Language Identifiers

In Visual Studio Code, eachlanguage mode has a unique specific language identifier. That identifier is rarely seen by the user except in the settings, for example, when associating file extensions to a language:

    "files.associations": {        "*.myphp":"php"    }

Note that casing matters for exact identifier matching ('Markdown' != 'markdown')

The language identifier becomes essential for VS Code extension developers when adding new language capabilities or when replacing a language support.

Every language defines itsid through thelanguages configuration point in the extension'spackage.json file:

    "languages": [{        "id":"java",        "extensions": [".java",".jav" ],        "aliases": ["Java","java" ]    }]

Language supports are added using the language identifier:

    "grammars": [{        "language":"groovy",        "scopeName":"source.groovy",        "path":"./syntaxes/Groovy.tmLanguage.json"    }],    "snippets": [{        "language":"groovy",        "path":"./snippets/groovy.json"    }]

languages.registerCompletionItemProvider('php',new PHPCompletionItemProvider(),'.','$');

New identifier guidelines

When defining a new language identifier, use the following guidelines:

• Use the lowercased programming language name.
• Search for other extensions in the Marketplace to find out if a language identifier has already been used.

Known language identifiers

The following table lists known language identifiers: