How to Remove Empty Lines in VS Code (Fast & Easy)

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How to Remove Empty Lines in VS Code – Blank lines cluttering your code or text file?

VS Code gives you several fast ways to remove empty lines, no plugins required in most cases.

This guide covers the quickest methods, from regex Find & Replace to dedicated extensions.

What Counts as an “Empty Line” in VS Code?

An empty line in VS Code is any line that contains:

• No characters at all, or
• Only whitespace characters (spaces, tabs)

Both types can be targeted and removed using the methods below.

Method 1: Find & Replace with Regex (Fastest, No Extension Needed)

This is the most reliable and universally applicable method.

Steps:

1. Open Find & Replace: Ctrl+H (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+H (Mac)
2. Click the .* icon to enable Regex mode
3. In the Find field, enter:

   ^\s*\n

4. Leave the Replace field completely empty
5. Click Replace All

What this regex does:

• ^ — matches the start of a line
• \s* — matches any whitespace (spaces, tabs) on that line
• \n — matches the newline character at the end

Tip: To only remove empty lines within a selected block of text, highlight the text first, then enable “Find in Selection” (the selection icon in the Find bar).

Alternatively, you can also use the following regex:

^\s*$\n

Method 2: Collapse Multiple Empty Lines Into One

If you want to reduce multiple consecutive blank lines to a single one (instead of removing all blanks):

• Find: (\n\s*){2,}
• Replace: \n\n

This is useful for cleaning up code that requires some whitespace for readability.

Method 3: Use an Extension

For a GUI-friendly approach, install the Remove Empty Lines extension from the VS Code Marketplace.

Once installed:

1. Select the text you want to clean (or select nothing to apply to the whole file)
2. Open the Command Palette: Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P
3. Search for: “Remove Empty Lines”
4. Choose “in Document” or “in Selection”

Method 4: Sort Lines (Indirect Method)

VS Code has a built-in “Sort Lines Ascending” command that pushes empty lines to the top or bottom, making them easy to delete manually.

This is less precise but works as a quick workaround.

Quick Reference Table

Summary

To remove empty lines in VS Code:

1. Fastest native method: Find & Replace with regex ^\s*\n → empty replace field → Replace All
2. For multiple blank lines: Use (\n\s*){2,} → replace with \n\n
3. GUI preference: Install the Remove Empty Lines extension

The regex method works in any file type, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Markdown, or plain text, with no additional setup.