Code Formatting

If you've already tried the latest IntellIJ IDEA 14 EAP build, you might've noticed that the Code Style settings offers a new option: Detect and use existing file indents for editing (enabled by default.) This new option lets IntelliJ IDEA detect certain Code Style settings (such as Use Tab character and Indent size) in the currently edited file on the fly. It means that even if a file has a code style different from your current settings, they will still be preserved. So now you don't need to worry about losing the formatting in files that are specific to certain files in your proje

Many development teams are using more than one IDE because it’s a very personal matter, and people always seek what best suits their individual needs. And then there’s collaboration, and it sometimes is harder when different sorts of IDEs are involved. One of the most frequently encountered problems is code style, that has to be consistent in the entire project. You may have heard about Eclipse Code Formatter, a quite popular IntelliJ IDEA plugin that lets you, what else, — use Eclipse’s code formatter with IntelliJ IDEA. In most cases the plugin is fine, but because it’s calling Eclipse AP

IntelliJ IDEA 13 will bring a lot of goodies for Android developers. One very useful new feature is the capability to automatically rearrange XML attributes according to predefined rules. To enable this new feature, go to Settings → Code Style → XML and choose Set from... → Predefined Style → Android. After that on the Arrangement tab you will find the following list of arrangement rules: By default the rules represent the common Android-style order. You can manage this order using the Arrangement controls. For example, you can move the name attribute in front of the id attribute:

It's a great tradition to learn new things about your favourite IDE each week. Just to keep it going we publish this article from our 30 Day Guide about fundamental features of IntelliJ IDEA. Today we will talk about the code style and how the IDE can help you with that. As you know, code style defines how your code looks in terms of indents, spaces, wrapping, blank lines, and statements order. Consistent code style helps to make it easier for your team to read and understand it. IntelliJ IDEA provides built-in tools that help you configure code style for your project and apply it to the code

If you are developing for Android, you probably deal with XML files every day. These are the manifests, layouts, drawables, resource files and many others. That's why in IntelliJ IDEA 12 we have added a new option for the code formatter, which is aware of Android-specific code styles. The new option is available in Settings → Code Style → XML and can be enabled via Set From… → Predefined Style → Android. (more…)

You probably might have noticed that code always tends to be organized in a particular way. For instance, fields always go before methods, static fields go before instance fields and so forth. This is the easiest way to read your code. Previously IntelliJ IDEA did not provide any native support for arranging code automatically. There was a third-party Rearranger plugin for Java language. Now we plan to bundle it into the IDE with native support for Java and other programming languages. (more…)