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Refactor to transform and clean your Python code
Visual Studio makes it easy to refactor Python code by renaming identifiers, extracting methods, adding imports, and removing unused imports.
08/26/2022
how-to
cwebster-99
cowebster
jmartens
python

Refactor Python code

Visual Studio provides several commands for automatically transforming and cleaning up your Python source code:

Rename

::: moniker range="<=vs-2019"

  1. Right-click the identifier you wish to rename and select Rename, or place the caret in that identifier and select the Edit > Refactor > Rename menu command (F2).

  2. In the Rename dialog that appears, enter the new name for the identifier and select OK: :::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-rename-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Rename prompt for new identifier name.":::

  3. In the next dialog, select the files and instances in your code to which to apply the renaming; select any individual instance to preview the specific change: :::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-rename-2.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the Rename dialog to select the files to apply the changes.":::

  4. Select Apply to make the changes to your source code files. This action can be undone.

::: moniker-end ::: moniker range=">=vs-2022"

  1. Right-click the identifier you wish to rename and select Rename, or place the caret in that identifier and select the Edit > Refactor > Rename menu command (F2), or select the identifier and press Ctrl+R.
  2. In the Rename dialog that appears, enter the new name for the identifier and press Enter: :::image type="content" source="media/vs-2022/code-refactor-rename-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Rename prompt for new identifer name."::: ::: moniker-end

Add import

When you place the caret on an identifier that lacks type information, Visual Studio provides a smart tag (the light bulb icon to the left of the code) whose commands add the necessary import or from ... import statement. ::: moniker range="=vs-2019"

:::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-add-import-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Add import smart tag."::: ::: moniker-end ::: moniker range=">=vs-2022"

:::image type="content" source="media/vs-2022/code-refactor-add-import-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Add import smart tag."::: ::: moniker-end

Visual Studio offers import completions for top-level packages and modules in the current project and the standard library. Visual Studio also offers from ... import completions for submodules and subpackages as well as module members. Completions include functions, classes, or exported data. Selecting either option adds the statement to at the top of the file after other imports, or into an existing from ... import statement if the same module is already imported.

:::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-add-import-2.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing result of adding an import.":::

Visual Studio attempts to filter out members that aren't defined in a module, such as modules that are imported into another but aren't children of the module doing the importing. For example, many modules use import sys rather than from xyz import sys, so you don't see a completion for importing the sys from other modules even if the modules are missing an __all__ member that excludes sys.

Similarly, Visual Studio filters functions that are imported from other modules or the built-in namespace. For example, if a module imports the settrace function from the sys module, then in theory you could import it from that module. But it's best to use import settrace from sys directly, so Visual Studio specifically offers that statement.

Finally, suppose something would normally be excluded but has other values that would be included (because the name was assigned a value in the module, for example); in that case, Visual Studio still excludes the import. This behavior assumes that the value shouldn't be exported because it's defined in another module. Thus another assignment is likely to be a dummy value that is also not exported.

Remove unused imports

When writing code, it's easy to end up with import statements for modules that aren't being used at all. Because Visual Studio analyzes your code, it can automatically determine whether an import statement is needed by looking at whether the imported name is used within the scope after the statement occurs.

::: moniker range="<=vs-2019" Use right-click anywhere in the editor and select Remove Imports, which gives you options to remove from All Scopes or just the Current Scope: :::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-remove-imports-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Remove imports menu."::: ::: moniker-end ::: moniker range=">=vs-2022" When you place the caret on the import that lacks usage, Visual Studio provides a smart tag (the light bulb icon to the left of the code) whose commands remove the necessary Remove unused import statement: :::image type="content" source="media/vs-2022/code-refactor-remove-imports-1.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Remove imports menu."::: ::: moniker-end

Visual Studio then makes the appropriate changes to the code: :::image type="content" source="media/code-refactor-remove-imports-2.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing effects of removing imports.":::

Note

Visual Studio doesn't account for control flow. Using a name before an import statement is treated as if the name was in fact, used. Visual Studio also ignores all from __future__ imports, imports that are performed inside of a class definition, as well from from ... import * statements.