vscode-postfix-ts

Postfix templates for TypeScript/JavaScript

Features

This extension features postfix templates that can be used to improve productivity. It's been inspired on former, great R# extension

I find it annoying to jump the cursor back and forth whenever I want to perform some simple operations. This extension makes it easier. I use this feature on daily basis in C# but was missing it in JS/TS until now.

A simple animation is worth more than words:

It also works pretty well with multiline expressions (v1.9.0+):

There is also a special handling for .not template which allows you to select specific expression to invert when having more options:

All available templates (expr means the expression on which the template is applied):

Template	Outcome
.if	`if (expr)`
.else	`if (!expr)`
.null	`if (expr === null)`
.notnull	`if (expr !== null)`
.undefined	`if (expr === undefined)` or `if (typeof expr === "undefined")` (see settings)
.notundefined	`if (expr !== undefined)` or `if (typeof expr !== "undefined")` (see settings)
.for	`for (let i = 0; i < expr.Length; i++)`
.forof	`for (let item of expr)`
.foreach	`expr.forEach(item => )`
.not	`!expr`
.return	`return expr`
.var	`var name = expr`
.let	`let name = expr`
.const	`const name = expr`
.log	`console.log(expr)`
.error	`console.error(expr)`
.warn	`console.warn(expr)`
.cast	`(<SomeType>expr)`
.castas	`(expr as SomeType)`
.new	`new expr()`

Custom templates (1.6.0 and above)

You can now add your own templates if the defaults are not enough. This will only work for simple ones as some templates require additional tricky handling. To configure a template you need to set postfix.customTemplates setting. It's an array of the following objects:

{
  "name": "...",
  "description": "...",
  "body": "...",
  "when": ["..."]
}

name defines what will be the name of the suggestion
description will show additional optional description when suggestion panel is opened
body defines how the template will work (see below)
when defines conditions when the template should be suggested

Template body

Template body defines how will the expression before the cursor be replaced.
It supports standard Visual Studio Code Snippet syntax. There is also one special placeholder that can be used:

{{expr}}: this will be replaced by the expression on which the template is applied so for example !{{expr}} will simply negate the expression

Template conditions

when condition can be zero or more of the following options:

identifier: simple identifier, ie. variableName (inside an if statement or function call arguments)
expression: can be either a simple expression like object.property.value or array[index] or a combination of them
binary-expression: a binary expression, ie. x > 3, x * 100, x && y
unary-expression: an unary expression, ie. !x, x++ or ++x
new-expression: a new expression, ie. new Type(arg1, arg2)
function-call: a function call expression, ie. func(), object.method() and so on

If no conditions are specified then given template will be available under all possible situations

Configuration

This plugin contributes the following settings:

postfix.languages: array of language identifiers in which the extension will be available. Default value is ['javascript', 'typescript', 'javascriptreact', 'typescriptreact']
postfix.customTemplates: array of custom template definitions - see Custom templates (1.6.0 and above)
postfix.undefinedMode: determines the behavior of .undefined and .notundefined templates, either equality comparison or typeof

The postfix.languages setting can be used to make the extension available for inline JS/TS which is in other files like .html, .vue or others. You must still include javascript and typescript if you want the extension to be available there among the others.

Known issues

Feel free to open issues for whatever you think may improve the extension's value. New ideas for more templates are also welcome. Most of them are pretty easy to implement.