Showing line numbers in Visual C# 2010 Express

Posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

Thought I would share how to show line numbers for the code editor in Microsoft Visual C# Express because it is less than intuitive.  My personal opinion is that the numbers should show by default.  It makes a ton of sense to display error locations by line number, but not actually show the line numbers in the code editor.

Anyways, in the top navigation open tools > options dialog.  In the dialog make sure you first check the ‘Show all settings’ checkbox in the lower left corner.  Now expand the ‘Text Editor’ menu item.  Click ‘All Languages’.  Lastly check the ‘Line numbers’ checkbox in the options.  It should really not be this complicated.

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45 Responses to “Showing line numbers in Visual C# 2010 Express”
  1. Darryl says:
    July 16, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    I’ve been using visual express products for years and I didn’t even know you could display line numbers until i read it in a C# book. Even that didn’t tell me how to turn it on. The checklist “Show all settings” should be on as default. Thank you for sharing this info.

  2. Matthew Cook says:
    July 16, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    No problem, and I hear you. I think the lines should just be on by default :)

  3. Stark says:
    August 30, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Thank you for this info ,

    I was doing it the long way , by changing the following file manually

    C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Settings\C# Express\CurrentSettings.vssettings

    I changed this value
    true

    thank you , for saving my time

  4. Stark says:
    August 30, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Ops !!

    ShowlineNumbers , here the value at the file CurrentSettings.vssettings ,

    there are many values ( ShowlineNumbers )

    I was changing them all

  5. Alen KUsmic says:
    September 24, 2010 at 5:41 am

    Thank you Pukkared, now I can display line numbers on the code. I agree that Microsorft could have done this better…

    Cheers!

  6. Matthew Cook says:
    September 24, 2010 at 7:25 am

    No problem. Glad to help!

  7. Jim says:
    November 26, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Thanks for the help with C# line numbering

  8. Jesse says:
    January 8, 2011 at 5:24 am

    Glad you posted, this was becoming frustration for me. Generally Visual Studio Express 2010 is sweet, but when something becomes a pain in the butt it is a royal pain to figure out what’s going on.

  9. Halli says:
    February 17, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Just wanted to say thanks, was googling this :)

    The “Show All Options” thing makes no sense.

  10. Bill says:
    February 18, 2011 at 5:07 am

    Thanks

  11. snkmad says:
    February 27, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    Many thanks.

  12. Randell Trulson says:
    March 22, 2011 at 4:37 am

    “Show All Options” WTF….I looked everywhere for line options and never noticed it. Who came up with that stupid check box? Anyhow, thanks man.

  13. Marcio Gualtieri says:
    March 25, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    Many thanks!

    Also missed “Show All Options”… lol

    I haven’t met a single developer that didn’t want line numbers to show… go figure MS…. You’re right, it should be enabled by default.

  14. Karin Gall says:
    April 2, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Thanks so much! I agree, it shouldn’t be this difficult.

  15. jhagglund says:
    April 19, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Helped me out big time with this one. Definitely a UX fail on MS’s part. Thanks for the tip!

  16. Kamal says:
    April 20, 2011 at 11:10 am

    Thanks, knew it was there somewhere, “Show all settings” solved the problem

  17. Reed says:
    May 11, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Thanks, this helped me out a lot. I agree that the show all settings checkbox is pretty ridiculous.

  18. Wayne says:
    June 26, 2011 at 9:07 am

    Thank you!

  19. zero323 says:
    July 14, 2011 at 6:19 am

    Many thanks.

  20. lessthangod says:
    July 28, 2011 at 6:11 pm

    Thanks A Lot !!!!

    Very Useful Post .

  21. Deborah says:
    November 14, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    Thank you! I would have thought the line number would be a default option (like so many others thought)

  22. Miro says:
    November 21, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    Oh God yes!

    thx a lot man!

  23. mee says:
    January 13, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    Thank you for your help :)

  24. hans says:
    January 22, 2012 at 7:31 am

    thank you very much!

  25. Karl says:
    February 16, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    Very helpful! Better than Microsoft’s own help site.

  26. Gary Heath says:
    April 4, 2012 at 7:38 am

    Thanks for this, I sometimes wonder whether MS developers have a collective iota of Common Sense between the lot of them !!!

  27. Swoop Dogg says:
    May 4, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    Now I can easily reference the line number from the error list. Thank you!

  28. mathila says:
    June 6, 2012 at 4:25 am

    thanks very much.

  29. Yitzchok says:
    August 3, 2012 at 5:26 am

    Thank you!!

  30. Hugh Yeman says:
    August 4, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    Thanks!

  31. thx says:
    August 9, 2012 at 5:15 am

    thx

  32. Rocky says:
    August 23, 2012 at 3:58 pm

    works, Really helpful!!!

  33. Shishir says:
    August 26, 2012 at 2:17 am

    Thanks. I was trying to figure it out in the settings but had not seen the “all settings” check box.

  34. Adela says:
    August 31, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Ergh… “Show all options” really sucks… Thank you! You made my learning so much easier!

  35. George Potter says:
    September 3, 2012 at 4:45 am

    Thanks very much for this :)

  36. Remco says:
    September 17, 2012 at 8:04 am

    Awesome, thanks!

  37. Fred says:
    September 24, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    Thanks a lot and I also agree that the advance option should be displayed by default.

  38. Dilyan Tarashoev says:
    October 23, 2012 at 5:32 am

    Thank youfor the help :)
    But I want to know also about the horizontal ruler – errors in the error list are specified with both line number and character number. That means it should be also a character number’s (horizontal) ruler.
    Do anybody know where to find it?

  39. G Crawford says:
    December 26, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    Thanks – this was a big help!

  40. Dumdum says:
    January 29, 2013 at 4:40 am

    Thanks a lot! Really helpful. I was getting really annoyed by the row numbers not showing.

  41. FMicrosoft says:
    February 5, 2013 at 2:08 pm

    Jesus, the fact that this post now has (41) replies is ridiculous, and clearly this bug was designed in and in no other visual studio versions or derivatives I have used before.

    Way to be a dingus microsoft.

  42. tester says:
    February 20, 2013 at 10:36 am

    very intuitive. thanks man

  43. bas says:
    February 22, 2013 at 8:01 am

    Thanks for saving my pc from flying out of the window.

  44. walter says:
    February 27, 2013 at 3:36 am

    Thanks!! Even years later this is a worthfull post. First time for me using the express edition, was looking for the checkbox for almost a hour… Couldnt believe it was not there.

  45. georgemck says:
    March 31, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    seems to change from version to version…

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