What keyboard shortcut is there to organize C# usings in Visual Studio?

Question

Is there a way to organize C# usings (remove and sort, in separate or together) via a shortcut in Visual Studio for one or more files of a project?

I know that this can be done via the menu for one file by selecting

Edit > IntelliSense > Organize Usings > Remove and Sort

but I want to do this much faster. I am using Visual Studio 2013 Express for C# development (wondering how this can be done in older & other versions too though). Thank you in advance.

Blockbusting

since VS2017, use Ctrl-R + Ctrl-G – Fertilization

Here is a thread for solutions for VS 2019 https://mcmap.net/q/260806/-in-visual-studio-2019-how-can-i-remove-unused-usings-on-format-document/6300406 – Banbury

Answer 1

Go to Tools => Options => Environment => Keyboard

Enter the key combination you want to use (click the Press shortcut keys: textbox, press your key combo as you would execute it while editing)

Then type "usings" in the Show commands containing: textbox

And now you can assign whichever version of these remove/sort usings commands that you like to the key combination.

This works for pretty much every command in Visual Studio, and from any addons you have installed. Just type a word involved in the command name to find the command. Assign away!

Vat

If you have Ctrl + F assigned to Edit.Find like the default Visual Studio shortcut, assigning Ctrl + F, Ctrl + U to a using action will remove the find shortcut. If you face this problem, just pick another combination of keys that are not already used as a single key action. – Burne

As of Visual studio 2017, I can't find any command containing using. However, two commands exist: Edit.RemoveAndSort and EditorContextMenus.CodeWindow.RemoveAndSort which both clean up the usings. The latter has already a keyboard shortcut which is Ctrl + R, G for me, with the default keyboard mapping. – Astrodome

Odd they would deprecate commands like that, but thanks for the info. – Vat

Answer 2

Since VS2017, it's a builtin shortcut. Simply press Ctrl + R, Ctrl + G. Credit goes to Emanuel Ve, who mentioned this first in the comments; I'm putting the advice into an answer for greater visibility.

Wamsley

Thank you! Is there an entry in the menus somewhere too? – Debouch

How do I apply this to all C# code files, solution wide ? – Heinous

Can I configure this somehow on how to sort? It is alphabetically but stylecop sometimes brings SA-1208 github.com/DotNetAnalyzers/StyleCopAnalyzers/blob/master/… with some usings that I have. So I will manually move the System.* to the front and would love to have that automatically done by this command. – Alleyne

Doesn't work in .razor files – Kimber

Answer 3

In addition to @Will's answer, Productivity Power Tools is a great addon that has all this - and lots lots more!

Boer

The question is for a shortcut... how can the context menus above be made to appear? Thanks. – Pudendas

@Pudendas when you install the addon detailed in the above answer you can right click the project or a file in it to have it appear. i bet you can also create a short cut for it, but haven't tried it yet. – Boer

Productivity Power Tools no longer work since VS 2019 16.9.4. – Caramel

Answer 4

In Visual Studio: ctrl + K + D organizes all the lines

Ben