Rename and Refactor a Python File in VS Code

Question

On PyCharm you can right-click a file -> Refactor -> Rename. And it would rename that file and update all import statements in all files in the project.

In VS Code, while I can rename and refactor symbols by highlighting them -> F2, this only works for modules, classes, their members, and variables.

E.g. I have an utils/__init__.py with:

from utils.readers import CSVReader

utils/readers.py with:

class CSVReader:
   pass

And main.py with:

from utils import CSVReader
r = CSVReader()

I would like to, for example, rename utils/readers.py -> utils/local_readers.py and have VS Code auto-update utils/__init__.py with:

from utils.local_readers import CSVReader

Dozens of google search results point to Move TS (for TypeScript only). Is there a similar extension for Python, or some built-in hotkey I missed?

Mark · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-06 17:52:56Z

3

Check out the enhanced module re-naming coming to vscode v1.63 (see release notes: python module rename refactoring.

Module rename refactoring

You can now more easily rename modules with the Python and Pylance extensions. Once you rename a Python module, you’ll be prompted to choose whether you’d like to change all import and references throughout your code. If you’re not sure, you can first preview what all the changes will look like before you make the decision. Once you’re confident about it, you can click on Apply Refactoring, or Discard Refactoring to not have them applied.

answered Dec 6, 2021 at 17:52

Mark

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6 Comments

Wassadamo Over a year ago

This image isn't very clear, but updating to v1.63 on Windows 10 worked. Right-clicking -> Rename Symbol (all occurrences) works across files and import statements now.

starball Over a year ago

see also devblogs.microsoft.com/python/…

cikatomo Over a year ago

@starball I don't get that prompt as in video. I have python and pylance installed

Bill Over a year ago

Neither did I. No prompt and it didn't do any refactoring. Is it something to do with what OS you're on? I'm using VS Code on Mac OS 14.2.1. 'refactor' doesn't even show up in the help search.

Merlin Over a year ago

This is just beautiful, beautiful I say!

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Steven-MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-25 08:53:04Z

2

Some people have applied for this feature, but it looks a little bit difficult:

I actually don't like this idea because Python's import mechanism is much richer than TypeScript's so there's no guarantee of being able to get this right (i.e. TS is based entirely on file paths so updates are simple, Python's import system is a bit fancier 😉 ).

It's a neat idea, but implementing this correctly is extremely difficult without executing code.

You can refer to this page.

answered Nov 25, 2021 at 8:53

Steven-MSFT

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1 Comment

Wassadamo Over a year ago

Thanks for linking to this discussion. Is there any advice for a novice Python developer trying to stay safe and productive while refactoring a (perceptively) large code base? Some clever Find and Replace with regex, perhaps?

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