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VS Code - Refactoring

Source code refactoring helps improve the quality and maintainability of your project by restructuring your code without altering its runtime behavior. Visual Studio Code offers a variety of refactoring tools to help you clean up and optimize your code directly within the editor.

Invoking Refactoring

Refactoring commands are accessible from the editor’s context menu.
Simply select the element you want to refactor, right-click to open the menu, and choose Refactor....

Refactoring Actions

Extract Method

This action creates a new method from the selected statements or expressions and replaces the original code with a call to the new method.
It’s especially useful for simplifying large, complex methods by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Select the code you want to extract.
Click the light bulb icon in the gutter to view available refactorings.

Rename

Renaming allows you to change the name of a class, method, variable, or other symbol, automatically updating all references to it across your workspace, including other files.

Select the symbol you want to rename.
Right-click and choose Rename Symbol or simply press F2.
Type the new name in the inline input box that appears.

For more refactoring actions, refer to here.

Refactor Preview

When you perform a refactoring, changes are applied directly to your code.
The Refactor Preview panel lets you review these changes before finalizing them.

To open the Refactor Preview:

Open the Code Actions menu.
Hover over the desired refactoring and press ⌘Enter.
Review the changes in the panel.
Use Accept or Discard to apply or cancel the changes.
Optionally, selectively apply changes by deselecting individual items.

Source Actions

Source Actions let you generate common code structures and quickly fix issues detected in your code. They include both refactorings and Quick Fixes.

Right-click and select Source Action….
Choose from the list of available commands.

Organize Imports

This action automatically cleans up and optimizes your import statements.
If multiple imports are ambiguous, a dropdown list helps you select the correct one, showing the relevant code line for context.

Generate `toString()` Method

This action automatically generates a toString() method with customizable options to include specific member variables.