CMD+D should be smarter

[normalser]

• VSCode Version: 1.4.0-insiders
• OS Version: OSX

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create file with:

test
TEST
Test
aTesTer
test-123
test234
test

1. Put cursor at position 1:1 and press CMD+D 7 times
2. VS Code selects:

It should only select next matches using case sensitivity and whole words

Here is Atom result for the same:

[spywhere]

FYI, Sublime Text utilise the settings from Find panel in order to match these words.

[alexdima]

@wallverb cmd+d respects the find widget settings which can be toggled via keyboard (match whole word, case sensitivty)

[atombender]

I recommend that VSCode adopt the behaviour that Atom has, and which I believe Sublime also has: If you don't start with a selection, then whole-word matching is implicit.

For example: If I have the cursor at the beginning of the word "foo", then cmd-D will only match whole-word instances of "foo". If I select "foo", then cmd-D will match any substring.

This is extremely convenient as a shorthand.

FWIW, I personally find the feature where cmd-D respects the Find panel's case/whole-word settings to be quite exhausting. The setting I need is usually different every time I need to use cmd-D. I continually have to hit cmd-alt-c, cmd-alt-w in order to toggle these (and I rely on cmd-D a lot). My above suggestion will reduce the necessary keypresses to just one key, which would help greatly.

[ShimShamSam]

This behavior is the only thing keeping me from switching to VS Code. It's unfortunate when I decide to rename a variable like "i" and it starts selecting random i's in the middle of other words. It ruins the refactor use-case of multiple cursors.

[atombender]

Indeed. Replying to myself to make another important point:

The setting I need is usually different every time I need to use cmd-D.

...and it's exacerbated by the fact that you don't know what the case/word toggles are set to unless you hit cmd-F. Almost every time I use the cmd-D feature, not only are the toggles wrong, but I have to do a cmd-F just to see what the toggles are set to.

[ShimShamSam]

The new version (1.9) semi-addresses the problem by making the toggle states visible when using Ctrl+D, but I don't see why these states are shared with the search functionality at this point. Doing this has probably added more complexity when compared to Sublime's behavior as described by @atombender

[jameslieu]

Isn't this already addressed?

Press CMD + f
You'll need to toggle Match case and Match whole words option:

Then it'll work as expected:

I'm pretty sure that sublime also behaves this way

[atombender]

@jameslieu: No, Sublime does not work that way. Read my explanation. Sublime always uses whole-word matching unless you explicitly make a selection before hitting cmd-D. It's a superior workflow and reduces the need for a whole-word toggle for cmd-D.

@alexandrudima: Looks to me like this issue is being ignored. Any way we can move it forward?

[alexdima]

I believe this is resolved with PR #36682 (for #8869) . When starting with a collapsed selection, Command+D will now search with wholeWords: true and caseSensitive: true.