Creating Code Snippets in Visual Studio 2010

In this article we will be seeing how we can create Code snippets in Visual Studio 2010. Code Snippets are very useful and can help us with writing standardized code easily and quickly. 



Visual Studio creates an XML file as shown below:



Now let's add our snippet.

Let's modify the default snippet generated. I am going to add a snippet here to create a generic class.

I modify the snippet below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <Header>
    <Title>title</Title>
    <Author>author</Author>
    <Shortcut>GenericClass</Shortcut>
    <Description>description</Description>
    <SnippetTypes>
      <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
      <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
    </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>
    <Declarations>
      <Literal>
        <ID>name</ID>
        <Default>value</Default>
      </Literal>
    </Declarations>
    <Code Language="Csharp">
      <![CDATA[ 
public class A<T> where T : class
    {

    }
      ]]>
    </Code>
  </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>

Once modified Save the file as MySnippet.snippet.

Hit the Finish Button.

Now let's add a new file and see if the snippet works.



You could insert the snippet as shown below :

public class A<T> where T : class
{
 
}

Inserting Code snippets can make the code very standardized.