What is a Code Snippet?

What is a Code Snippet?

A code snippet is a reusable block of code. Such blocks of code are saved to keep track of good code that can be reused in the future. Think of a code snippet as a paragraph in a textbook: you sometimes want to save it for later (to quote, use the data, etc.).

How can Code Snippets help you?

Code snippets help you being more productive. Instead of wasting hours looking on Google and other code search solutions for a block of code you can reuse, you can use the exact block of code.

They also help you significantly when working in a team. Every team has specific coding patterns. Saving good coding practices into code snippets allows all team members to use the correct code block for a particular solution. Instead of searching into the existing code base, developers can look for a vetted code snippet.

How to Create a Code Snippet?

There is no mandatory tool to create a code snippet. Some developers save them in a text document, while others are more methodic and save them into code snippets managers.

If you use Codiga, creating a code snippet is very easy: select code in your IDE, right-click and select Create Codiga Snippet. Your new snippet is then stored on Codiga servers and accessible from any Codiga tool (in your IDE, desktop, browser, etc.).

Code Snippets Manager to the rescue!

A code snippets manager helps you organize your snippet from your desktop. With a snippet manager, you can search all existing code snippets, and you can also search your private snippets and code snippets shared with your team.

A code snippets manager is an application for your desktop. Codiga provides an open-source code snippets manager for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. With this code snippets manager, you can visualize all your snippets created on Codiga and also explore all snippets created by the Codiga community.

How to Share Code Snippets with your Team?

Securely sharing code snippets with your team is not easy, and there are few solutions today. Codiga allows developers to share code snippets with their teams in a single click. When a private is flagged as private, you can select the team you want to share your snippet with.

As soon as you share a code snippet with your team, they can access it in every Codiga tool: all IDE plugins, the code snippet manager and the chrome extension.

Using Code Snippets in your IDE

The most important aspect of a code snippets platform such as Codiga is to reduce the friction of searching and importing code snippets in the IDE. For that purpose, Codiga has an integrated code snippets search where you can find code snippets and automatically import them into your editor!

The search inside the IDE is contextual: the tool only suggests code snippets that match your environment (e.g., if you are editing a Python file, the tool will only suggest code snippets for Python). It also enforces access control on your snippets and you can safely access your private snippets or those shared with your team.

Resources

All Codiga tools are open-source. You can find all the code and documentation on the Codiga GitHub account.

• Codiga Code Snippets Manager for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
• Codiga Chrome Extension
• Codiga VS Code Extension
• Codiga JetBrains extension
• code-snippets.dev: a centralized websites for tools related to code snippets.