CLion 2021.1 Help

Code style

Code styles are defined at the project level and at the IDE level (global).

  • At the project level, settings are grouped under the Project scheme, which is predefined and is marked in bold. The Project style scheme is applied to the current project only.

    You can copy the Project scheme to the IDE level, using the Copy to IDE command.

  • At the IDE level, settings are grouped under the predefined Default scheme (marked in bold), and any other scheme created by the user by the Duplicate command (marked as plain text). Global settings are used when the user doesn't want to keep code style settings with the project and share them.

    You can copy the IDE scheme to the current project, using the Copy to Project command.

Configure code style for a language

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open IDE settings and select Editor | Code Style.

  2. Select the language-specific settings page.

  3. Choose the code style Scheme to be used as a base for your custom code style for the selected language.

  4. Browse through the tabs of the selected language page, and configure code style preferences for it.

    Code style settings for C/C++

Copy code style settings from other languages

For most of the supported languages, you can copy code style settings from other languages or frameworks.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open IDE settings and select Editor | Code Style.

  2. Select the language-specific settings page.

  3. Click the link Set from in the upper - right corner and select Language option from the list.

  4. From the list that appears, select the language to copy the code style from.

Create a copy of code style settings

You can define the code styles that differ from the pre-defined ones. These code style schemes are stored in XML files, in the config/codestyles folder under the user home directory. You can use the created copy for modifying code styles, and for export.

If you select a code style scheme other than Project, then this code style will be saved for a project. Thus you can assign a global (IDE) code style for each project.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open IDE settings and select Editor | Code Style.

  2. Select the desired scheme from the Scheme list and click the Scheme Settings icon.

  3. Select one of the following options:

    • Copy to IDE- select this option to store the selected scheme in a global level.

      CLion saves the new code style with the specified name in the config/codestyles/<code_style_name>.xml file under the CLion home directory.

    • Copy to Project- select this option to store the selected scheme in a project level.

      The selected code style is saved in the .idea directory in the file codeStyleSettings.xml.

    • Duplicate- select this option to make a copy of the selected scheme and store it in the same level.

  4. In the Scheme field, type the name of the new scheme and press Enter to save the changes.

Manage code style schemes

  1. In the Code Style page, select the desired scheme and click manage profiles.

  2. Select one of the following options:

  3. In the Scheme field, type the name of the new scheme and press Enter to save the changes.

Last modified: 06 July 2021