1. Reading and Understanding Code
   • Basic Editor Features
   • Quick Info and Parameter Info
   • Scroll Bar Map Mode
   • Class View
   • Generate Graph of Include Files
   • View Call Hierarchy
   • Peek Definition
2. Navigating Around Your Codebase
   • Open Document
   • Toggle Header/Code File
   • Solution Explorer
   • Go To Definition / Declaration
   • Find / Find in Files
   • Find All References
   • Navigation Bar
   • Go To
   • Quick Launch
3. Authoring and Refactoring Code
   • Basic Editor Features
   • Change Tracking
   • IntelliSense
   • Quick Fixes
   • Refactoring Features
   • Code Style Enforcement with EditorConfig
4. Keyboard Shortcut Reference
5. Conclusion

Reading and Understanding Code

If you’re like most developers, chances are you spend more time looking at code than modifying it. With that in mind, Visual Studio provides a suite of features to help you better visualize and understand your project.

Basic Editor Features

Visual Studio automatically provides syntax colorization for your C++ code to differentiate between different types of symbols. Unused code (e.g. code under an#if 0) is more faded in color. In addition,outlinesare added around code blocks to make it easy to expand or collapse them.If there is an error in your code that will cause your build to fail, Visual Studio adds a red squiggle where the issue is occurring. If Visual Studio finds an issue with your code but the issue wouldn’t cause your build to fail, you’ll see a green squiggle instead. You can look at any compiler-generated warnings or errors in theError List window.If you place your cursor over a curly brace, ‘{‘ or ‘}’, Visual Studio highlights its matching counterpart.

You can zoom in or out in the editor by holding downCtrland scrolling with your mouse wheel or selecting the zoom setting in the bottom left corner.

TheTools > Options menu is the central location for Visual Studio options, and gives you the ability to configure a large variety of different features. It is worth exploring to tailor the IDE to your unique needs.You can add line numbers to your project by going toText Editor > All Languages > General or by searching for “line num” withQuick Launch(Ctrl + Q). Line numbers can be set for all languages or for specific languages only, including C++.

Quick Info and Parameter Info

You can hover over any variable, function, or other code symbol to get information about that symbol. For symbols that can be declared,Quick Info displays the declaration.When you are writing out a call to a function,Parameter Info is invoked to clarify the types of parameters expected as inputs. If there is an error in your code, you can hover over it and Quick Info will display the error message. You can also find the error message in theError Listwindow.In addition,Quick Info displays any comments that you place just above the definition of the symbol that you hover over, giving you an easy way to check the documentation in your code.

Scroll Bar Map Mode

Visual Studio takes the concept of a scroll bar much further than most applications. WithScroll Bar Map Mode, you can scroll and browse through a file at the same time without leaving your current location, or click anywhere on the bar to navigate there. Even withMap Mode off, the scroll bar highlights changes made in the code in green (for saved changes) and yellow (for unsaved changes). You can turn onMap Mode in Tools > Options > Text Editor > All Languages > Scroll Bars > Use map mode for vertical scroll bar or by searching for “map” withQuick Launch (Ctrl + Q).

Class View

There are several ways of visualizing your code. One example isClass View. You can openClass View from theViewmenu or by pressingCtrl + Shift + C.Class Viewdisplays a searchable set of trees of all code symbols and their scope and parent/child hierarchies, organized on a per-project basis. You can configure whatClass View displays fromClass View Settings (click the gear box icon at the top of the window).

Generate Graph of Include Files

To understand dependency chains between files, right-click while in any open document and chooseGenerate graph of include files.You also have the option to save the graph for later viewing.

View Call Hierarchy

You can right-click any function call to view a recursive list of its call hierarchy (both functions that call it, and functions that it calls). Each function in the list can be expanded in the same way. For more information, seeCall Hierarchy.

Peek Definition

You can check out the definition of a variable or function at a glance, inline, by right-clicking it and choosingPeek Definition, or pressingAlt+F12with the cursor over that symbol. This is a quick way to learn more about the symbol without having to leave your current position in the editor.

Navigating Around Your Codebase

Visual Studio provides a suite of tools to allow you to navigate around your codebase quickly and efficiently.

Open Document

Right-click on an#include directive in your code and chooseOpen Document, or pressCtrl+Shift+G with the cursor over that line, to open the corresponding document.

Toggle Header/Code File

You can switch between a header file and its corresponding source file or vice versa, by right-clicking anywhere in your file and choosingToggle Header / Code File or by pressing its corresponding keyboard shortcut:Ctrl+K, Ctrl+O.

Solution Explorer

Solution Explorer is the primary means of managing and navigating between files in your solution. You can navigate to any file by clicking it inSolution Explorer. By default, files are grouped by the projects that they appear in. To change this default view, click theSolutions and Folders button at the top of the window to switch to a folder-based view.

Go To Definition/Declaration

You can navigate to the definition of a code symbol by right-clicking it in the editor and choosingGo To Definition, or pressingF12. You can navigate to a declaration similarly from the right-click context menu, or by pressingCtrl+F12.

Find / Find in Files

You can run a text search for anything in your solution withFind(Ctrl+F) orFind in Files(Ctrl+Shift+F).

Find can be scoped to a selection, the current document, all open documents, the current project, or the entire solution, and supports regular expressions. It also highlights all matches automatically in the IDE.Find in Files is a more sophisticated version ofFindthat displays a list of results in theFind Results window. It can be configured even further thanFind, such as by allowing you to search external code dependencies, filter by filetypes, and more. You can organizeFindresults in two windows or append results from multiple searches together in theFind Results window. Individual entries in theFind Results window can also be deleted if they are not desired.

Find All References

Find All References displays a list of references to the chosen symbol. For more information onFind All References, check out our blog post,Find All References Re-designed for Larger Searches.

Navigation Bar

You can navigate to different symbols around your codebase by using the navbar that is above the editor window.

Go To

Go To(Ctrl + T)is a code navigation feature that can be used to navigate to files, code symbols or line numbers. For more information, take a look atIntroducing Go To, the Successor to Navigate To.

Quick Launch

Quick Launch makes it easy to navigate to any window, tool, or setting in Visual Studio. Simply typeCtrl+Qor click on the search box in the top-right corner of the IDE and search for what you are looking for.

Authoring and refactoring code

Visual Studio provides a suite of tools to help you author, edit, and refactor your code.

Basic Editor Features

You can easily move lines of code up and down by selecting them, holding downAlt, and pressing theUp/Down arrow keys.

To save a file, press theSave button at the top of the IDE, or pressCtrl+S. Generally though, it’s a good idea to save all your changed files at one time by usingSave All(Ctrl+Shift+S).

Change Tracking

Any time you make a change to a file, a yellow bar appears on the left to indicate that unsaved changes were made. When you save the file, the bar turns green.The green and yellow bars are preserved as long as the document is open in the editor. They represent the changes that were made since you last opened the document.

IntelliSense

IntelliSense is a powerful code completion tool that suggests symbols and code snippets for you as you type. C++IntelliSense in Visual Studio runs in real time, analyzing your codebase as you update it and providing contextual recommendations based on the characters of a symbol that you’ve typed. As you type more characters, the list of recommended results narrows down.In addition, some symbols are omitted automatically to help you narrow down on what you need. For example, when accessing a class object’s members from outside the class, you will not be able to see private members by default, or protected members (if you are not in the context of a child class).

After you have picked out the symbol you want to add from the drop-down list, you can autocomplete it withTab,Enter, or one of the other commit characters (by default:{}[]().,:;+-*/%&|^!=?@#\).

TIP:If you want to change the set of characters that can be used to completeIntelliSense suggestions, search for “IntelliSense” inQuick Launch (Ctrl + Q)and choose theText Editor -> C/C++ -> Advanced option to open theIntelliSense advanced settings page. From there, editMember List Commit Characters with the changes you want. If you find yourself accidentally committing results you didn’t want or want a new way to do so, this is your solution.TheIntelliSensesection of the advanced settings page also provides many other useful customizations. TheMember List Filter Mode option, for example, has a dramatic impact on the kinds ofIntelliSenseautocomplete suggestions you will see. By default, it is set toFuzzy, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to find patterns in the characters that you typed and match them to potential code symbols. For example, if you have a symbol calledMyAwesomeClass, you can type “MAC” and find the class in your autocomplete suggestions, despite omitting many of the characters in the middle. The fuzzy algorithm sets a minimum threshold that code symbols must meet to show up in the list.

If you don’t like the fuzzy filtering mode, you can change it toPrefix,Smart, orNone. WhileNonewon’t reduce the list at all,Smartfiltering displays all symbols containing substrings that match what you typed.Prefix filtering on the other hand purely searches for strings that begin with what you typed. These settings give you many options to define yourIntelliSenseexperience, and it’s worth trying them out to see what you prefer.

IntelliSensedoesn’t just suggest individual symbols. SomeIntelliSensesuggestions come in the form of code snippets, which provide a basic example of a code construct. Snippets are easily identified by the square box icon beside them. In the following screenshot, “while” is a code snippet that automatically creates a basicwhileloop when it is committed. You can choose to toggle the appearance of snippets in the advanced settings page.Visual Studio 2017 provides two newIntelliSensefeatures to help you narrow down the total number of autocomplete recommendations:Predictive IntelliSense, andIntelliSense filters. Check out our blog post,C++ IntelliSense Improvements – Predictive IntelliSense & Filtering, to learn more about how these two features can improve your productivity.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where the list of results suggested byIntelliSensedoesn’t match what you’re looking for, and you already typed some valid characters beforehand, you can choose to unfilter the list by clicking theShow more results button in the bottom left corner of the drop-down list–which looks like a plus (+)—or by pressing Ctrl + J. This will refresh the suggestions, and add some new entries. If you’re usingPredictive IntelliSense, which is an optional mode that uses a stricter filtering mechanism than usual, you may find the list expansion feature even more useful.

Quick Fixes

Visual Studio sometimes suggests ways to improve or complete your code. This comes in the forms of some lightbulb pop-ups calledQuick Fixes. For example, if you declare a class in a header file, Visual Studio will suggest that it can declare a definition for it in a separate .cpp file.

Refactoring Features

Do you have a codebase that you’re not happy with? Have you found yourself needing to make sweeping changes but are afraid of breaking your build or feel like it will take too long? This is where the C++ refactoring features in Visual Studio come in. We provide a suite of tools to help you make code changes. Currently, Visual Studio supports the following refactoring operations for C++:

• Rename
• Extract Function
• Change Function Signature
• Create Declaration/Definition
• Move Function Definition
• Implement Pure Virtuals
• Convert to Raw String Literal

Many of these features are called out in our announcement blog post,All about C++ Refactoring in Visual Studio. Change Function Signature was added afterward, but functions exactly as you’d expect – it allows you to change the signature of a function and replicate changes throughout your codebase. You can access the various refactoring operations by right-clicking somewhere in your code or using the Edit menu. It’s also worth rememberingCtrl + R, Ctrl + R to perform symbol renames; it’s easily the most common refactoring operation.

In addition, check out theC++ Quick Fixes extension, which adds a host of other tools to help you change your code more efficiently.

For additional information, check our documentation onWriting and refactoring code in C++.

Code Style Enforcement with EditorConfig

Visual Studio 2017 comes with built-in support forEditorConfig, a popular code style enforcement mechanism. You can create.editorconfig files and place them in different folders of your codebase, applying code styles to those folders and all subfolders below them. An.editorconfig file supersedes any other.editorconfig files in parent folders and overwrites any formatting settings configured viaTools > Options. You can set rules around tabs vs. spaces, indent size, and more.EditorConfigis particularly useful when you are working on a project as part of a team, such as when a developer wants to check in code formatted with tabs instead of spaces, when your team normally uses spaces.EditorConfigfiles can easily be checked in as part of your code repo to enforce your team style.

Learn more about EditorConfig support in Visual Studio

Keyboard Shortcut Reference

For a full set of default key bindings for Visual Studio C++ developers, take a look at ourVisual Studio 2017 Keyboard Shortcut Reference.

Conclusion

Lastly, you can find additional resources on how to use Visual Studio in our official documentation pages atdocs.microsoft.com. In particular, for developer productivity, we have the following set of articles available:

• Writing Code in the Code and Text Editor – goes over more features in this area.
• Writing and refactoring code (C++) – provides some C++ productivity tips.
• Finding and Using Visual Studio Extensions – many community contributors submit both free and paid extensions that can improve your development experience.