Sublime Text Snippets

One way to work faster is to have predefined snippets or blocks of code help you with repetitive typing.

How to use Snippets in Sublime Text:#

In sublime text you can install these by going to Tools => New Snippet... This will give you a confusing XML document looking like this:

<snippet>
  <content><![CDATA[
Hello, ${1:this} is a ${2:snippet}.
]]></content>
  <!-- Optional: Set a tabTrigger to define how to trigger the snippet -->
  <!-- <tabTrigger>hello</tabTrigger> -->
  <!-- Optional: Set a scope to limit where the snippet will trigger -->
  <!-- <scope>source.python</scope> -->
</snippet>

The text in between the [CDATA[ and ]] are what you want to edit. The $1 or ${1:this} are where the cursor will be after you activate the snippet. This text after the : is the default and you can get to $2 by tabbing.

The word you’d like to trigger the snippet should go here (in this example, ‘hello’ + Tab).

Scope determines which files the snippet will work on. The scopes that I use most often and available to Sublime Text include source.ruby, source.ruby.rails & text.html.erb.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you feel the need, you can bind the snippet to a keyboard shortcut. This would involve adding a line to your ‘Keybindings - User’ file (found under Sublime Text => Preferences).

Here’s the sort of thing you’d want to add:

{ "keys": ["alt+shift+e"], "command": "insert_snippet", "args": {"name": "Packages/User/my-clever.sublime-snippet"}}

Be careful to make sure it’s in a vaild JSON array - eg. watch out for commas & make sure there are square brackets enclosing everything.