VS Code: Add a Rmarkdown Code Chunk Snippet Key Binding

I recently started using VS code for R development. There is an awesome newish R extension for VS Code. It takes a little setup, it works best with the addition of radian, a python package, but otherwise it works really well. There are solid instructions on the extension page. I love Rstudio for the most part, but I got frusterated by the lack of editor customization (mostly line height). So here we are.

One thing that the the VS code R package does not have is a shortcut for adding Rmarkdown code chunks with ctrl+alt+i. I couldn't find an easy solution after googleing so I thought I'd write a short "how to" in case others needed something similar.

Adding the Snippet

Go to Code>Preferences>Keyboard Shortcuts and then in the upper right hand corner there should be a small icon that looks like a piece of paper with a arrow coming around it. If you hover on it, it says "Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)". Click on it to open the "Keyboard Shortcuts.json" file. You can also press cmd+shift+p and type in "Keyboard Shortcuts" and select "Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)". Edit the .json file with the following json.

[
  {
    "key": "cmd+alt+i", # On windows: "ctrl+alt+i". 
    "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args": {"snippet": "```{r}\n$0\n```"}
  },
]

Now you can add a Rmarkdown code junk just like Rstudio with cmd+alt+i.

Options Code Chunk

I often use an options at the top of my code Rmarkdown files to set max print or use "quartz" as my graphics device ("windows" on pc). You can similarly map a an options code chunk with:

[
  //....Previous Code chunks
  ,
  {
    "key": "cmd+alt+o", # On windows: "ctrl+alt+o". 
    "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args": {"snippet": "options(\n  max.print=100,\n  vsc.use_httpgd=TRUE,\n  device='quartz'\n)"}
  }
]

Rmarkdown yaml and setup with pagedown.

[
  //...Previous Code Chunks
  {
    "key": "ctrl+alt+m",
    "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args":{
      "snippet": "---\ntitle: '$0'\nauthor: 'Michael Schmidt'\ndate: '`r Sys.Date()`'\noutput:\n  pagedown::html_paged:\n    self_contained: false\n    toc: false\n---\n\n```{r setup, include=FALSE}\nknitr::opts_chunk\\$set(\n  echo = FALSE,\n  message = FALSE,\n  warning=FALSE\n)\n```"
    }
  }
]