sortText of ItemCompletion are being ignored when comparing to ItemCompletion that doesn't specify the sortText field

[natanfudge]

Issue Type: Bug

• Create a new Typescript extension with yo code.

• In package.json, replace the actionEvents field with

    "activationEvents": [
    	"*"
    ],
  

• Replace extension.ts with the following code:

    import * as vscode from 'vscode';
  
  
    export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
  
    	let provider = vscode.languages.registerCompletionItemProvider("plaintext", {
    	provideCompletionItems(document: vscode.TextDocument, position: vscode.Position, token: vscode.CancellationToken, context: vscode.CompletionContext){
    		return [
    			{
    				label:"C",
    				detail:"Should show above the B",
    				sortText :"A"
    			},
    			{
    				label:"B",
    				detail:"Should show below the C",
  
    			}
    		]
    	}
    	});
  
    	context.subscriptions.push(provider);
    }
  
    export function deactivate() {}
  

• Run the extension and create a new txt file.

• Press ctrl+space to show completion options.

What I expected:

The 'C' option will be sorted to be shown above the 'B' option, because it has a sortText of 'A'.

What actually happened:

The 'C' option will be sorted to be shown below the 'B' option, because its sortText is being ignored and the label is used for sorting instead.

You can see that if you just add a sortText of 'B' to 'B' it works as expected.

{
	label:"C",
	detail:"Should show above the B",
	sortText :"A"
},
{
	label:"B",
	detail:"Should show below the C",
	sortText:"B"

}

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.31.0-insider (bae6c84, 2019-01-04T06:17:20.719Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17134

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700HQ CPU @ 2.40GHz (8 x 2394)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled checker_imaging: disabled_off flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: disabled_software rasterization: enabled surface_synchronization: enabled_on video_decode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Memory (System)	15.91GB (10.39GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	50%

Extensions: none

[jrieken]

The 'C' option will be sorted to be shown above the 'B' option, because it has a sortText of 'A'.

Hm, today we only compare sortText with another sortText and not with a fallback. We can consider filling sortText (and also filterText) with the label when unset but if remember correctly this was done for a reason (a few years back...) I can give it a try, it will certainly make the code easier.

[alshain]

@jrieken Does that mean, that the documentation is currently outdated?

A string that should be used when comparing this item with other items. When falsy the label is used.

https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/vscode-api#CompletionItem.sortText

[vivlimmsft]

Another way this can surface is if you have multiple extensions contributing to the same completion list, with one using sortText and another not.

IntelliCode uses sortText to bring our recommendations to the top of the list. If another extension is providing completion items which omit sortText, those can appear above the recommendations. This isn't a great experience since we are also applying editor.suggestSelection: first to focus that first item, which we expect to be a recommendation.

@jrieken did you end up trying what you mentioned above?

[jrieken]

@jrieken did you end up trying what you mentioned above?

No, but we should. I will push a change today and then we (that includes your and IntelliCode) need to observe how https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/ behaves.

[jrieken]

@mjbvz Just a heads up that this changed - I believe the original (questionable) behaviour was introduced for TS, or TS as it was years back, and I wonder if you have observed any difference since the last week?

[vivlimmsft]

@jrieken Sorry for the delay, I just had a chance to try this and it looks good to me.

[jrieken]

Yeah, we haven't seen issues (yet) and I am all in for shipping like this in September.