How can I go forward/escape/jump over parentheses or brackets or curly braces using Tab/Enter?

KeyC0de 31 Reputation points
2020-09-14T15:49:25.637+00:00

I'm working with C++ and Python and some C# in MSVS 2017 code editor (not vscode). When I autocomplete words parentheses or curly braces are automatically added.
However I can't jump over them with tab/enter. I have to use the arrow keys, specifically the right arrow key to go to the right. I remember every IDE I've used previously allowed that, except codeblocks.
If you know of an option, or an extension I'm missing to allow this feature please share. It is not such a big deal, but it could prove useful. Thanks.

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  1. Hans Bärenbeiss 16 Reputation points
    2022-01-18T20:43:00.757+00:00

    if I understand the question correctly you can use the "TabOut" extension for this. With this you can jump out of the brackets

    3 people found this answer helpful.
  2. Michael Taylor 48,576 Reputation points
    2020-09-18T14:19:38.703+00:00

    The behavior you're seeing is because of Intellisense probably. When you type the left parenthesis it auto puts in the right parenthesis. This is to avoid forgetting about them. But when you enter a left paren then Intellisense kicks in and provides you a series of options based upon what is currently available. Intellisense has gone through some (not necessarily good) changes in VS 2019 and it really wants you to select from it. So when you press the Intellisense completion keys (tab, enter) then it inserts whatever is currently selected.

    For C# the option to auto show completion list for arguments is marked as experimental and you can turn it off under Text Editor\C#\Intellisense. For other languages I don't know about the options.

    Of course you can press ESC to get out of Intellisense and then tab/enter to move on. Alternatively you can change the Intellisense completion characters (I believe) but I don't remember where those settings are. However this may be more distracting than is worth it.

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