Common tools and features in all code editors and IDEs include the following:

• Refactoring features
• Code snippets
• Editor configuration
• AI companions

Let’s describe each of these tools and features in more detail so that you understand the concepts, and then, in later sections, you can see how specific code editors implement those features.

Refactoring features

Refactoring is the process of modifying the internal structure of existing project code without changing its external behavior. Most code editors and IDEs expose their refactoring features via their Edit menu and context (right-click) menus. But why would you want to spend effort rewriting code if there is no external effect?

The expected benefits are improved code readability and reduced complexity. In other words, you are investing in the future. Whoever must maintain the code should be able to do so with reduced effort and the likelihood...

Visual Studio contains many useful built-in tools, including ones to implement the concepts just covered in this chapter.

By default, all links in this book for Visual Studio will go to the current version, i.e. to the 2026 version. To force a link to go to the older version, append ?view=vs-2022 to the end of the link.

Refactoring features

Visual Studio has dozens of refactoring features, aka refactorings, to modify code to make it easier to maintain, understand, and extend, but without changing its behavior. The most common refactorings are available by navigating to Edit | Refactor, and then selecting from the following menu items:

• Rename (F2): Safely rename a variable, type, or member in its definition and everywhere it is used
• Encapsulate Field (Ctrl + R, E): Convert a field into a property, and update all usages of that field to use the newly created property
• Extract Interface (Ctrl + R, I): Create an interface using...

First, you should become familiar with VS Code’s keyboard shortcuts. There are convenient single-page PDF files that you could print out on these keyboard shortcuts, one for each of the common operating systems, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and they are found at the following link: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings#_keyboard-shortcuts-reference.

Here are a couple of useful shortcuts you should definitely know. When you have multiple files (tabs) open simultaneously, you can use Alt + Left Arrow and Alt + Right Arrow to navigate between them. You can also use Ctrl + Tab and Ctrl + Shift + Tab (reverse order).

Refactoring features

Many of VS Code’s refactoring features are activated by pressing Ctrl + Shift + R.

VS Code has a subset of refactoring commands, some of which are shown in the following list:

• Rename symbol (F2): Renaming is a common operation related to refactoring source code, and all instances...

One of the best ways to learn how to code for .NET is to see how professionals do it. Most code editors have an extension for decompiling .NET assemblies. Visual Studio and VS Code can use the ILSpy extension. Rider has a built-in IL Viewer tool.

Creating a console app to decompile

Let’s create a console app that we can then decompile:

1. Use your preferred code editor to add a new Console App / console project named DotNetEverywhere to the Chapter02 solution.
2. Modify the project file to statically import the System.Console class in all C# files.
3. In Program.cs, delete the existing statements, and then add a statement to output a message saying the...

The .NET SDK comes with many project and item templates that can create a new project or item for you by calling the dotnet new command, for example, console, classlib, web, mvc, and blazor.

One of the most efficient ways to improve your code editor experience is to create custom .NET project templates. These are recognized by all the code editors. You can create templates for entire projects or individual project items. They are distributed as NuGet packages (.nupkg files) and installed through the dotnet new install SDK command.

All project and item templates use the same principles and have similar contents. Both project and item templates contain the following items:

• All the folders and files needed when the template is used, including source code files...

Test your knowledge and understanding by answering some questions, getting some hands-on practice, and exploring the topics covered in this chapter with deeper research.

Exercise 2.1 – Online-only material

The print book mostly covers Visual Studio and VS Code. For similar coverage of tools in Rider, you can read an online-only section at the following link: https://github.com/markjprice/tools-skills-net10/blob/main/docs/rider/ch02-tools.md.

To read a summary of recent improvements to Visual Studio, you can read the following article: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studios-full-year-in-review-2023/.

To read a summary of recent improvements to GitHub Copilot, you can read the following article: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/github-copilot-in-visual-studio-a-recap-of-2023/.

Developers are quickly embracing AI tools in their developer workflows, as you can see from the Stack Overflow Survey 2023 and...

In this chapter, you learned:

• About tools and features common to all code editors
• How to use tools in Visual Studio
• How to use tools in VS Code
• How to decompile .NET assemblies for learning purposes
• How to create a custom project template and use it to create a new project

In the next chapter, you will learn about Git, a popular source code control and management system.