How to make VSCode to replace the word when accepting autocomplete hint?

Question

JetBrains IDE platform have very useful feature, which I am using a lot and I find it a performance booster. When I have a word in editor, and I want to change or update that word, I do the following.

• Place cursor in front of the word (or in middle, ex. when I want to change only last part.)
• Start typing until I got autocomplete I want to use.
• Press TAB or ENTER.
  • On TAB - Old word is completely replaced by new word. This is especially useful when I update some names, in which beginning of word is the same, but ending is different. For example, change getTimeInSeconds() to getTimeInMinutes() - I put cursor after getTimeIn, get autocomplete, and press TAB. Nothing left to delete, everything is replaced.
  • On ENTER - New word is replaced from the start of old word, but right part from the cursor stays on screen.

By default VSCode supports only "ENTER" use case. Does it support "TAB" use case? If so, how to enable it?

Answer 1

You can set this using the "editor.suggest.insertMode" setting. If you set this to "replace", it will behave as you want.

Answer 2

This feature is not yet implemented. A feature request has been opened on VSCode GitHub page[1]. At this moment there are no further details about when it could be implemented.

[1] https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/10266