For VS Code what is the accepted alternative to the deprecated TextEditor.hide() function?

Question

How does one close an editor programmatically in Visual Studio Code? The docs say TextEditor.hide() is deprecated and that we should "Use the command workbench.action.closeActiveEditor instead", but I can't find the workbench.action API.

Answer 1

It's not really an "API", but an identifier for a command in the command palette (see keybindings.json for a list). An extension can invoke commands via executeCommand():

vscode.commands.executeCommand("workbench.action.closeActiveEditor");

This is equivalent to selecting the View: Close Editor command manually or pressing the associated shortcut: