ReSharper 2019.2 Help

Code Syntax Style: Optional Parentheses

In many cases, parentheses in expressions are optional. Sometimes they help you clarify precedence of operations — for example if ((a & b) | c), sometimes, however, they do not help at all and just add up to dead code — var d = a + (b + c);. ReSharper will help you define where optional parentheses are helpful to you, and then either clean up the redundant parenthesis or automatically add missing ones where necessary.

ReSharper helps you arrange optional parentheses 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.

Enforcing preferences for optional parentheses

By default, ReSharper highlights parentheses that do not clarify operation precedence and helps remove them:

Removing redundant parentheses

Similarly, it notifies you about non-obvious operation precedences and suggests adding optional parentheses to make the code more readable:

Adding optional parentheses to clarify operation precedence

Another option to enforce your preferences for optional parentheses in a bulk mode is code cleanup. You can either run code cleanup with one of the default profiles Full Cleanup or Reformat & Apply Code Style, or create and run a custom profile solely targeted at your specific task as described below.

To apply preferences for optional parentheses with code cleanup

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

  2. Go to the Code Cleanup settings page: Code Editing | Code Cleanup.

  3. Create a new profile as described in the To create a new custom cleanup profile section. In the Selected profile settings section for the new profile tick the Remove redundant parentheses and Add parentheses to explicitly specify operation precedence check boxes.

  4. 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 list. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.

  5. Select the scope where you want to arrange optional parentheses:

    • Set the caret anywhere in the file to arrange optional parentheses to the file.

    • Select one or more items in the Solution Explorer to arrange optional parentheses in the files under these nodes and their child items.

  6. Do one of the following:

    • Press Ctrl+Alt+F or choose ReSharper | Edit | Cleanup Code from the main menu.

    • Right-click anywhere in the text editor or right-click the selection and choose Cleanup Code in the context menu.

  7. In the Code Cleanup dialog that opens, select the newly created profile.

  8. Click Run. ReSharper will arrange optional parentheses in the selected scope.

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

Configuring preferences for optional parentheses

Your optional parentheses 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.

To configure preferences for optional parentheses

  1. Go to the Code Editing | C# | Code Style page of ReSharper options (Alt+R,,O).

  2. In the Parentheses category, specify whether to remove redundant parentheses and which operations should be considered as not having obvious precedence.

  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. 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 list. For more information, see manage and share resharper settings.

Last modified: 18 November 2019