What's the equivalent for eclipse's ALT+UP/DOWN (move line) in Visual Studio?

Question

In Eclipse, selecting a line and pressing Alt + ↑/↓ will move the line up and down, a quick way to avoid copy&paste. Is there an equivalent in Visual Studio?

Solution 1

In Visual Studio 2013 and later, this functionality is built in. ALT + UP/DOWN will move a line up or down.

If you need this functionality in VS2012 (works with VS2010 too), take a look at the MoveLine Visual Studio Extension or the Productivity Power Tools suite.

Solution 2

ReSharper's Ctrl + Shift + Alt + ↑/↓/←/→ is even more powerful - when on the beginning of the line, it will move the entire line, but can also be used to move entire methods, change the order of parameters, etc.

Solution 3

For me in Visual Studio 2019 it comes default closed.

For open it:

Tools -> Options -> Keyboard then select Edit.MoveSelectedLinesUp, click "Press shortcut keys" input and press Alt + Up (or whatever you want for it). And the other one is Edit.MoveSelectedLinesDown, click "Press shortcut keys" input and press Alt + Down (or whatever you want for it).

Solution 4

This is now working out of the box with Visual Studio 2013, same way as in Eclipse.

Solution 5

In Visual Studio 2013 and later, you can move lines up and down using Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓. Unfortunately this will not adjust the indentation if you move between blocks, as of today only ReSharper (and all other IDE's by Jetbrains including Rider) can help you with that.

To move entire blocks of code around you can move the cursor to its head and press Ctrl + m twice fast to collapse it, and then use the command above to move it around.

Here is a neat reference to all default keyboard shortcuts in different versions of Visual Studio.

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Comments

[Carl G]

Also doesn't work if R# thinks the current line is part of a larger construct. E.g., try moving a using statement from the top of a file a few lines down to be inside the namespace declaration. When the line containing the using is on the line below the namespace declaration, R# will combine them and the next call to <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>&darr;</kbd> will move both the namespace and the using line all the way to the end of the former namespace code block.

[void.pointer]

Unbelievable that you need a plugin for this

[Robin Coe]

Also doesn't seem to work to move lines across method boundaries.

[Arash]

how about child element when you select a tag ? for example I have selected a div tag and I want to move up all child element , instead of selecting by mouse .

[Joan Charmant]

If you want to rebind it, the name of the command is "Edit.MoveSelectedLinesUp", under Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard.

[Sentry]

Not quite the same, it doesn't correct the indentation

[James Freitas]

In Ubuntu 16.04 worked out of the box! Thanks a lot!

[Shimmy Weitzhandler]

Hi, I installed ReSharper which screwed up some of my VS shortcuts, including this one. What's the name of the command or the way to reset this in VS2017?

[John Demetriou]

@Sentry ctrl+k,D

[scottheckel]

@Shimmy you actually have a better option with Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Direction keys. You can move it anywhere.

[Andrew W]

I also found that these had no default key-binding in VS 2019

[IneffaWolf]

Alt+Up and Alt+Down are already bound to Format.SpaceDown, though I don't even know what that does. You think I can rebind it?

[Barabas]

@IneffaWolf, anyway, bindings Format.SpaceDown and Format.SpaceUp can be executable within VC Dialog Editor (at least in VS2019 it is so). If you assign the same key bindings to Edit.MoveSelectedLinesUp/Down but only for C# Editor, for example, I believe there won't be any conflict.