Snippets - Common code templates

Speed up the creation of common blocks of code using snippets, an easy to define text template system provided by the Emacs package called yasnippets

YASnippet comes with a number of mode-specific snippets that expand to anything from a simple text replacement to a code block structure that allows you to skip through parameters and other sections of the code block.

For example, in html-mode typing div and pressing M-/ expands to <div id=" " class=" "> </div> and places the cursor so you can type the id name. Press TAB to move the cursor through the other sections, i.e. the class name and the contents of the div.

Many programming language layers come with their own pre-defined snippets and there are snippet commands for creating your own.

Snippets in Auto-completion popups

Snippets can be configured to appear in the auto-complete menu, so when you are typing you will see any matching snippet names.

For example, if you type defn then in the menu you will see the snippet as a defn -> defn menu item. Selecting that menu item expands the snippet.

Edit your ~/.spacemacs configuration file and locate the dotspacemacs/layers > dotspacemacs-configuration-layers variable. Add the variable auto-completion-enable-snippets-in-popup t to the auto-completion layer.

For example:

(defun dotspacemacs/layers ()
  (
  ;;; some code ommitted here...
  dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
   '(
    (auto-completion :variables
                     auto-completion-enable-help-tooltip t
                     auto-completion-enable-snippets-in-popup t)

Resources

For more examples on where snippets are useful, read Sacha Chua's article on how to make better use of Yasnippet in my Emacs workflow