My day to day VS Code Snippets

As a PHP developer who's transitioned from various editors like Sublime Text and PHP Storm, I've found VS Code to strike the perfect balance between simplicity and power. One feature that has dramatically increased my productivity is custom code snippets.

Here are the essential VS Code snippets that have become indispensable in my daily Laravel development workflow.

Setting Up Your Snippets

Before diving into the snippets, you can access your PHP snippets file in VS Code by:

1. Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P
2. Type "Configure User Snippets"
3. Select "php.json"

Now let's explore the snippets that will supercharge your PHP development.

1. Public Method Snippet

Trigger: met

This snippet creates a basic public function structure with parameter placeholders.

{
  "New Public Method": {
    "prefix": "met",
    "body": [
      "public function $1($2)",
      "{",
      "    $3",
      "}"
    ],
    "description": "Create a new public method"
  }
}

Usage: Type met + Tab, then fill in the method name, parameters, and body.

2. Protected Method Snippet

Trigger: pmet

Perfect for creating protected methods in your classes.

{
  "New Protected Method": {
    "prefix": "pmet",
    "body": [
      "protected function $1($2)",
      "{",
      "    $3",
      "}"
    ],
    "description": "Create a new protected method"
  }
}

3. Private Method Snippet

Trigger: pvmet

For encapsulated private methods within your classes.

{
  "New Private Method": {
    "prefix": "pvmet",
    "body": [
      "private function $1($2)",
      "{",
      "    $3",
      "}"
    ],
    "description": "Create a new private method"
  }
}

4. Array Item Snippet 🚀

Trigger: . (single dot)

This is my absolute favorite snippet! It dramatically speeds up array creation in PHP.

{
  "Add one item in the array": {
    "prefix": ".",
    "body": [
      "'$1' => $2,"
    ],
    "description": "Add a key-value pair to an array"
  }
}

Perfect for:

• Laravel configuration arrays
• Route parameters
• Form validation rules
• Database migration columns

5. Variable-Named Array Item

Trigger: .. (double dot)

When you need the array key to match a variable name - incredibly useful for Laravel forms and data transformation.

{
  "Add array item with matching variable name": {
    "prefix": "..",
    "body": [
      "'$1' => \\$$1,"
    ],
    "description": "Add array item where key matches variable name"
  }
}

Example output: 'email' => $email,

6. Laravel Model Casts

Trigger: m:casts

Quickly add the casts property to your Eloquent models.

{
  "Laravel Model Casts": {
    "prefix": "m:casts",
    "body": [
      "/**",
      " * The attributes that should be cast to native types.",
      " *",
      " * @var array<string, string>",
      " */",
      "protected \\$casts = [",
      "    '$1' => '${2:string}',",
      "];"
    ],
    "description": "Add model casts property"
  }
}

7. Laravel BelongsTo Relationship

Trigger: m:belongsTo

Generate a properly documented BelongsTo relationship method.

{
  "Laravel Model BelongsTo": {
    "prefix": "m:belongsTo",
    "body": [
      "/**",
      " * Get the ${1/(.*)/${1:/downcase}/} that owns the ${TM_FILENAME_BASE/(.*)$/${1:/downcase}/}.",
      " *",
      " * @return \\Illuminate\\Database\\Eloquent\\Relations\\BelongsTo<${2:${1/(.*)$/${1:/capitalize}/}}>",
      " */",
      "public function $1(): BelongsTo",
      "{",
      "    return \\$this->belongsTo(${2:${1/(.*)$/${1:/capitalize}/}}::class);",
      "}"
    ],
    "description": "Create a BelongsTo relationship method"
  }
}

8. Laravel HasOne Relationship

Trigger: m:hasOne

Generate a properly documented HasOne relationship method.

{
  "Laravel HasOne Relationship": {
    "prefix": "m:hasOne",
    "body": [
      "/**",
      " * Get the ${1/(.*)/${1:/downcase}/} associated with the ${TM_FILENAME_BASE/(.*)$/${1:/downcase}/}.",
      " *",
      " * @return \\Illuminate\\Database\\Eloquent\\Relations\\HasOne<${2:${1/(.*)$/${1:/capitalize}/}}>",
      " */",
      "public function $1(): HasOne",
      "{",
      "    return \\$this->hasOne(${2:${1/(.*)$/${1:/capitalize}/}}::class);",
      "}"
    ],
    "description": "Create a HasOne relationship method"
  }
}

Pro Tips for Maximum Productivity

Snippet Placeholders

VS Code snippets support several placeholder types:

• $1, $2, $3 - Tab stops for cursor navigation
• ${1:default} - Placeholders with default values
• ${1|option1,option2,option3|} - Choice placeholders

File-Specific Variables

Use these built-in variables in your snippets:

• $TM_FILENAME_BASE - Current file name without extension
• $TM_DIRECTORY - Directory of the current file
• $CURRENT_YEAR - Current year

Transform Snippets

The relationship snippets use transforms to automatically:

• Generate proper method documentation
• Convert class names to appropriate case
• Create consistent naming patterns

Conclusion

These snippets have saved me countless hours of repetitive typing and helped maintain consistency across my Laravel projects. The array item snippets alone have transformed how quickly I can build configuration arrays and data structures.

Start with a few that match your most common patterns, then gradually add more as you identify repetitive code blocks in your workflow.