How can I insert a line of text/code on keypress in Sublime

Question

I want to be able to insert import ipdb; pdb.set_trace() on the line below where I am on a key press. For obvious reasons ;-)

Answer 1

Two fairly easy ways to do this:

Create a snippet... go to Tools>Developer>New snippet, bung this in:

<snippet>
    <content><![CDATA[import ipdb; pdb.set_trace()]]></content>
    <tabTrigger>p</tabTrigger>
</snippet>

save it.. should start working straight away.

• Ctrl + Enter (puts you onto a new next line),
• p + Tab (inserts your snippet).

4 key strokes.

OR

You could use the macro tool:

• Ctrl+Alt+Q (start recording macro)
• Ctrl+Enter (puts you onto a new next line)
• type: import ipdb; pdb.set_trace()
• Ctrl+Alt+Q (end recording macro)

Now save your_macro.sublime-macro (Tools>Save macro), and add this key binding to your user key bindings:

{ "keys": ["p"], "command": "run_macro_file", 
"args": {"file": "Packages/User/your_macro.sublime-macro"} }

now 'p' will insert your text, on the next line..

1 key stroke... but you must be careful to write code that never needs the letter p... ;)

Answer 2

On Mac OS X I have to save it with extension:

.sublime-snippet

to get it working.