Code style and cleanup
Syntax styles
Modifiers

Code Syntax Style: Modifiers

Last modified: 21 July 2022

C# modifiers of types and type members can be written in any order. However, arranging them in a similar way throughout your code is a good practice, which improves code readability. Besides, you may prefer using or not using private and internal modifiers explicitly.

tip
With ReSharper, you can also automatically add the 'readonly' modifier for fields that are assigned in the declaration or in a constructor and only have read usages.

ReSharper helps you arrange modifiers in the existing code and takes your preferences into account when it produces new code with code completion and code generation features, applies code templates and performs refactorings.

Arrange modifiers in existing code

By default, ReSharper suggests to use private and internal modifiers explicitly, and to arrange modifiers in a specific order. If necessary, you can flexibly configure these preferences.

If your code does not comply with these preferences, ReSharper highlights such declarations and suggests the corresponding quick-fix or fix in scope for the order of modifiers:

... for the private modifier:

... and for the internal modifier:

Another option to enforce all your preferences for modifiers in a bulk mode is code cleanup. You can either run code cleanup with one of the built-in profiles Full Cleanup or Reformat & Apply Syntax Style, or create and run a custom profile solely targeted at your specific task as described below.

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Preferences for modifiers are not applied to generated code. By default, ReSharper provides the list of file masks and regions for generated code typically produced by Visual Studio (for example, Windows Form Designer-generated code). If necessary, you can edit the list of generated items on the Code Inspection | Generated Code page of ReSharper options (Alt+R, O).

Apply preferences for modifiers with code cleanup

Select ReSharper | Options from the main menu or press Alt+R O.
Go to the cleanup profiles settings page: Code Editing | Code Cleanup | Profiles.
Create a new profile as described in the Create a new custom cleanup profile section. In the Selected profile settings section for the new profile tick the Use explicit/implicit modifier for types, Use explicit/implicit modifier for type members, and Sort modifiers check boxes.
Click Save in the Options dialog to apply the modifications and let ReSharper choose where to save them, or save the modifications to a specific settings layer using the Save To list. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.
Select the scope where you want to enforce your preferences:
- Set the caret anywhere in the file to enforce your preferences to the file.
- Select one or more items in the Solution Explorer to enforce your preferences in the files under these nodes and their child items.
Do one of the following:
- Press Ctrl+E C or choose ReSharper | Edit | Cleanup Code... from the main menu .
- Right-click anywhere in the text editor or right-click the selection and choose Cleanup Code in the context menu.
In the Code Cleanup dialog that opens, select the newly created profile .
Click Run. ReSharper will enforce your preferences in the selected scope.

If you want to arrange modifiers without opening the Code Cleanup dialog to choose a profile, you can bind the created profile to the silent cleanup and run it by pressing Ctrl+E F. You can also create a custom cleanup profile that would combine applying modifiers style with other code style tasks.

To apply preferences for modifiers together with all other formatting and syntax style rules to the selected code block, Alt+Enter and choose Reformat and cleanup | Reformat & apply syntax style.

You can arrange modifiers every time you save changes in a file to make sure that your edits always comply with your code style.

Automatically arrange modifiers on saving changes

Select ReSharper | Options from the main menu or press Alt+R O.
Go to the cleanup profiles settings page: Code Editing | Code Cleanup | Profiles.
Select your custom Code Cleanup profile and click Set as default (the default profile is also used for silent cleanup).
Go to the Code Editing | Code Cleanup | General options page and select Automatically run cleanup when saving a file.
Optionally, you can restrict automatic cleanup to specific files by a file mask. You can also select Only changed parts of file to make sure that cleanup is applied to the code affected by your changes, and the rest of the code in the file is not modified.
Click Save in the dialog to apply the modifications and let ReSharper choose where to save them, or save the modifications to a specific settings layer using the Save To list. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.
The next time you finish editing and save the file (Ctrl+S) or all files (Ctrl+Shift+S), ReSharper will clean up the affected files using the selected profile. If the default cleanup profile is not selected, ReSharper will prompt you choose one of the profiles.

Configure preferences for modifiers

Your modifiers-related preferences are saved using the mechanism of layer-based settings. Among other things, this mechanism allows you to maintain different preferences for different solutions as well as to keep these preferences under a VCS and automatically share them with your team members.

Configure preferences for modifiers

Go to the Code Editing | C# | Syntax Style page of ReSharper options (Alt+R, O).
In the Modifiers category, specify the desired order of modifiers and set the preferences for explicit using of private and internal modifiers.
The Notify with selectors in the right column allow you to set severity levels of code inspections detecting code that differs from your preferences.
Click Save in the Options dialog to apply the modifications and let ReSharper choose where to save them, or save the modifications to a specific settings layer using the Save To list. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.

note
By implicit use of modifiers we mean absence of modifiers for classes and class members. That is, if a non-nested class has no modifiers, it will be internal by default; if a class member or a nested class has no modifiers, it wll be private by default.

You can also change your preferences for explicit/implicit use of private and internal modifiers right in the editor, where corresponding issues are highlighted:

Change preference for modifiers in the editor

Set the caret to a code issue highlighted by a ReSharper's inspection.
Press Alt+Enter or click the action indicator to the left of the caret to open the action list.
In the action list, choose Inspection "Use explicit or implicit modifier definition for types" | Prefer implicit 'internal' modifier:
Your change will be saved using the smart save logic.
If you need to save the modified style preference in a shared settings layer, click the Configure code style menu item or press Enter when it is selected. ReSharper will open the Code Editing | C# | Syntax Style page of ReSharper options where you can modify your preference as needed, click Save To and then choose the desired settings layer.
In a similar way, you can change the preference for explicit/implicit private modifier.

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Code style features that only change whitespaces, tabs, and line breaks are configurable in formatting preferences.

This feature is supported in the following languages and technologies:

Code Syntax Style: Modifiers

See also

Concepts

Procedures

External Links

Code Syntax Style: Modifiers﻿

tip

Arrange modifiers in existing code﻿

note

Apply preferences for modifiers with code cleanup﻿

Automatically arrange modifiers on saving changes﻿

Configure preferences for modifiers﻿

Configure preferences for modifiers﻿

note

Change preference for modifiers in the editor﻿

tip

See also

Concepts

Procedures

External Links

Code Syntax Style: Modifiers

Arrange modifiers in existing code

Apply preferences for modifiers with code cleanup

Automatically arrange modifiers on saving changes

Configure preferences for modifiers

Configure preferences for modifiers

Change preference for modifiers in the editor