Find and replace with a newline in Visual Studio Code

Question

I am trying out the new Microsoft Visual Studio Code editor in Linux Fedora environment. I would like to know how to replace new line (\n) in place of some other text.

For example, I have html text like this

<tag><tag>

which I would like to replace as

<tag>
<tag>

In sublime I would use regex pattern and find "><" and replace with ">\n<" How do I accomplish this in Visual Studio Code?

Possible duplicate of [Use a carriage return in VS Code replace string](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32464102/use-a-carriage-return-in-vs-code-replace-string) — Robert MacLean, Dec 15 '16 at 10:21
@RobertMacLean this question was asked before the above tagged question — Sriram, Dec 16 '16 at 11:38
Did you see this.? **https://stackoverflow.com/a/50042582/6597375** — Deepu Reghunath, Apr 24 '19 at 13:38
Actually not a duplicate: The other question asks about carriage return, this one about newline, and no the answer does not work for carriage return for some reason. — Jason Young, Nov 12 '19 at 22:38

Håkon Egset Harnes · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-13T11:18:18.690

1300

In the local searchbox (ctrl + f) you can insert newlines by pressing ctrl + enter.

If you use the global search (ctrl + shift + f) you can insert newlines by pressing shift + enter.

If you want to search for multilines by the character literal, remember to check the rightmost regex icon.

In previous versions of Visual Studio code this was difficult or impossible. Older versions require you to use the regex mode, older versions yet did not support newline search whatsoever.

edited Jan 13 '20 at 11:18

answered Jun 11 '15 at 08:46

Håkon Egset Harnes

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Nor in version 0.10.3. But there is an extension that can do this: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items/jmallien.ReplaceWithNewline – rmac Dec 03 '15 at 19:40
15

Note that while *replacing* with newline characters is supported, *finding* newline characters still does not work until https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/313 is fixed. – C Snover Jan 15 '16 at 19:55
6

This doesn't work on the mac - it literally replaces \r or \n – Naveen Vijay Jun 20 '16 at 14:14
48

Note that regex mode must be on. If not, it won't use a newline. – neves Jul 06 '16 at 19:48
Down voted because the answer from Eric Bole-Feysot provides a quick solution for the latest versions of VS code. – Nigel Davies Feb 06 '17 at 12:30
2

@NigelDavies It's not a competition. – David Knipe Nov 02 '17 at 11:30
It's important to emphasize that regex mode must be enabled – bob0the0mighty Jan 26 '18 at 20:50
14

regex search for `\\n` and replace with `\n` works for me, using 1.25.0 – Gregor Jul 09 '18 at 15:37
1

If you use CRLF, it also only `\n`, not `\r\n` like in Notepad++, for example. – Filnor Nov 07 '18 at 09:03
With regex mode enabled, `\r` is interpreted as a carriage return only in the Find box, but not Replace for some reason. But I can't say that in https://stackoverflow.com/q/32464102/5447019 because it's locked. – Jason Young Nov 12 '19 at 22:43
1

OFF-TOPIC: How did you made the animation? – Ettore Galli Jul 08 '21 at 06:38
@EttoreGalli it is a *.gif – Rene Feb 23 '23 at 14:01
regex search for [\r\n]+ works great for me. Credit to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15743435/2614736 – Aussie Ash Mar 14 '23 at 03:48

score 251 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 06 '20 at 09:40

251

With VS Code release 1.38 you can press CTRL + Enter in the editor find box to add a newline character.

With VS Code release 1.30 you can type Shift + Enter in the search box to add a newline character without needing to use regex mode.

Since VS Code release 1.3, the regex find has supported newline characters. To use this feature set the find window to regex mode and use \n as the newline character.

edited Mar 06 '20 at 09:40

ROOT

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answered Jul 08 '16 at 00:25

Chic

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This gave me a little push into the right direction. I needed the empty line to replace HTML comments: `````` And I was missing the \n :) – Guntram Oct 13 '16 at 10:54
1

I am loving this feature, works in the search and replace fields too! – SimplyInk Dec 21 '16 at 08:24
5

Still doesn't work in the ctrl+shift+f search sidebar... -_- – Xunnamius Jun 18 '18 at 18:37

score 83 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

83

In version 1.1.1:

Ctrl+H
Check the regular exp icon .*
Search: ><
Replace: >\n<

edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

Misha Akopov

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answered May 27 '16 at 08:26

Eric Bole-Feysot

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Thanks for mentioning that you have to press the regexp icon! – Paul Chernoch Jan 26 '17 at 17:00

score 47 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 14 '19 at 17:22

47

Also note, after hitting the regex icon, to actually replace \n text with a newline, I had to use \\n as search and \n as replace.

edited Mar 14 '19 at 17:22

Todd

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answered Apr 18 '17 at 22:55

Stiv Ostenberg

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Hi @Stiv great tip but this really should have been a comment since it does not answer the question. – Chic Jun 23 '17 at 16:21
Might not have looked in the comments... this was the answer I needed. Thanks @stiv! – Jack Ryan Jul 01 '19 at 21:32
Might not answer the question, but this is exactly what I am looking for. – fsevenm Mar 25 '23 at 02:11

score 30 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 09 '20 at 14:38

30

Control F for search, or Control Shift F for global search
Replace >< by >\n< with Regular Expressions enabled

answered Oct 09 '20 at 14:38

Casper Dijkstra

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score 19 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

19

A possible workaround would be to use the multi-cursor. select the >< part of your example use Ctrl+Shift+L or select all occurrences. Then use the arrow keys to move all the cursors between the tags and press enter to insert a newline everywhere.

This won't work in all situations.

You can also use Ctrl+D for select next match, which adds the next match to the selection and adds a cursor. And use Ctrl+K Ctrl+D to skip a selection.

edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

Misha Akopov

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answered Jul 14 '15 at 12:08

Bastiaan Deknudt

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`Ctrl+D` is great! You may need to press `Ctrl+F` first and after a few `Ctrl+D`s or skipping with `Ctrl+K Ctrl+D`, you may press `Esc` to place the cursor in all selections! – CPHPython Aug 29 '19 at 10:57

score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 06 '20 at 09:41

7

On my mac version of VS Code, I select the section, then the shortcut is Ctrl+j to remove line breaks.

edited Mar 06 '20 at 09:41

ROOT

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answered Jan 23 '18 at 18:57

tripleonard

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Rene · Answer 8 · 2023-02-23T13:59:53.090

At least for me in VS Code Version 1.62.3 on Windows and VS Code Version 1.75 on MacOS (Ventura) it is working with regex, as shown below:

Replace Menu

Windows: CTRL+R

Mac: command+option+F
Activate "Use Regular Expression (ALT + R)"

Windows: ALT+R

Mac: command+option+R
Use <> in the Search field and >\n< in the Replace field
Press "Replace All (CRTL+ALT+Enter)" with an empty field

Windows: CTRL+ALT+ENTER

Mac: command+option+R

In case of the initial question, it would look like this:

Hint: Use [\n] or \n to find all newlines

In addition, to find newlines at the beginning of a line, you can also use ^[\n] or ^\n:

score 6 · Answer 9 · edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

6

CTRL + H, then select regex (*) and write \n

Shorter version: CTRL+H ALT+R \n

edited Jan 03 '20 at 16:18

Misha Akopov

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answered Nov 08 '19 at 19:07

TomoMiha

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 11 '19 at 22:41

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with v1.31.1 in RegEx mode the Replace All functionality is broken. clicking that button replaces only one instance

answered Mar 11 '19 at 22:41

ekkis

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score -2 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 09 '22 at 09:40

In case if you want to remove extra new lines from code then use this in vs code find a section

for opening the find box use ctrl + f in vs code

then find all new lines from code type this in the find box

^\n

also only choosing Use regular expression option means the last option of the find box. After selecting this you will see all new lines on the code highlighted. then on replace box leave it as it is and click replace all option.

Same as if you want to add a new line where ever you found space then on find, box provide one space than on replace box add

^\n and click return all

Find and replace with a newline in Visual Studio Code

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