Make VSCode intellisense show up only after certain number of characters

Question

I can't seem to find if there's a way to do it.

I use VScode for writing markdown text. I love the intellisense/autocomplete which builds my word lists and helps me write faster. The one thing I wish I could change is for the autocomplete word lists to show up AFTER I've typed a certain number of characters.

For e.g., let's say I really want the word "guarding"

I'd like the popup only after I've typed guar rather than at g, and then u, etc. This way, I'm utilizing it only for longer words. The popup for every letter from the beginning is kind of annoying.

Is there a way to do it? (I seem to be able to control the delay when to popup,

Boyle

Maybe: #41684527 – Anabatic

Thanks. I did consider it, but it's annoying now to wait to see what pops up. I'd rather just see them after X characters typed. – Boyle

There is no VS Code setting for this but it sounds like a good candidate for an extension. Checkout the extension authoring docs to get started – Thermoluminescence

Notepad++ has had this option for a very long time. Do the people creating IntelliSense not use VS or VS Code? If they did, surely many of them would be annoyed quickly. – Libnah

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, this is currently not possible but I opened a feature request on github. Please upvote on github it if you are interested in this feature.

Studbook

Upvote is only for correct answers... – Nickelodeon

@Nickelodeon I meant to say that everyone who is interested in the feature should upvote the linked github issue. – Studbook

Thank you for opening the issue and giving us a heads up here. They tend to quickly close issues without a number of upvotes that is hardly achievable not because nobody cares but because nobody knows. – Highstrung

Answer 2

The Workaround

Edited: If you do not like abc suggestion, add this line into your setting.json file:

  "editor.suggest.showWords": false,

vscode-dic-completion

Use the extension vscode-dic-completion for markdown/latex or other programming language's comments/strings... e.g. Add these lines into your settings.json:

  "[c]": {
    "editor.quickSuggestions": {
      "other": "on",
      "comments": "on",
      "strings": "on"
    }
  },
  "[markdown]": {
    "editor.quickSuggestions": {
      "comments": "on",
      "strings": "on",
      "other": "on"
    }
  },
  "dictCompletion.leastNumOfChars": 3,       // <- this is what you need!

For more custom configs, read the friendly README

Here is a gif showing how it works in C (only show suggestion list until 3 chars input):

2. Another workaround is to set editor.quickSuggestionsDelay value a little larger, which controls the delay in ms after which quick suggestions will show up.

Note: This works on global suggstions pop up, so Please do not make the value too large.

  "editor.quickSuggestionsDelay": 250,

Best way

Upvote the PR opened by towadroid. Only this can get vscode team's attention.

Brnaba