ReSharper
 
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  1. Code style and cleanup
  2. Format code with spaces, tabs, and line breaks
  3. Configure formatting rules

Configure formatting rules

Last modified: 25 September 2024

Formatting rules can be configured to a very high level of detail. For example, you can define whether whitespaces should be placed around a specific operator or whether to indent nested using statements.

tip

You can also configure code formatting using EditorConfig.

Configure code formatting rules in options

  1. Select ReSharper | Options from the main menu or press Alt+R O.

  2. Use the Code Editing | General Formatting Style page to check and to configure the options that apply in all languages.

  3. Use the Code Editing | [Language] | Formatting Style pages to configure language-specific formatting preferences. On these pages, you can use the preview area at the bottom to view just how ReSharper applies the specific preference to the code.

  4. 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 by choosing this layer from the Save To selector. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.

tip

As there are many ways to configure formatter settings, you may want to learn where the configuration settings for the current file are coming from. To do so, select ReSharper | Windows | File Formatting Info from the menu.

Configure formatting rules for selected code

As an alternative to digging through setting pages, you can select a block of code and configure only those formatting rules that are applicable to that block. You will be able to observe how modified settings affect code in the selected block right in the editor.

note

Contextual configuration of formatting rules only works for C# , JavaScript, TypeScript, and C++.

Learn formatting rules from existing code

Another alternative to tweaking individual formatting preferences is to learn formatting rules from an existing code sample, which can be a selected block , the current file, a set of files, one or more projects, or the entire solution. ReSharper will analyze the selected sample and list formatting rules that differ from your current settings. You will then be able to review the detected rules, change them as required, and save them to the desired settings layer or to a configuration file in the .editorconfig or .clang-format format.

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Detection of formatting rules only works for C# and C++.

note

When you run auto-detection of formatting rules in a specific scope and then ReSharper doesn't suggest changing any settings, or you accept all suggestions, you may expect that nothing will be changed the next time you reformat code in that scope.

However, there may be places where code was originally formatted in some unusual way, and there are no settings to define that way of formatting. If this is the case, ReSharper may still reformat those places.

Use comments to configure formatter

ReSharper allows you to deviate from the configured formatting rules without actually changing the rules. You can even disable formatter altogether in certain parts of your code.

You can configure formatter with comments in C#, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and Protobuf.

note

Formatter comments do not work with the old formatting engine. To make sure that you use the new formatting engine, clear the Revert to old formatting engine checkbox on the Code Editing | C# | Formatting Style | Other page of ReSharper options Alt+R, O.

To disable formatter, use the following comments:

  • // @formatter:off — disable formatter after this line

  • // @formatter:on — enable formatter after this line

If disabling formatter is too much, you can change any individual formatting rule with a comment.

Change an individual formatting rule with a comment

  1. Find the name of formatting rule that you want to tweak. You can look it up on the Code Editing | [Language] | Formatting Style page of ReSharper options Alt+R, O or alternatively, you can select a code block where the desired rule applies, press AltEnter, and choose Format selection | Configure. In the dialog that opens you can study all rules that affect the selection and even change them to see a live preview of the change. In this dialog, you can also click Save as comments and ReSharper will generate the necessary comments for all modified rules. .

  2. When you know the name of the rule, you can look up its ID in the Index of EditorConfig properties — use search in your browser. For example, if you want to find the rule that triggers the space before the semicolon, search for before semicolon and you will find the ID: space_before_semicolon.

  3. When you found the ID of the rule on the index web page, click the description link to learn which values are allowed for this rule. Following the example with space_before_semicolon, it can accept true or false.

  4. Add the following comment before the code where you want to change the rule:

    // @formatter:<rule_ID> <value>

    For example, to enable spaces before the semicolon, add:

    // @formatter:space_before_semicolon true

    .

  5. The new value for the rule will apply until the end of the file. If you want to go back to the value configured in the options, add the following comment:

    // @formatter:<rule_ID> restore

    For example:

    // @formatter:space_before_semicolon restore

    .

Store and share formatting rules

Your code formatting 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.

You can also configure formatting settings via in EditorConfig for all languages and Clang-Format for C++, JavaScript, and TypeScript . These settings can be stored in .editorconfig, .clang-format, or _clang-format files on different levels of your solution hierarchy. The files are normally put under VCS so that settings defined there are shared among the project team.

ReSharper lets you use EditorConfig to define any of its formatting preferences that are available in the ReSharper's Options dialog. You can find names and descriptions of supported EditorConfig properties in the EditorConfig reference.

As for Clang-Format, ReSharper will only apply the supported Clang-Format options.

It is important to note that any formatting property defined in an .editorconfig file will override the same property defined in ReSharper settings in the scope where this .editorconfig file applies. Formatting properties defined in Clang-Format will override both ReSharper settings and EditorConfig settings.

Another important thing to know when sharing formatting options is that indent style (tabs/spaces) and size are by default taken from Visual Studio options. If you want to share these preferences for specific language, clear the Use indent style and size from Visual Studio checkbox on the Code Editing | [Language] | Formatting Style | Tabs and Indents page of ReSharper options Alt+R, O and then save the change to a shared settings layer.

Troubleshoot formatting settings

There are many ways to configure formatting preferences: proprietary settings, Visual Studio settings, auto-detected settings, EditorConfig, Clang-Format, and so on. That makes your configuration very flexible, but if you get unexpected results after reformatting code, it may be difficult to understand where formatting settings are actually coming from.

To explore settings and configuration files that affect formatting in the current file, select ReSharper | Windows | File Formatting Info from the menu:

ReSharper. File Formatting Info window

Here you can study the origins of code style settings for the currently opened file: