"No refactorings available" / "No code actions" when cursor is inside of a string

[DamianFekete]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

No refactorings available / No code actions for 'refactor.extract.variable' available

Steps to reproduce:

• Create a new folder
• Create a file called testvscode.py with the following content

def f():
    print("Ohh no")
    
f()

• Open the folder in VS Code

• Right click somewhere in the text Ohh no. Choose Refactor... from the popup menu. The message is: No refactorings available.
  I think it should allow you to at least extract the text as a variable.
  

• If I use the keyboard shortcut to extract text to variable I get this error:
  

• I have tried using not only the release version of the Python/Pylance plugins, but the pre-release versions as well.
  The default Language Server for Python was default, I have set it explicitly to Pylance now, without success:
  

• I don't see any other errors and don't know how to debug this issue further.
  

Diagnostic data

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

XXX

Extension version: 2024.12.3
VS Code version: Code 1.92.2 (fee1edb8d6d72a0ddff41e5f71a671c23ed924b9, 2024-08-14T17:29:30.058Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045
Modes:

• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.11.2
• Type of virtual environment used (e.g. conda, venv, virtualenv, etc.): Global
• Value of the python.languageServer setting: Pylance

User Settings

languageServer: "Pylance"

Installed Extensions

Extension Name	Extension Id	Version
Edit csv	janisdd.vscode-edit-csv	0.9.2
EditorConfig for VS Code	EditorConfig.EditorConfig	0.16.4
IntelliJ IDEA Keybindings	k--kato.intellij-idea-keybindings	1.7.2
JavaScript Debugger	ms-vscode.js-debug	1.92.0
JavaScript Debugger Companion Extension	ms-vscode.js-debug-companion	1.1.3
PowerShell	ms-vscode.powershell	2024.2.2
Pylance	ms-python.vscode-pylance	2024.8.2
Python	ms-python.python	2024.12.3
Python Debugger	ms-python.debugpy	2024.11.2024082901
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud	yannick-beot-sp.vscode-sailpoint-identitynow	1.3.2
Table Visualizer for JavaScript Profiles	ms-vscode.vscode-js-profile-table	1.0.9

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz (16 x 2304)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	31.73GB (12.73GB free)
Process Argv	.
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

The original bug report against VS Code was closed: microsoft/vscode#225766

[rchiodo]

Thanks for the issue. You have to select the text for this to work (otherwise we don't know what to select to extract).

Screen.Recording.2024-09-03.094851.mp4

We could potentially special case strings to auto pick the whole thing, but there's a perf penalty with generating code actions everywhere.

[DamianFekete]

As I am using mostly IntelliJ I did not expect that I have to manually select the text.
The same thing for naming numbers.
For comparison:

there's a perf penalty with generating code actions everywhere

Is the performance penalty when you load/process the file or when I press the key? If it is only when I press the key, the computer should be faster than me to increase selection and find a suitable element (string, number), that can be refactored.

[rchiodo]

Reopening. Going to mark as an enhancement request for upvotes.