AppCode 2020.3 Help

Reformat and rearrange code

AppCode lets you reformat your code according to the requirements you've specified in the Code Style settings.

To access the settings, in the Preferences dialog ⌃⌥S, go to Editor | Code Style. See Configuring code style for details.

You can reformat a part of code, the whole file, group of files, a directory, and a module. You can also exclude part of code or some files from the reformatting.

Reformat a code fragment in a file

  1. In the editor, select a code fragment you want to reformat.

  2. From the main menu, select Code | Reformat Code or press ⌃⌥L.

Reformat a file

  1. In the Project tool window, right-click the file and select Reformat Code.

  2. In the dialog that opens, if you need, select the following reformatting options:

    • Optimize imports: select this option if you want to remove unused imports, add missing ones, or organize import statements.

      For more information, refer to the Optimize imports section.

    • Rearrange entries: select this option if you need to rearrange your code based on the arrangement rules specified in the code style settings.

    • Cleanup code: select this option to run the code cleanup inspections.

    Reformat Files dialog

    Click OK.

    If you want to see the exact changes made to your code during the reformatting, use the Local History feature.

Reformat code in a directory

  1. In the project view, right-click a directory and from the context menu, select Reformat Code or press ⌃⌥L.

  2. In the dialog that opens, specify the necessary options and click OK.

    Reformat code dialog

Reformat line indents

You can reformat line indents based on the specified settings.

  1. While in the editor, select the necessary code fragment and press ⌃⌥I.

  2. If you need to adjust indentation settings, in the Preferences dialog ⌃⌥S, go to Editor | Code Style.

  3. On the appropriate language page, on the Tabs and Indents tab, specify the appropriate indents options and click OK.

Exclude code or a file from reformatting

You can exclude a group of files or part of code from reformatting.

  1. In the Preferences dialog ⌃⌥S, go to Editor | Code Style.

  2. On the Formatter Control tab, select the Enable formatter markers in comments checkbox. The Scope area becomes active

  3. In the Scope area, click the Add icon to add a scope where you can specify files that you want to exclude from reformatting.

If you try reformatting the excluded file, AppCode displays a popup notifying you that formatting for this file is disabled. If you need, click the link in the popup to open the Code Style settings page and change the exclusion scope.

Exclude code fragments from reformatting in the editor

  1. In the Preferences dialog ⌃⌥S, go to Editor | Code Style and select the Enable formatter markers in comments checkbox on the Formatter Control tab.

  2. In the editor, at the beginning of a region that you want to exclude, create a line comment ⌃/ and type //@formatter:off, at the end of the region, again create a line comment and type //@formatter:on.

Keep existing formatting

You can select formatting rules which will be ignored when you reformat the code. For example, you can adjust the IDE to keep simple methods and functions in one line, whereas normally they are expanded into multiple lines after code reformatting.

  1. Go to Preferences | Editor | Code Style, select your programming language, and open the Wrapping and Braces tab.

  2. In the Keep when reformatting section, select the formatting rules which you want to ignore and deselect those which should be applied.

  3. Reformat your code (⌃⌥L ).

AppCode will reformat your code in accordance with the current style settings, keeping existing formatting for the rules which you've selected.

Rearrange code

You can rearrange your code according to the arrangement rules set in the Code Style page of the Preferences dialog.

Code Style settings
Matching rules example

Rearrange code entries

  1. In the Preferences dialog ⌃⌥S, go to Editor | Code Style.

  2. Select a language for which you want to create arrangement rules.

  3. On the Arrangement tab, specify the appropriate options such as grouping and matching rules.

  4. Click OK to save the changes.

  5. In the editor, select the code entries you want to rearrange and from the main menu, select Code | Rearrange Code.

Comments formatting

In AppCode, you can adjust the way the generated line ⌃/ and block ⌃⇧/ comments look like.

Configure comments position

  • To place the comment characters at the first column, in Preferences | Editor | Code Style | C/C++/Objective-C (or Swift), open the Code Generation tab and select Line comment at first column or Block comment at first column.

  • To align the comment characters with the next code line, deselect these checkboxes.

Comments at first column: ONComments at first column: OFF
Comments at first column: OFF
Comments at first column: OFF

To have block comment characters above and below a code block, select the block as a code construct using ⌃W and ⌃⇧W:

Block comments

Configure leading spaces in line comments

  • To add a leading space in line comments, in Preferences | Editor | Code Style | C/C++/Objective-C (or Swift), open the Code Generation tab and select Add a space at comment start.

Add a space at comment start: ONAdd a space at comment start: OFF
// comment your code // with spaces
//comment your code //without spaces
Last modified: 08 March 2021