How to automatically remove trailing whitespace in Visual Studio 2008?

Question

Find/Replacing using Regular Expressions

In the Find and Replace dialog, expand Find Options, check Use, choose Regular expressions

Find What: ":Zs#$"

Replace with: ""

click Replace All

In other editors (a normal Regular Expression parser) ":Zs#$" would be "\s*$".

CodeMaid is a very popular Visual Studio extension and does this automatically along with other useful cleanups.

• Download: https://github.com/codecadwallader/codemaid/releases/tag/v0.4.3
• Modern Download: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=SteveCadwallader.CodeMaid
• Documentation: http://www.codemaid.net/documentation/#cleaning

I set it to clean up a file on save, which I believe is the default.

You can create a macro that executes after a save to do this for you.

Add the following into the EnvironmentEvents Module for your macros.

Private saved As Boolean = False
Private Sub DocumentEvents_DocumentSaved(ByVal document As EnvDTE.Document) _
                                         Handles DocumentEvents.DocumentSaved
    If Not saved Then
        Try
            DTE.Find.FindReplace(vsFindAction.vsFindActionReplaceAll, _
                                 "\t", _
                                 vsFindOptions.vsFindOptionsRegularExpression, _
                                 "  ", _
                                 vsFindTarget.vsFindTargetCurrentDocument, , , _
                                 vsFindResultsLocation.vsFindResultsNone)

            ' Remove all the trailing whitespaces.
            DTE.Find.FindReplace(vsFindAction.vsFindActionReplaceAll, _
                                 ":Zs+$", _
                                 vsFindOptions.vsFindOptionsRegularExpression, _
                                 String.Empty, _
                                 vsFindTarget.vsFindTargetCurrentDocument, , , _
                                 vsFindResultsLocation.vsFindResultsNone)

            saved = True
            document.Save()
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.OkOnly, "Trim White Space exception")
        End Try
    Else
        saved = False
    End If
End Sub

I've been using this for some time now without any problems. I didn't create the macro, but modified it from the one in ace_guidelines.vsmacros which can be found with a quick google search.

Before saving you may be able to use the auto-format shortcut CTRL+K+D.

You can do this easily with these three actions:

• Ctrl + A (select all text)

• Edit -> Advanced -> Delete Horizontal Whitespace

• Edit -> Advanced -> Format Selection

Wait a few seconds and done.

It's Ctrl + Z'able in case something went wrong.

Taking elements from all the answers already given, here's the code I ended up with. (I mainly write C++ code, but it's easy to check for different file extensions, as needed.)

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Private Sub DocumentEvents_DocumentSaved(ByVal document As EnvDTE.Document) _
    Handles DocumentEvents.DocumentSaved
    Dim fileName As String
    Dim result As vsFindResult

    Try
        fileName = document.Name.ToLower()

        If fileName.EndsWith(".cs") _
        Or fileName.EndsWith(".cpp") _
        Or fileName.EndsWith(".c") _
        Or fileName.EndsWith(".h") Then
            ' Remove trailing whitespace
            result = DTE.Find.FindReplace( _
                vsFindAction.vsFindActionReplaceAll, _
                "{:b}+$", _
                vsFindOptions.vsFindOptionsRegularExpression, _
                String.Empty, _
                vsFindTarget.vsFindTargetFiles, _
                document.FullName, _
                "", _
                vsFindResultsLocation.vsFindResultsNone)

            If result = vsFindResult.vsFindResultReplaced Then
                ' Triggers DocumentEvents_DocumentSaved event again
                document.Save()
            End If
        End If
    Catch ex As Exception
        MsgBox(ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.OkOnly, "Trim White Space exception")
    End Try
End Sub

I personally love the Trailing Whitespace Visualizer Visual Studio extension which has support back through Visual Studio 2012.