Tips & Tricks : Visual Studio

Shortcuts Its fun and helpful. They are helpful for faster development and easy. Here are the few shortcuts that we use regularly.

Usage	C# Key	Description
View.ShowSmartTag	CTRL + .
Edit.ParameterInfo	CTRL + SHIFT + SPACE
Edit.Find	CTRL + F	Quick find
Edit.IncrementalSearch	CTRL + I	Incremental find
Edit.FindInFiles	CTRL + SHIFT + F	Find in files
Edit.Replace	CTRL + H	Quick replace
Edit.ReplaceInFiles	CTRL + SHIFT + H	Replace in files
Edit.GotoNextLocation	F8	Go to next location (in search results)
Edit.GotoPrevLocation	SHIFT + F8	Go to previous location (in search results)
Edit.FindNext	F3	Repeat search
Edit.FindPrevious	SHIFT + F3	Search previous
Edit.FindNextSelected	CTRL + F3	Search for next with selected text
Edit.FindPreviousSelected	CTRL + SHIFT + F3	Search for previous with selected text
View.NavigateBackward	CTRL + -	Go back to previous location (Browser-style)
View.NavigateForward	CTRL + SHIFT + -	Go forwards to next location
View.ViewCode	F7	View code
View.ViewDesigner	SHIFT + F7	View designer when in markup
View.ViewMarkup	SHIFT + F7	View markup when in designer
Edit.CycleClipboardRing	CTRL + SHIFT + V	Cycle through Visual Studio clipboard
Edit.GotoBrace	CTRL + ]	Jump to opposing brace / XML tag
Edit.GotoBraceExtend	CTRL + SHIFT + ]	Select text to the opposing brace / tag
Edit.GotoFindCombo	CTRL + /	Jump to the find combo in the toolbar
Window.ShowEzMDIFileList	CTRL + ALT + DOWN ARROW	Show popup of all open files
Debug.Start	F5	Start with debugger
Debug.StartWithoutDebugging	CTRL + F5	Start without debugger
Debug.Restart	CTRL + SHIFT + F5	Restart the program
Debug.StopDebugging	SHIFT + F5	Stop debugger
Debug.RunToCursor	CTRL + F10	Run to the cursor
Debug.ToggleBreakpoint	F9	Set / remove breakpoint
Debug.DeleteAllBreakpoints	CTRL + SHIFT + F9	Delete all breakpoints
Debug.EnableBreakpoint	CTRL + F9	Enable a breakpoint
Debug.StepInto	F11	Step into a method
Debug.StepOut	SHIFT + F11	Step out of a method
Debug.StepOver	F10	Step over a line
Tools.RecordTemporaryMacro	CTRL + SHIFT + R	Start recording a macro
Tools.PlayTemporaryMacro	CTRL + SHIFT + P	Playback a macro

 

If you want an even more comprehensive list of keyboard combinations, you can check out the following links, or go exploring in Tools > Options > Keyboard in Visual studio.

C# Keybindings

VB Keybindings

Tips & Tricks : Visual Studio

1. Disable HTML Navigation bar.

Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML –> Uncheck Navigation Bar option

2. Auto insert quotes when typing.

Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML -> Format -> Check "Insert attribute value quotes when typing"

3. Format HTML on paste

Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML -> Miscellaneous -> Format HTML on Paste

How To: Get File Time [C#]

To get file time information like attributes and all or when any file was created, last modified or accessed. For getting this you can get file DateTime info by using either static methods of File class or instance methods of FileInfo class.

Get file times using File class

Use File class when you want to get just one specific time, for example if you are only interested in a file last modification time. To do this use static method File.GetLastWri teTime with file path as a parameter. File class also provides static methods to get file creation time or file last access time. You can also get this times in UTC, e.g. to get file last write time in UTC use File.GetLastWri teTimeUtc.

// local times
DateTime creationTime = File.GetCreationTime(@"c:\Demo.txt");
DateTime lastWriteTime = File.GetLastWriteTime(@"c:\Demo.txt");
DateTime lastAccessTime = File.GetLastAccessTime(@"c:\Demo.txt");
// UTC times
DateTime creationTimeUtc = File.GetCreationTimeUtc(@"c:\Demo.txt");
DateTime lastWriteTimeUtc = File.GetLastWriteTimeUtc(@"c:\Demo.txt");
DateTime lastAccessTimeUtc = File.GetLastAccessTimeUtc(@"c:\Demo.txt");
// write file last modification time (local / UTC)
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTime);     // 5/25/2010 10:10:00 PM
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTimeUtc);  // 5/25/2010 10:10:00 PM

Get file times using FileInfo class

Use instance of  FileInfo class when you want to get more than one file time or any other information's about the file (like file attributes). Advantage is that you will get all needed information's just in one disk access. See following example.

FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo(@"c:\Demo.txt");
// local times
DateTime creationTime = fileInfo.CreationTime;
DateTime lastWriteTime = fileInfo.LastWriteTime;
DateTime lastAccessTime = fileInfo.LastAccessTime;
// UTC times
DateTime creationTimeUtc = fileInfo.CreationTimeUtc;
DateTime lastWriteTimeUtc = fileInfo.LastWriteTimeUtc;
DateTime lastAccessTimeUtc = fileInfo.LastAccessTimeUtc;
// write file last modification time (local / UTC)
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTime);     // 5/25/2010 10:10:00 PM
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTimeUtc);  // 5/25/2010 10:10:00 PM

Hope this is useful.

Disabling Browser Cache In C# and ASP.NET

Disable browser caching seems to revolve around how to make it work in IE, Mozilla and other browsers.

Here is the code that will disable browser cache. I have used this and it worked for me.

//Used for disabling page caching 
 HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-1));
 HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetValidUntilExpires(false);
 HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetRevalidation(HttpCacheRevalidation.AllCaches);
// Requires for IE
 HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
// Requires for Mozilla
 HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetNoStore();

Using SortedList for FileWatcher

I need to do an update and archive files based on a condition in my application. So i have used sortedList to get all the files by processing the thread in my service. For details check my last post on this Multi Threading Using parameters for reference.

So I have updated on of my method DoTXT to achieve this from my previous post.

/// <summary>
        /// Thread 2, Displays that we are in thread 2
        /// </summary>
        public void DoTXT()
        {
            while (_stopThreads == false)
            {
                lock (this)
                {
                    // Write your TXT LOGIC HERE, Moving files and updating database etc
                    Console.WriteLine("Display Thread 2 " + strExt);
                    _threadOutput = "Hello Thread 2";
                    Thread.Sleep(1000);  // simulate a lot of processing
                    string[] Files = Directory.GetFiles("D://ThreadSample//Files//");
                    SortedList sList = new SortedList();
                    if (Files.Length > 0)
                    {
                        foreach (string s in Files)
                        {
                            try
                            {
                                if (Path.GetExtension(s).ToUpper().Equals(strExt))
                                {
                                    try
                                    {
                                        // if you date falls between two dates you need to change the condition while comparing.
                                        // Check the File class for rest of useful methods you require..File.GetLastAccessTime
                                        if (File.GetLastWriteTime(s).ToShortDateString().Equals(strDateTime))
                                        {
                                            DateTime dt = File.GetLastWriteTime(s);
                                            sList.Add(dt, Path.GetFullPath(s));
                                        }
                                    }
                                    catch (Exception ex)
                                    {
                                        throw ex;
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                            catch (Exception ex)
                            {
                                throw ex;
                            }
                        }
                        // Getting information from the SortedList.
                        foreach (string filename in sList.Values)
                        {
                            // Get all these file to zip for archive
                            Console.WriteLine("filename with sorted list." + filename);
                            // Do the db logic..
                        }
                    }
                    // we are in thread #2
                    Console.WriteLine("DoTXT Output --> {0}", _threadOutput + " datetime: -- > " + strDateTime);
                }
            }
        }