Move a line or a selection Up or Down in Visual Studio Code

# Move a line Up or Down in Visual Studio Code

To move a line up or down in VS Code:

• on Windows and Linux, use the Alt key and the up ↑ and down ↓ arrows.
• on macOS, use the Option ⌥ key and the up ↑ and down ↓ arrows.

You can also view the keyboard shortcuts for your operating system in this table in the docs.

The commands are called:

• Move Line Up
• Move Line Down

You can also use the Command Palette to view the keyboard shortcut:

1. Press:

• Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows and Linux.
• Command + Shift + P on macOS.

2. Type Move Line Up and view the keyboard shortcut.

3. Type Move Line Down and view the keyboard shortcut.

# Move a selection up or down in VS Code

The same keyboard shortcuts can be used to move a selection up or down.

1. Select the text.
2. Use the Alt (or Option) and the up and down arrow keys to move the selection.

# Changing the keyboard shortcuts for the Move line up and down commands

If you need to change the keyboard shortcuts for the "move line up" and "move line down" commands:

1. Press:

• Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows and Linux.
• Command + Shift + P on macOS.

2. Type Keyboard Shortcuts and select Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts.

3. Type move line up.

4. Double-click on the row, set a new keyboard shortcut and hit Enter to confirm.

You can also click on the pencil icon to set a new keyboard shortcut.

5. Type move line down into the search field.

6. Double-click on the row, set a new keyboard shortcut and hit Enter to confirm.

I've also written an article on how to enable relative line numbers in VS Code.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• Column (Box) selection in Visual Studio Code
• How to customize Vertical Rulers in Visual Studio Code
• How to remove Duplicate Lines in Visual Studio Code
• How to Show and Set Line endings in Visual Studio Code
• VS Code: Sort Lines and JSON object properties
• Wrap Tabs to Multiple Lines in Visual Studio Code
• VS Code: Increase the number of Lines shown in the Terminal
• How to Zoom in and out in Visual Studio Code