17

Often I see code blocks pasted into questions with no formatting, or terrible formatting.

It's sometimes quite a chore to fix these: you have to either manually space out each line, or paste the code into an IDE, format it there, and paste it back.

Could we have a button/function where you could highlight a code block, and it would turn this:

foreach (var i in stuff) {
if (i==1) {
Whatever();
}
}

into this:

foreach (var i in stuff) {
  if (i==1) {
    Whatever();
  }
}

I realise the function would have to work differently based on the language in the code block. Perhaps it could use the same rules as the prettify code.

Also, it wouldn't be a big deal if it gets the language wrong and breaks the code, since you can always just ctrl+z.

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3
  • 1
    I'd favor smaller code fragments (which, I feel, often cannot be indented automatically as they are incomplete by definition, and hence often are unbalanced) over folks pasting lots of code...
    – Arjan
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 10:31
  • 3
    From my POV it's more for fixing other people's code - my code is already indented when I paste it anyway. Good point about fragments, although I think I'd expect most fragments to be balanced..
    – Blorgbeard
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 10:35
  • 1
    Just some fuel for thought: The formatting of code can also be an error source, so reformatting the code could fix this possible problem (especially with languages like Python) and would leave the audience and the OP completely baffled, without being visible on first sight why the error is not reproducible anymore.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented May 2, 2011 at 11:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
15

That would take a fair bit of work to implement, but simple Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons would make reformatting code MUCH easier.

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4
  • Just for the archives: text that is indented can be outdented by selecting all lines, and hitting the code button or its Ctrl-K keyboard shortcut. Indenting kind of works the same: the button/Ctrl-K will indent selected text if it's not indented yet. Of course, this does NOT allow one to indent partial text multiple times (as after indenting, the button/Ctrl-K will outdent, rather than indent more), so the current behaviour is not exactly what is suggested in the above answer.
    – Arjan
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 15:23
  • @Arjan wat. o the current behaviour is not exactly what is suggested in the above answer I didn't speak of any current behavior. What you described decreases indents until none are left, then reverts to an indent/remove indent behavior. You cannot directly control increasing or decreasing indents, which is a feature that I'm talking about.
    – user1228
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 15:32
  • I meant the current behaviour that I described, when using Ctrl-K et al. :-) (And that the things I described are not what you suggested. So, my comment was just to explain the limited current possibilities, for those who did not know about that...)
    – Arjan
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 15:40
  • (And yes, I like your suggestion!)
    – Arjan
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 15:42
6

if you have long blocks of code to indent I have found a trick to help with that:

when writing code after the first indent (to make the code block) you have this:

    foreach (var i in stuff) {
    if (i==1) {
    Whatever();
    }
    }

after the block you want to indent insert a new line with a single character on it

    foreach (var i in stuff) {
    if (i==1) {
    Whatever();
    }
k
    }

then select the char plus the entire block (I use shift+up for this) you want to indent and hit ctrl+k

    foreach (var i in stuff) {
        if (i==1) {
        Whatever();
        }
    k
    }

then delete the inserted line

    foreach (var i in stuff) {
        if (i==1) {
        Whatever();
        }
    }

that's how I quickly indent large pieces of code

then again an increase-indent button would help

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