[Bug] Wrong string selection in double quotes on double click

[Profesor08]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: No

Version: 1.109.0-insider (user setup)
Commit: bdd88df
Date: 2026-02-04T02:00:40.203Z
Electron: 39.3.0
ElectronBuildId: 13168319
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open VSCode Insiders
2. Open settings
3. Set theme Darkula, install if not available (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=alex-pex.theme-darkula)
4. Create .js file with code

const test = (arg) => {
  return arg;
}

test("test-sample");

5. Double click on first or last symbol in string

Extepected: full string in double quotes to be selected

Actual: string is selected without first and last symbols

20260204-0810-52.8171923.mp4

Issue appeared a few weeks ago. I have checked theme extension alex-pex.theme-darkula, it was updated a log time ago. This mean, the issue is with one of latest updates of vscode.

Also I have check theme file itself, and tried to modify it, to fix issue. And found the cause, may be. Removing this part, fixes issue, but it breaks highlight.

		<dict>
			<key>name</key>
			<string>Punctuation</string>
			<key>scope</key>
			<string>punctuation</string>
			<key>settings</key>
			<dict>
				<key>foreground</key>
				<string>#808080</string>
			</dict>
		</dict>

There is the file: darkula.tmTheme.zip

This issue reproduces not only on one theme, but on other themes too, not on all.

[RedCMD]

can confirm

prob caused by

• Double click after curly brace to select the content #9123

cc @dmitrivMS

I suspect getStandardTokenType() is broken?

[dmitrivMS]

Looking

[dmitrivMS]

This is specific to this theme, I suspect the token types are not what the double-click code expects.

[Profesor08]

Checked other built-in themes without installed extensions code-insiders --disable-extensions, there is a list of affected themes: Kimbie Dark, Quiet Light

[dmitrivMS]

@Profesor08 Thanks, I'll try to make a fix, or if it's too risky, revert the string part of the change keeping brackets behavior (which appears to not interfere with the themes).

[trxcllnt]

Is there a config to turn this off entirely?

I've been bit multiple times today already by inadvertently copy/pasting strings that were either under- or over-highlighted due to this new behavior. I thought I was going crazy, but then noticed double click really wasn't selecting text by the usual word splitting characters.

The new selection rules seem unpredictable and arbitrary, I don't want text selection rules that change based on language or theme. This video is in terraform, but I've seen similarly wacky behavior today in shell, rust, docker, and C++ files.

2026-02-05.13-29-38.mp4

[RedCMD]

@dmitrivMS

1. I would recommend checking for the quotes at the ends of a string rather than just assuming they are there
   the quotes themselves might not be part of the string itself
   could be outside
2. Tokens received from TextMate are flat
   should check if the tokens to the left/right are also part of standard token type string and merge them
   "foo\"bar" is split into tokens "foo, \", bar" (or ", foo, \", bar, " if quotes are separate)
   \" is a separate token, but is still type string so it should be merged "foo\"bar" (or ", foo\"bar, ")

vscode/src/vs/editor/browser/view/viewController.ts

Lines 177 to 186 in f4a698c

	// Check if current token is a string.
	const lineTokens = tokens.getLineTokens(lineNumber);
	const index = lineTokens.findTokenIndexAtOffset(column - 1);
	if (lineTokens.getStandardTokenType(index) !== StandardTokenType.String) {
	return undefined;
	}
	// Get 1-based boundaries of the string content (excluding quotes).
	const start = lineTokens.getStartOffset(index) + 2;
	const end = lineTokens.getEndOffset(index);

[
	`incorrectly assumes there will be a quote before the end of the standard token type string. offset by 1 error${5555+5555}`,
	"incorrectly assumes standard token type string ends when normal token ends\"should merge multiple string tokens together",
];