ReSharper 2016.1 Help

Using Braces for Single Nested Statements

Language specification allows you to safely omit braces around single nested statements under some parent statements, e.g. if-else, foreach, etc. However, code style guidelines may differ in this regard. Some consider the braces here as a requirement, some consider them redundant. Whatever style you prefer, the important thing is to have consistent use of braces throughout your codebase.
With ReSharper, you can define your preference for using braces after each type of code block and enforce this style.

ReSharper also provides multiple formatting rules for braces layout (whitespaces, tabs, and new lines). To see and configure these rules, open ReSharper options (ReSharper | Options), type braces in the search box, and check matched items on pages under Code Editing | C# | Formatting Style.

ReSharper helps you apply braces style 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.

In this topic:

Applying style preferences for braces

By default, ReSharper does nothing with braces for single nested statements because severity levels of all related code inspections are set to Do not show. So, if you want ReSharper to control style preferences for single nested statements, you need to configure your preferences first.

ReSharper highlights code that do not comply with your preferences and suggests the corresponding quick-fix or fix in scope. For example, you can opt to use braces for using:

ReSharper helps add braces around single nested statement

... or do not use braces:

ReSharper helps remove braces around single nested statement

Another option to enforce preferences for braces around single statements in a bulk mode is code cleanup. You can either run code cleanup with the default profile Default: Full Cleanup or run the cleanup with a custom profile solely targeted at your specific task as described below.

To apply preferences for braces with code cleanup

  1. Open the Code Cleanup options: ReSharper | Options | Code Editing | Code Cleanup.
  2. Create a new profile as described in the Configuring Code Cleanup section. In the Selected profile settings section for the new profile tick the Add/Remove braces for single statements... check box.
  3. Click Save 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 drop-down list. For more information, see Managing and Sharing ReSharper Settings.
  4. 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.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Press Ctrl+Alt+F or choose ReSharper | Edit | Cleanup Code in the main menu .
    • Right-click anywhere in the text editor or right-click the selection and choose Cleanup Code in the context menu.
  6. In the Code Cleanup dialog box that opens, select the newly created profile in the Available Profiles area.
  7. Click Run. ReSharper will enforce your preferences in the selected scope.

If you want to enforce preferences for braces without opening the Code Cleanup dialog box, you can bind the created profile to the silent cleanup and run it simply by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F. You can also create a custom cleanup profile that would combine applying the preferences with other code style tasks.

Configuring preferences for braces under single statements

Your braces style preferences are saved using the mechanism of shared 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.

To configure preferences for braces

  1. Go to ReSharper | Options | Code Editing | C# | Code Style.
  2. Modify settings in the Braces category according to your coding practices/standards.
  3. The Notify with selectors in the right column allow you to set severity levels of code inspections detecting code that differs from your preferences.
  4. If you do not want ReSharper to check and enforce some preferences and to prevent code cleanup from enforcing selected preferences, you can disable them by setting their severity levels to Do not show.
  5. Click Save 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 drop-down list. For more information, see Managing and Sharing ReSharper Settings.

You can also change your preference for braces right in the editor, where a corresponding issue is highlighted:

To change preference for braces from the editor

  1. Set the caret to a code issue highlighted by a ReSharper's inspection.
  2. Press Alt+Enter or click on the action indicator to the left of the caret to open the action list.
  3. In the action list, choose Inspection "Use or not use braces..." | Configure code style and then select a desired preference:
    Changing code style preference for braces
  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 on the Configure code style menu item or press Enter when it is selected. ReSharper will open the Code Editing | C# | Code Style options page where you can modify your preference as needed, click Save To and then choose the desired settings layer.

See Also

Last modified: 19 August 2016