VS Code and Flutter/Dart, Widget Autocomplete not working

Question

I'm working with some tutorials to learn Flutter and the one that I'm taking now uses VSCode. I actually prefer it to Android Studio because it doesn't overheat my Macbook. The only frustration I've had with it so far is that there are quite a few times where autocomplete just stops working. For instance, if I wrap a Column in a widget and then start typing Container, Android Studio will pop up an autocomplete showing Container VS Code used to do this for me, but has stopped for some reason. I can still get the autocomplete list if I press Ctrl+Spacebar.

I'm using the following:

• VS Code - 1.36.1

• Dart Extension - 3.2.0

• Flutter Extension - 3.2.0

• Material Icon Theme - 3.8.0

This is the latest version for all of these.

Is there some setting or something that I need to change? I've spent the last two hours trying to work out what's going on. In searching, I did see some references to earlier versions of VS Code and the extensions causing problems, but nothing about these versions.

Answer 1

Go to pubspec.yaml and hit save or run get packages. It worked for me, hope it helps

Answer 2

There are generally two reasons for VS Code to automatically open code completion - 1) when you press a key that the extension ahs told VS Code should invoke it and 2) when VS Code thinks it would be useful (for example when you start typing on a blank line). If you're typing in a line of existing code it won't always do this.

Pressing Ctrl+Space is the correct way to open completion in the cases where it doesn't appear automatically.

That said, if you can provide more information about a specific instance, I can take a look if it's something we could/should pop completion open for. It would be best raised at https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code/issues with a screenshot and details of exactly where your cursor is (and how you got there).