[visual-studio-code] Visual Studio Code - Convert spaces to tabs

I have both TypeScript and HTML files in my project, in both files tabs are converted to spaces.

I want to turn the auto-conversion off and make sure that my project has only tabs.

Edit:

With this setting it seems to work in HTML files but not in TypeScript files.

{
  "editor.insertSpaces": false
}

To change tab settings, click the text area right to the Ln/Col text in the status bar on the bottom right of vscode window.

The name can be Tab Size or Spaces.

A menu will pop up with all available actions and settings.

Ctrl+Shift+P, then "Convert Indentation to Tabs"

Check this from official vscode setting:

// Controls whether `editor.tabSize#` and `#editor.insertSpaces` will be automatically detected when a file is opened based on the file contents.
"editor.detectIndentation": true,

// The number of spaces a tab is equal to. This setting is overridden based on the file contents when `editor.detectIndentation` is on.
"editor.tabSize": 4,

// Config the editor that making the "space" instead of "tab"
"editor.insertSpaces": true,

// Configure editor settings to be overridden for [html] language.
"[html]": {
    "editor.insertSpaces": true,
    "editor.tabSize": 2,
    "editor.autoIndent": false
}

{
  "editor.insertSpaces": true
}

True works for me.

If you want to use tabs instead of spaces

Try this:

1. Go to File ? Preferences ? Settings or just press Ctrl + ,
2. In the Search settings bar on top insert editor.insertSpaces
3. You will see something like this: Editor: Insert Spaces and it will be probably checked. Just uncheck it as show in image below

4. Reload Visual Studio Code (Press F1 ? type reload window ? press Enter)

If it doesn't worked try this:

It's probably because of installed plugin JS-CSS-HTML Formatter

(You can check it by going to File ? Preferences ? Extensions or just pressing Ctrl + Shift + X, in the Enabled list you will find JS-CSS-HTML Formatter)

If so you can modify this plugin:

1. Press F1 ? type Formatter config ? press Enter (it will open the file formatter.json)
2. Modify the file like this:

 4|    "indent_size": 1,
 5|    "indent_char": "\t"
——|
24|    "indent_size": 1,
25|    "indentCharacter": "\t",
26|    "indent_char": "\t",
——|
34|    "indent_size": 1,
35|    "indent_char": "\t",
36|    "indent_character": "\t"

3. Save it (Go to File ? Save or just press Ctrl + S)
4. Reload Visual Studio Code (Press F1 ? type reload window ? press Enter)

Below settings are worked well for me,

"editor.insertSpaces": false,
"editor.formatOnSave": true, // only if you want auto fomattting on saving the file
"editor.detectIndentation": false

Above settings will reflect and applied to every files. You don't need to indent/format every file manually.

File -> Preferences -> Settings or just press Ctrl + , and search for spaces, then just deactivate this option:

I had to reopen the file so the changes would take effect.

In my case, the problem was JS-CSS-HTML Formatter extension installed after january update. The default indent_char property is space. I uninstalled it and the weird behavior stops.

1. Highlight your Code (in file)
2. Click Tab Size in bottom righthand corner of application window
3. Select the appropriate Convert Indentation to Tabs

If you want to change tabs to spaces in a lot of files, but don't want to open them individually, I have found that it works equally as well to just use the Find and Replace option from the left-most tools bar.

In the first box (Find), copy and paste a tab from the source code.

In the second box (Replace), enter the number of spaces that you wish to use (i.e. 2 or 4).

If you press the ... button, you can specify directories to include or ignore (i.e. src/Data/Json).

Finally, inspect the result preview and press Replace All. All files in the workspace may be affected.