README

Super Insert for Visual Studio Code

An extension to insert sequences, numbers or dates.

Why another `insert numbers` extension?

There are already quite a few extensions with similar features, but I prefer Excel’s formatting approach — it’s more intuitive, especially for non-programmers.

Furthermore, those extensions is not easy to extend, especially If I only want to insert same simple fixed sequences, e.g. Monday/Thuesday etc.

So I created my own tool. It supports:

Excel-like format
Add custom sequences by only configuring with vscode settings
Random numbers
Dates

Usage

Command: Super insert - Insert sequences, numbers or dates
- Keybindings: (ctrl|cmd)+alt+n
- Basic numbers
- Decimals/Fraction numbers
- Random numbers
- Dates
- Sequences
Command: Super insert: Shortcut - Do the insertion with predefined shortcuts
- Keybindings: (ctrl|cmd)+alt+y
Command: Super insert: History - Do the insertion from input history

Input

Usage	Input	Example	Output	Notes
Numbers	start:<step>:<format>	1:1:00#	001	formats documented in the following sections
		1:00#	001	Default step is 1
		1	1	Default step is 1
			0	Default start is 0, default step is 1
Randoms	(rand\|random):<min>:<max>:<format>	rand:1:100:#	32	Generate random numbers between 1 and 100, output with format #
		rand:1:100	32.0225189991755	Generate random numbers between 1 and 100, output raw numbers
		rand:100	32.0225189991755	Generate random numbers between 0 and 100, output raw numbers
		rand	0.225189991755	Generate random numbers between 0 and 1, output raw numbers
Dates	(now\|today):<step>:<format>	now:1d:yyyy-mm-dd	2025-09-19	step can be numbers as seconds, or can be numbers with one of "dhms", e.g. d for days, h for hours, m for minutes, s for seconds
		now:yyyy-mm-dd	2025-09-19	Default step is 1d
		yyyy-mm-dd	2025-09-19	Default step is 1d
Sequence	(one of the pre/custom-defined sequence item)	Monday	Monday Tuesday …	There are built-in sequences or user defined sequences

Format

The format is controlled by a Excel cell format string, i.e. excel's TEXT function.

excel cell format

More please consult examples given in the Excel text function documentation.

Some of the Number format

Symbol	Inerpretation
#	A # is a placeholder for a digit, but it will not display if there are no digits to fill that place
0	A 0 forces to display a digit in that position, even if it is a leading or trailing zero.
%	A percent makes the value to be a percentage, e.g. 1 to be 100%
,	comma, numeric seperator, to make the result separate thousands
.	decimal separator
/	fraction seperator

Exampes:

Original	Fixed								Fraction
	#	0	0.00	00.0	#.##	0.##	0,0.## #,#00.##	#,#.## #,###.##	#/#	# #/#	# #/40
4000	4000	4000	4000.00	4000.0	4000.	4000.	4,000.	4,000.	4000/1	4000	4000
-8.8	-9	-9	-8.80	-08.8	-8.8	-8.8	-08.8	-8.8	-44/5	-8 4/5	-8 32/40
-5.6	-6	-6	-5.60	-05.6	-5.6	-5.6	-05.6	-5.6	-28/5	-5 3/5	-5 24/40
-2.4	-2	-2	-2.40	-02.4	-2.4	-2.4	-02.4	-2.4	-12/5	-2 2/5	-2 16/40
0.8	1	1	0.80	00.8	.8	0.8	00.8	.8	4/5	4/5	32/40
4	4	4	4.00	04.0	4.	4.	04.	4.	4/1	4	4
7.2	7	7	7.20	07.2	7.2	7.2	07.2	7.2	36/5	7 1/5	7 8/40

Original	Thousand and Percent			As Literal		Scientific			Literals
	#,k	#.#%	#,0.#%	,#.#-, ,,#.#-,	%#.#	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	##.#E-0	#-#.#	#"abc"#.#	#中#.#
4000	4k	400000.%	400,000.%	,4000.-,	%4000.	4.00E+3	4.00E3	40.E2	400-0.	400abc0.	400中0.
-8.8	-k	-880.%	-880.%	-,8.8-,	-%8.8	-8.80E+0	-8.80E0	-8.8E0	--8.8	-abc8.8	-中8.8
-5.6	-k	-560.%	-560.%	-,5.6-,	-%5.6	-5.60E+0	-5.60E0	-5.6E0	--5.6	-abc5.6	-中5.6
-2.4	-k	-240.%	-240.%	-,2.4-,	-%2.4	-2.40E+0	-2.40E0	-2.4E0	--2.4	-abc2.4	-中2.4
0.8	k	80.%	80.%	,.8-,	%.8	8.00E-1	8.00E-1	80.E-2	-.8	abc.8	中.8
4	k	400.%	400.%	,4.-,	%4.	4.00E+0	4.00E0	4.E0	-4.	abc4.	中4.
7.2	k	720.%	720.%	,7.2-,	%7.2	7.20E+0	7.20E0	7.2E0	-7.2	abc7.2	中7.2

Counting time examples: e.g. how may hours or minutes for n dates, n is the input number:

Original
	[h]	[m]	[h] m	[h] m s
4000	96000	5760000	96000 0	96000 0 0
-8.8	-211	-12672	-212 48	-212 48 0
-5.6	-134	-8064	-135 36	-135 36 0
-2.4	-57	-3456	-58 24	-58 24 0
0.8	19	1152	19 12	19 12 0
4	96	5760	96 0	96 0 0
7.2	172	10368	172 48	172 48 0

Note: Some versions of Excel will output "#####..." for negative numbers with format "[h] m" and "[h] m s"

Some of the Date format

Symbol	Inerpretation
d	day of the month, as a single digit
dd	two-digit day of the month, possibly with a leading zero
ddd	Abbreviated day of the week, represented by the thee initial letters
dddd	Day of the week
m	single digit month number if the last seen symbol was a date part, otherwise single digit minute
mm	two-digit month number if the last seen symbols was a date part, otherwise two-digit minute
mmm	Abbreviated of the month, represented by the thee initial letters
mmmm	Month full name
y or yy	Two digit year
yyy+	Four digit year
h	single digit hour
hh+	two-digit hour, possibly with leading zero
s	single digit second
ss+	two-digit second
A/P	Instead of 24h time, use 12h with A or P suffix
am/pm	Use 12h time with AM or PM suffix

Examples:

yyyy/m/d hh\:mm\:ss	yyyy-mm-dd hhmmss	ddd, mmm dd - yyyy	dddd, dd of mmmm of yyyy	m/d/yyyy h\:mm AM/PM	hham/pm	hh a/p mm
2025/9/3 10:02:00	2025-09-03 100200	Wed, Sep 03 - 2025	Wednesday, 03 of September of 2025	9/3/2025 10:02 AM	10am	10 a 02
2025/9/3 19:02:00	2025-09-03 190200	Wed, Sep 03 - 2025	Wednesday, 03 of September of 2025	9/3/2025 7:02 PM	07pm	07 p 02

Note: colon (:) must be escaped with backslash (\), because colon is the default seperator in format.

Pre-defined sequences

Weekday	Weekday	Music Symbol	Roman	Astro	Alphabet		中午周		中文数字	中文数字	大写货币		星座	节气	天干	地支	60甲子	生物	颜色
Sun	Sunday	Do	I	Aries	a	A	周日	日	零	零	零	零	白羊	立春	甲	子	甲子	域	红
Mon	Monday	Re	II	Taurus	b	B	周一	一	一	一	壹	壹	金牛	雨水	乙	丑	乙丑	界	橙
Tue	Tuesday	Mi	III	Gemini	c	C	周二	二	二	二	貳	貳	双子	惊蛰	丙	寅	丙寅	门	黄
Wed	Wednesday	Fa	IV	Cancer	d	D	周三	三	三	三	叁	叁	巨蟹	春分	丁	卯	丁卯	纲	绿
Thu	Thursday	Sol	V	Leo	e	E	周四	四	四	四	肆	肆	狮子	清明	戊	辰	戊辰	目	蓝
Fri	Friday	La	VI	Virgo	f	F	周五	五	五	五	伍	伍	处女	谷雨	己	巳	己巳	科	靛
Sat	Saturday	Si	VII	Libra	g	G	周六	六	六	六	陆	陆	天秤	立夏	庚	午	庚午	属	紫
			VIII	Scorpio	h	H			七	七	柒	柒	天蝎	小满	辛	未	辛未	种
			IX	Sagittarius	i	I			八	八	捌	捌	射手	芒种	壬	申	壬申
			X	Capricorn	j	J			九	九	玖	玖	摩羯	夏至	癸	酉	癸酉
				Aquarius	k	K			十	十	拾	拾	水瓶	小暑		戌	甲戌
				Pisces	l	L				百		佰	双鱼	大暑		亥	乙亥
					m	M				千		仟		立秋			丙子
					n	N				万		萬		处暑			丁丑
					o	O				亿		億		白露			戊寅
					…	…								…			…

Note: Consult BuiltInSequences.ts for more.

Settings

All settings are under superinsert property.

Setting Key	type	Description	default
start	number	Will be used when user inputs nothing	0
step	number	Will be used when user does not input step for numbers	1
defaultRandomFormat	string	Will be used when only input 'rand' or 'random'
defaultDateFormat	string	Will be used when only input 'now' or 'today'	yyyy-mm-dd
defaultDateStep	number or string	Will be used when the start is 'now' or 'today', number stands for seconds	1d
customSequences	{ sequence?: string[], caseSensitive?: boolean }[]	Will be used when user wants to input sequence
shortcuts	{ input?: string, label?: string, format?: string, step?: number, start?: number, }[]	Will be used when invoke the "Shortcut" command

customSequences example

"superinsert": {
    "customSequences": [
        {
            "sequence": [
                "风",
                "雷",
                "雨"
            ],
            "caseSensitive": false,
        }
    ],
}

shortcuts example

"superinsert": {
    "shortcuts": [
        {
            "input": "yyyy-MM-dd hh\\:MM\\:ss",
            "label": "date and time"
        },
        {
            "input": "yyyyMMdd",
            "label": "date simple"
        },
        {
            "input": "dddd, dd of mmmm of yyyy",
            "label": "date complex"
        },
        {
            "input": "rand:1:100:#",
            "label": "random number between 1 and 100"
        },
        {
            "input": "1234:##\\,##",
            "label": "4 digits with comma in the middle"
        }
    ],
}

Thanks

For more information or bug reports

GitHub

Super Insert

KristinZhang