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  1. Code style and cleanup
  2. Syntax styles
  3. Modifiers

Code Syntax Style: Modifiers

Last modified: 28 October 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 JetBrains Rider, 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.

JetBrains Rider 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, JetBrains Rider 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, JetBrains Rider highlights such declarations and suggests the corresponding quick-fix or fix in scope for the order of modifiers:

Sorting modifiers

... for the private modifier:

Fixing implicit private modifier

... and for the internal modifier:

Fixing implicit 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.

note

Preferences for modifiers are not applied to generated code. By default, JetBrains Rider 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 Editor | Inspection Settings | Generated Code page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

Apply preferences for modifiers with code cleanup

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S or choose File | Settings (Windows and Linux) or JetBrains Rider | Preferences (macOS) from the menu .

  2. Go to the cleanup profiles settings page: Editor | Code Cleanup.

  3. 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.

  4. Click Save in the Settings dialog to apply the modifications and let JetBrains Rider choose where to save them, or save the modifications to a specific settings layer using the Save To list. For more information, see layer-based settings.

  5. 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.

  6. Press Ctrl+E, C or choose Code | Reformat and Cleanup… from the main menu .

  7. In the Reformat and Cleanup Code dialog that opens, select the newly created profile and choose another scope if needed. .

  8. Click OK. JetBrains Rider will enforce your preferences in the selected scope.

If you want to arrange modifiers without opening the Reformat and Cleanup Code 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 in code that you have recently modified and are going to commit to Git. JetBrains Rider will run the selected cleanup profile before committing.

Clean up code before committing it to Git

  1. Press N/A or select Git | Commit from the main menu.

  2. In the Commit tool window, click Show Commit Options and in the Before Commit area, select the Cleanup with... checkbox.

  3. Click Choose profile and choose your custom Code Cleanup profile.

  4. Click Commit or Commit and Push. JetBrains Rider will run code cleanup on the ranges staged for the commit, and then commit the changes.

You can arrange modifiers every time you save changes in a file to make sure that your edits always comply with your code style. Note that this will only happen when you save changes explicitly with Ctrl+S or Ctrl+Shift+S and will not be triggered by auto-saving. However, all auto-saved files are placed to the 'reformat and cleanup' queue and will be processed on the next explicit save.

Automatically arrange modifiers on saving changes

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Tools | Actions on Save.

  2. Select Reformat and Cleanup Code, choose your custom Code Cleanup profile and whether to apply it to the whole file or only to the changed lines.

  3. The next time you finish editing and save the file or all files , JetBrains Rider will clean up the affected files using the selected profile.

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

  1. Go to the Editor | Code Style | C# page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S, and then select the Syntax Style tab .

  2. In the Modifiers category, specify the desired order of modifiers and set the preferences for explicit using of private and internal modifiers.

  3. The selectors in the right column allow you to set severity levels of code inspections detecting code that differs from your preferences.

  4. Click Save in the Settings dialog to apply the modifications and let JetBrains Rider choose where to save them, or save the modifications to a specific settings layer using the Save To list. For more information, see layer-based 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 will 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

  1. Set the caret to a code issue highlighted by a JetBrains Rider's inspection.

  2. Press Alt+Enter or click the action indicator to the left of the caret to open the action list.

  3. In the action list, choose Inspection "Use explicit or implicit modifier definition for types" | Prefer implicit 'internal' modifier:

    Changing the preference for explicit/implicit 'internal' modifier in the editor

  4. Your change will be saved using the smart save logic.

  5. 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. JetBrains Rider will open the Editor | Code Style | C# | Syntax Style page of JetBrains Rider settings where you can modify your preference as needed, click Save To and then choose the desired settings layer.

  6. In a similar way, you can change the preference for explicit/implicit private modifier.

    Changing the preference for explicit/implicit 'private' modifiers in the editor

tip

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

See also

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