How to Show Line Numbers in Visual Studio

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Visual Studio provides several features that can improve your development experience by making it easier to navigate through large amounts of code. One such feature is the ability to show line numbers alongside each line in the editor.

In this article, we will cover how you can enable and disable line number display in Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

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Before following these instructions, ensure that:

1. You have installed a version of Visual Studio (2008 or later) on your machine.

2. The 'Visual C++' or 'Visual Basic' development workload is enabled under the 'Components' section within the Visual Studio installer.

Enabling Line Numbers in Visual Studio

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To enable line numbers, follow these steps:

1. Open an existing project or create a new one using File -> New -> Project.

2. In Solution Explorer (Ctrl + Alt + L), double-click on your desired .csproj or .vbproj file to open it.

Alternatively,

- For Visual Studio 2015 and later:

- Go to Tools -> Options

- Then, under Text Editor, select the language-specific node you are working with.

For example: C++ (or Basic if that is what you're using).

- For earlier versions of Visual Studio:

A) Open up an existing project or create a new one.

B) In Solution Explorer, double-click on your .csproj file for C# projects

or .vbproj for VB.NET projects.

3. Once the Project Properties dialog box appears:

- Click on the 'Build' tab (if it's not already selected).

4. Under 'C/C++' and then under 'Preprocessor', check the box next to

'/Ze*' if it is not already checked.

5. Press OK to save your changes.

Disabling Line Numbers in Visual Studio

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To disable line numbers, simply repeat steps 2-5 above but uncheck the '/Ze*' option instead of checking it.

Alternative Method: Using a Third-party Extension

If you prefer using third-party extensions rather than modifying project settings directly,

you can use an extension like 'Visual Studio CodeLineNumbers' from the Visual Studio gallery. This

extension provides several options for displaying line numbers, including:

- Line and/or column number display.

- Customizable formats (e.g., 1-based or zero-based numbering).

- Option to show only even/odd lines.

To install this extension:

A) Open Visual Studio 2010 or later.

B) Go to Extensions -> Manage Gallery...

C. Search for 'CodeLineNumbers'.

D. Click the 'Install' button next to it and then restart Visual Studio after installation is complete.

Counting Lines of Code in Visual Studio

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Visual Studio also provides a built-in feature called 'Quick Find and Replace' (Ctrl + Shift + F) that allows you to search for specific text patterns across all open documents. This can be used not only for finding and replacing code but also as an alternative method for counting lines of code.

Here's how:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + F.

2. In the 'Find and Replace' dialog box:

- Type `^` in the 'Search For:' text box (this will match any character at the beginning of a line).

- Check both the 'Match whole word' option and the 'Use regular expressions' checkbox below it.

3. Click on 'Next All'. The bottom-right corner of the Visual Studio window should now display two values:

* Files found: This represents the total number of files searched through by Visual Studio during this operation.

* Lines found: These are the actual lines where your search pattern was matched.

Visual studio show line numbers