IntelliJ IDEA 2022.3 Help

Go tools

gofmt

With gofmt, you can format Go source code in the opened file or in the whole Go project.

For a single file, you can use the built-in import management and code formatter. Imports are managed on-the-fly. To customize import management, open settings by pressing Ctrl+Alt+S and navigate to Languages & Frameworks | Go | Imports.

To reformat code, press Ctrl+Alt+L. Comparing to gofmt, IntelliJ IDEA’s formatter works with syntactically incorrect code and can be invoked on an arbitrary block. There are other features such as automatically inserting semicolons, wrapping parameters and arguments, and others.

Also, you can use On code reformat option (Editor | Code Style | Go, click Other tab). This option lets you invoke both formatters by pressing Ctrl+Alt+L whenever you want.

Alternatively, use the Reformat code option in Actions on Save. This action is enabled by default for IntelliJ IDEA. When triggered by pressing Ctrl+S, the IDE runs the built-in IntelliJ IDEA formatter and gofmt.

  1. To format code in the opened file, go to Tools | Go Tools | Go fmt file.

  2. To format code in the current project, go to Tools | Go Tools | Go fmt project.

  3. To format code before you commit your changes into VCS, select the Go fmt checkbox. For more information about committing your changes, see Commit and push changes to Git repository.

    Example of the go fmt tool

goimports

With goimports, you can automatically update your Go import lines (add missing and remove unreferenced imports).

  1. If your project does not have goimports, click the go get goimports link in the Goimports file notification window. Otherwise, open the Terminal tool window (View | Tool Windows | Terminal), and type the following command to install goimports: go get golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports. Press Enter.

  2. To add missing imports, navigate to Tools | Go Tools and click Goimports file.

    Example of goimports

go generate

The go generate uses the //go:generate directive to define and invoke the code generation. For more information about go generate, see Generating code at blog.golang.org.

  1. Add the following line to your Go code: //go:generate command arguments (for example, //go:generate stringer -type=Pill)

  2. Click Tools | Go Tools | Go generate file. Alternatively, click the Run icon (the Run icon) on the gutter and select Go Generate.

    Example of go generate

go vet

The go vet command examines Go source code and reports suspicious constructs.

  • To find possible bugs or suspicious constructs with go vet, click Tools | Go Tools | Go vet file. You can see the result of code analysis in the Terminal tool window.

    Example of go vet
Last modified: 16 January 2023