digit",
        "hour12": false,
        "hour": "2-digit",
        "minute": "2-digit",
        "second": "2-digit"
      },
      "template": "${year}/${month}/${day}-${hour}:${minute}:${second}",
      "year-only": { "template": "${year}" },
      "timeHMS": { "template": "${hour}:${minute}:${second}" },
      "long": {
        "options": {
          "year": "numeric",
          "month": "long",
          "day": "numeric",
          "weekday": "long",
          "hour12": false,
          "hour": "2-digit",
          "minute": "2-digit",
          "second": "2-digit"
        },
        "template": "${weekday} ${month} ${day} ${year}"
      }
    }

In the template use these variables (example uses : as separator):

${dateTimeFormat}
${dateTimeFormat:year-only:}
${dateTimeFormat:timeHMS:}
${dateTimeFormat:long:}

Example 4 DateTime Format properties in the variable

You can specify any of the properties locale, options, template in the variable and a possible name.

Using the settings.json from Example 3 we can use the following variables in the template:

${dateTimeFormat#
    template=${year}/${month}/${day} at ${hour}:42#}

${dateTimeFormat#long#
    template=${hour}:${minute} on ${weekday} ${month} ${day} ${year}#}

${dateTimeFormat#name=long#
    template=Let's join at ${hour}:00 one day in ${month} ${year}#
    options={
          "year": "numeric",
          "month": "long",
          "day": "numeric",
          "weekday": "long",
          "hour12": false,
          "hour": "2-digit",
          "minute": "2-digit",
          "second": "2-digit",
          "numberingSystem": "thai"
        }
    #}

Example 5 Create a week schedule

If you need a template to create a week schedule for next week, starting at Monday, you can use the following date variables (we use some date time properties named week-schedule):

${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1WD0 +1D:}   # Monday
${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1WD0 +2D:}   # Tuesday
${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1WD0 +3D:}   # Wednesday
${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1WD0 +4D:}   # Thursday
${dateTimeFormat:week-schedule:offset=+1WD0 +5D:}   # Friday

You can add any other property you like.

Variable command

The variable ${command} calls a commandID with an optional argument and replaces the variable with the result.

In the example we use a property defined in a JSON file that is in the same directory as where the template is placed.

It uses the extension Command Variable to read a JSON property.

The JSON file component.json stored in the folder is:

{
  "component": {
    "name": "MyCoolServer"
  }
}

The template or the command templates.pasteTemplate can read the content of the file:

/*---------------------------------
 *  COMPONENT   : ${command##
                    command=extension.commandvariable.file.content##
                    args={ "fileName": "${fileDirname}/component.json",
                           "json": "content.component.name"}##}
 *  UNIT        : ${fileBasename}
 ---------------------------------*/

The result could be:

/*---------------------------------
 *  COMPONENT   : MyCoolServer
 *  UNIT        : contact.c
 ---------------------------------*/

The json property of the extension.commandvariable.file.content is a JavaScript expression. You could perform a number calculation or string manipulation (concatenation, split, join, map, ...) with the values extracted from the JSON file.

Variable for-snippet

If you want to add a number of existing files to the template you can use the ${for-snippet:definition:properties:} variable.

If you have the following dart project structure:

Project
├── ...
└── lib/
     ├── routes
     ├── services
     ├── ...
     ├── ui/
     │   ├── pages/
     │   │   ├── page_1.dart
     │   │   ├── page_2.dart
     │   │   ├── ...
     │   │   └── pages.dart
     │   └── ...
     ├── ...
     └── main.dart

and you want to create the file page.dart that contains exports to the files in the ui/pages folder to make import easier you can use the the following variable in the template or a key binding:

${for-snippet##export 'package:<project>$\{CLIPBOARD/.*?(\/ui\/.*)$/$1/}';##
  files=${relativeFileDirname}/*.dart##
  exclude=${relativeFile}##
  noUI##
  newline##}

Be aware to escape the directory separator / inside a regular expression, because / is also the regular expression separator.

The result of the ${for-snippet} variable is:

export 'package:<project>/ui/pages/page_1.dart';
export 'package:<project>/ui/pages/page_2.dart';
export 'package:<project>/ui/pages/page_3.dart';

Extension Settings

This extension has the following settings that can be defined in settings.json :

• templates.author : Set the Author name.
• templates.Author : Set the Author name. Deprecated: Please use templates.author instead.
• templates.folder : Define a File system path for a directory to save the templates at this level. Can only be defined at User and Multiroot Workspace level.
• templates.dateTimeFormat : An object describing the properties used by the ${dateTimeFormat} variable
• templates.saveAfterInputVariableOnFileCreation : Save the file after processing ${input} variables when the file is created.

Key Bindings

The extension defines a few key bindings:

• Create a New File from template

  • Windows: Ctrl+N
  • MAC: Cmd+N

• New Untitled file (Visual Studio Code command: workbench.action.files.newUntitledFile)

  • Windows: Ctrl+Alt+N
  • MAC: Cmd+Alt+N

User defined key binding

If you create a key binding for the command templates.newFileFromTemplate you can pass an args property.

The args object can contain the properties:

• templateName : (Optional) [string] the first item from the quickpick list with the same name is choosen.
• fileExists : (Optional) [string] the action if file already exists. (default: error)
  possible values:
  • open : open the file
  • error : show error message
  • silent : do nothing

You can use the same key combo to select different templates for different workspaces by using:
"resourceDirname =~ /^\\/users\\/mememe\\/projectAAA/"
in the when property. We need to use \\/ because we escape the / in the regex and inside JSON we escape the \.

  {
    "key": "alt+m",
    "command": "templates.newFileFromTemplate",
    "args": {
      "templateName": "myCustomizedTemplate.html",
      "fileExists": "silent"
    }
  }

Save As N Times

If you need a series of files with filenames that have a sequence numbering and start all with the same content you can use the command "Files: Save As N Times" (templates.fileSaveAsNTimes). This command can also be found in the context menu of the editor.

The command asks to enter a file name template with fields. A field is a series of properties enclosed by {{ }}. The properties are comma separated key=value pairs. The type of the field is determined by the property type. Based on the current file name a suggestion is shown in the input box with 1 field added just before the file extension.

A file name template has 1 or multiple fields. If no field is found a message is shown and no new file is created.

At the moment only a numeric field (type=N) is possible.

If a property has a numeric value this can be entered with prefix 0b and 0x for respective base 2 and 16.

The other properties are:

• Numeric field (type=N)

  • from=number : the starting number of this field (default: 1)
  • to=number : the last number of this field (default: 5)
  • size=number : if size is defined, the number is padded with 0's on the left to get a string of the given size (default: undefined)
  • base=number : the base of the number of this field, allows you to generate numbers with base, 2, 8, 16. Possible values [2, 36] (default: 10)

  If from > to no files will be created.

  Using negative values for from and to give unexpected results, the - sign is not the start character of the resulting string of the field.

The file content can have variables. Use the ${field[number]} variable to get the result of the file name template fields. Use the ${expression##expr=JS_expr##} variable if you want to perform a calculation with the field[number] string values.
The ${input} and ${snippet} variables need an editor, they can be resolved when you open the file and use the command Files: Next Snippet in File.

The files are saved in the same folder as the current file. No file will be overwritten. If the files need to be replaced you have to delete them first.

Example with multiple fields

The following file name template:

page-{{type=N,size=2,from=1,to=3}}-{{type=N,size=3,from=1,to=5}}.html

generates the following files:

page-01-001.html
page-01-002.html
page-01-003.html
page-01-004.html
page-01-005.html
page-02-001.html
page-02-002.html
page-02-003.html
page-02-004.html
page-02-005.html
page-03-001.html
page-03-002.html
page-03-003.html
page-03-004.html
page-03-005.html

TODO

• support multiple ${cursor} variables. To get a Multi Cursor after creating a file from a template