Removing Empty Lines

To remove empty lines from a file:

1. Open Find and Replace (Cmd+H)
2. Enable regex mode (click the .* icon)
3. Search for \n\n and replace with \n
4. Run “Replace All”

You may need to run it multiple times until you get down to single empty lines.

Pro tip: Use \n\n+ to replace all consecutive empty lines at once without repeating the operation.

Search and Replace with Regular Expressions

VS Code supports powerful regex-based find and replace. Here’s a real-world example:

Example: Wrapping Image Paths with Special Characters

Suppose you need to update image links with spaces in their filenames:

![Alt text](Screen Shot 2021-10-16 at 09.45.47.png)

to:

![Alt text](<Screen Shot 2021-10-16 at 09.45.47.png>)

Use this regex to find images with spaces:

!\[(.+)\]\((.*\s+.*)\)

This creates two capturing groups:

1. $1 - the alt text
2. $2 - the filename

Then use this replacement:

![$1](<$2>)

For images without alt text, use:

!\[\]\((.*\s+.*)\)

With replacement:

![](<$1>)

Testing Regex

Use regex101.com to quickly test your regular expressions before using them in VS Code.

Lessons in this unit:

0:	Introduction
1:	Setup and Configuration Tips
2:	Terminal Tips
3:	▶︎ Editing Tips
4:	Prettier and Auto-Formatting
5:	Language-Specific Settings
6:	Emmet for Faster HTML/CSS
7:	Debugging in VS Code
8:	Fix node modules import errors in VS Code
9:	Fixing TS issues in VS Code - Astro
10:	Regex: select entire line starting with...