Special Characters Viewer
Reveal invisible characters in your code - spot newlines, tabs, spaces, and hidden Unicode characters instantly!
✨ Features
- 🔍 Toggle Visibility - Show/hide special characters with one click or keyboard shortcut
- 📝 Escape Sequence Notation - Displays characters using standard notation (
\n, \t, \r, etc.)
- 🎯 9 Special Characters Supported - Including newlines, tabs, spaces, and zero-width Unicode characters
- 🚀 Real-time Updates - See characters appear as you type
- 💡 Hover Tooltips - Get detailed descriptions of each character
- 📊 Status Bar Integration - Quick access via status bar indicator
- ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcut -
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+Alt+S (Mac)
🎬 Demo
Tip: Perfect for debugging line ending issues, finding hidden Unicode characters, or understanding file formatting!
📋 Supported Characters
| Character |
Display |
Code |
Description |
| Line Feed |
\n |
U+000A |
Standard Unix/Linux line ending |
| Carriage Return |
\r |
U+000D |
Classic Mac line ending component |
| Tab |
\t |
U+0009 |
Horizontal tab character |
| Space |
␣ |
U+0020 |
Regular space |
| Delete |
\x7F |
U+007F |
Delete control character |
| Non-breaking Space |
\u00A0 |
U+00A0 |
Space that prevents line breaks |
| Zero Width Space |
\u200B |
U+200B |
Invisible space for word breaking |
| Zero Width Non-Joiner |
\u200C |
U+200C |
Prevents character joining |
| Zero Width Joiner |
\u200D |
U+200D |
Forces character joining |
| Byte Order Mark (BOM) |
\uFEFF |
U+FEFF |
Zero-width no-break space |
🚀 Getting Started
Installation
- Open VS Code
- Press
Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac)
- Type
ext install joshivilas.special-characters-viewer
- Press Enter
Or search for "Special Characters Viewer" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).
Usage
Method 1: Command Palette
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac)
- Type "Toggle Special Characters"
- Press Enter
Method 2: Keyboard Shortcut
- Windows/Linux:
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S
- Mac:
Cmd+Shift+Alt+S
Method 3: Status Bar
- Click the 👁️ icon in the bottom-right status bar
When enabled, the status bar icon will highlight, and special characters will be displayed inline in your document.
🎯 Use Cases
- Line Ending Issues: Quickly spot mixed
\r\n (Windows) vs \n (Unix) line endings
- Tab vs Spaces: Identify inconsistent indentation in your code
- Unicode Debugging: Find invisible zero-width characters that break rendering
- File Format Analysis: Understand text encoding and formatting
- Code Review: Catch whitespace issues before commit
- Data Cleaning: Identify problematic characters in text files
⚙️ Requirements
- Visual Studio Code version 1.85.0 or higher
🔧 Extension Settings
This extension currently works out of the box with no configuration needed.
Future Settings (Planned):
- Customize display symbols
- Choose which characters to show/hide
- Color customization
- Font size adjustment
📝 Release Notes
0.0.1 (Initial Release)
- ✅ Toggle special characters visibility
- ✅ Support for 9 common invisible characters
- ✅ Escape sequence notation display
- ✅ Status bar integration
- ✅ Keyboard shortcut support
- ✅ Real-time document updates
- ✅ Hover tooltips with descriptions
🐛 Known Issues
- Performance may be impacted on very large files (10,000+ lines)
- Some fonts may not render zero-width character indicators clearly
🤝 Contributing
Found a bug or have a feature request? Contributions are welcome!
📄 License
MIT License - See LICENSE file for details
🙏 Acknowledgments
Built with ❤️ using the VS Code Extension API
Happy debugging! 🎉 If you find this extension helpful, please consider leaving a ⭐ rating on the marketplace!
Report Issues | Request Features | View Source
