i-think Twenty-Two

Line Numbers in Visual C# 2008 Express

I’ve been using Visual C# 2008 Express on my laptop (the full thing is outside of my budget at the moment), but it meets my needs quite well. However, while trying to diagnose a problem with one of my tests in NUnit (which I think is fabulous) I went back to Visual C# Express with line number in hand ready to find the problem. Of course, the line numbers aren’t shown by default in Visual Studio.

Fortunately I had dealt with the problem before (in the full version of Visual Studio) and knew that it was a “per language” setting, which I always thought was kind of odd, but maybe most people don’t like seeing the line numbers for all their files (why?). Anyway, I went looking, but I couldn’t find it. Frustrated I jumped on my favourite search engine and quickly found the solution to my problem. Under the list of option categories there is a little checkbox labelled “Show all settings”.

Checking this box gave me a bundle of extra options, including the ability to display line numbers (Text Editor » C#, then the “Line numbers” checkbox under Display). But I must ask, why is this some sort of advanced hidden option??

So in future if I’m expecting an option to be shown I will look for the magic “Show all settings” checkbox!

  • Greg

    Thanks for the solution. It took me a while to figure out where the “Show all settings” checkbox was. For some reason I never scrutinized that part of the dialog box. The checkbox is located in the lower left, parallel with the OK button.

    Greg

    • Gr00vechampion

      Lol thank you Greg! I had the same issue :)

  • Jason

    Yeah, leave it to M$ to hide one of the most useful features. Most editors have it enabled at default, or at least make it very easy to turn on. I just don’t know what they’re thinking…

  • Mal

    Thanks! (Dang hidden settings…)

  • Clinton Pierce

    Same problem, and yours was the first hit on Google. Thanks.

  • http://mahcuz.com Mark

    God knows why someone would disable this by default because of the typed language. Beats me.

    Thanks for the help!

  • Tavares

    Some hours with MS Help and don’t find solution.
    One search in google and find your post with the solution.

    Thanks for your post

  • http://www.manojsinghrana.co.nr Manoj Singh

    Follow this Option
    Tool – > Option -> Text Editor -> C#
    Check the Line Number.

  • Ivan

    Ah. Thanks a MILLION. dumb mystery navigation.

  • Cedric

    Thanks for the help too! I’ve spend too much time looking for this feature. I don’t understand microsoft’s logic… Or maybe it’s simple as “the user need something basic because he can’t deal with too much parameters”. (???)

  • Abhilash

    Awesome….

    I found this thru google
    one click…soln found…

    MS guys …are stupid in some ways….

  • Roberta

    You are fabulous, thank you so much for this post. I have been looking in many books, many site, and then you have the answer, short and sweet. Thanks again, you rock!

  • Kosko

    You are the first best explanation on Google. Thank you, its greatly appreciated.

  • Phil

    This post helped me find (in my version of VC# Express):

    Tools/Options/Text Editor/All Languages/General/LineNumbers

    Thank you for helping me along!

  • Matt

    Excellent! Thank you. Can’t think without line numbers and agree that it should not be a hidden setting.

  • Henke

    Thank you, couldn’t find this useful feature at first but finally <3

  • Junior

    Been trying to figure this out for two days now, searching msdn and everything else….. Should have googled first! Thank you very much for your post!!!!

  • http://kilianvalkhof.com Kilian Valkhof

    A setting to show all settings?! Wow. Who thought that was a good idea?
    Anyway, thanks!

  • gd

    thx :)

  • J

    THANK YOU BUDDY!!!

  • Zel

    Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I thank you. So bleeding obvious and so easily overlooked.

  • BigDaddy

    ThankYou();

  • Mike Winfield

    Same here. Thanks for posting this.

    Microsoft seems to have this mentality of hiding settings to avoid scaring users. It is ridiculous to have to enable menu options to show up.

    Seeing this mentality spread to development tools makes me sad.

  • Wraxe

    You saved my life :)

  • xlwUser

    Thanks, I haven’t even seen this check box. Crazy guys @ MS…
    I can’t imagine there is one single developer on this world who can work without line numbers in the editor.

  • Daniel

    Thanks! i overlooked it before now.

    For anyone who is wondering;
    The “Show all settings” check-box is at bottom left of the “-Tools -Options” Menu.

    And as other’s have said, after enabling “Show all settings”; look under:

    -Text Editor
    -C#
    -Check the option on left called “Line Numbers”
    -click “Ok”

    thanks again,
    dan

  • Matt

    lol Microsoft @ hide unneccary checkbox away from the rest of the Dialog box. nice. Thanks for your post, 3 seconds on google.

  • Immy

    thanks verymuch!

  • Marius

    thanks :)

  • ApolloXR

    Thanks for this. Exactly the answer I was looking for!

  • Pete

    Thanks for this handy tip. Why this isn’t just under “View->Line Numbers” like every other tool I’ve used, I don’t know?!

  • http://r3dxt.wordpress.com/ R3D

    return Thanks();

  • Garrett

    Thanks. Weird that this isn’t enabled by default…

  • http://haxpor.org haxpor

    Thanks man

  • Danie

    Man i am glad you figured that out. I was so frustrated, never noticed the ridiculous check box before.

  • Nancy

    Thank you so much for your tips. I really appreciate it.

  • paul

    thank you so much…….

  • s_48k

    Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks and thanks one more time.

  • Testaccount

    And thx again…

  • Techosaurabh

    Oh damn.. so simple yet so painful. Thanks man, a programmer can be easily be promoted to senior level for this discovery in his office.

  • Arboleda666

    thanks very much! :) i’ve looked for it for so long :)