Expand/Shrink Selection in VS Code
From the VS Code Shortcuts cheat sheet · Multi-cursor & Selection · verified Jul 2026
Expand/Shrink Selection
Intelligently expand or shrink selection
text
Shift+Alt+→/← (Windows)
⌃+⇧+→/← (Mac)💡 Smart selection based on syntax
⚡ Select words, expressions, blocks
🔍 Language-aware expansion
selection