VS Code: Shortcut to select or remove Block Comment with no text selected

Question

I know there is a shortcut for comment and uncomment code block (SHIFT + ALT + A), but is there a way to quickly select (or even remove without select) block comment without using mouse or keyboard to select and press the delete/backspace button? For example:

/* 
This is a large block of code with at least 50 lines of code!
   :
   :
*/

Is there a keyboard shortcut where I can place my cursor anywhere in the block comment and remove it in just a few keystrokes? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can set a macro to do this pretty easily.

First, use the excellent Select By extension (@rioV8) to select the text between and including the block comment markers /* and */. Put his into your settings:

"selectby.regexes": {

  "BlockCommentSelect": {
    "backward": "\/\\*",
    "forward": "\\*\/",
    "forwardInclude": true,
    "backwardInclude": true,
    "showSelection": true
  }
},

You can use that with a keybinding like:

{
  "key": "alt+s",           // whatever keybinding you wish
  "command": "selectby.regex",
  "args": ["BlockCommentSelect"],
  "when": "editorTextFocus"
},

You could stop here and use your keybinding to select the text and then Shift+Alt+A to toggle off the block comment.

Or you could add the selectby.regex1 to a macro and do it the selection and toggling off in one step. Here using the macro extension multi-command put this into your settings as well as the above selectby.regexes setting:

"multiCommand.commands": [

 {
  "command": "multiCommand.BlockCommentOff",
  "sequence": [
    { 
      "command": "selectby.regex",
      "args": ["BlockCommentSelect"] 
    },
    "editor.action.blockComment"
  ]
},
]

and then a keybinding to trigger that macro (in your keybindings.json):

{
  "key": "shift+alt+A",    // trigger the macro with whatever keybinding if you wish
  "command": "extension.multiCommand.execute",
  "args": { "command": "multiCommand.BlockCommentOff" },
  "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorHasSelection"
},

Here I used Shift+Alt+A to trigger the macro. And I used the when clause !editorHasSelection because if you have a selection maybe you want to block comment only that selection (inside another block comment!!).

Demos: (1) Just the first method where selectby selects your text and you manually toggle it off, and then (2) using the macro version to do it in one step.