Clang-Format Tools for JetBrains IDEs

Clang-Format Tools adds language support for .clang-format option files and allow to format code directly from the IDE.

Overview

• .clang-format file support with completion and documentation
• Format code using clang-format
• Automatically detects indentation style and column limit from .clang-format file (note that .editorconfig has the precedence)
• Automatically format code on save (via project settings)
• Support all JetBrains IDEs (Rider, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, etc.)
• Support any language supported by clang-format (C, C++, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, etc.)

Installation of clang-format

To use the plugin, you need to have clang-format installed on your system. You can install clang-format together with LLVM or separately using a package manager.

# Using PIP (all platforms)
pip install clang-format
# Using NPM (all platforms)
npm install -g clang-format
# Using APT (Linux)
sudo apt-get install clang-format
# Using Homebrew (macOS)
brew install clang-format

After installation, you should be able to execute clang-format from the command line.

clang-format --version

Note: if clang-format is executed without arguments, it formats the code from standard input and writes the result to the standard output.

Usage

To format the code, you can use the Code | Reformat Code, this is the standard action used in JetBrains IDEs to format the code.

There are also alternative ways to format the code:

• Select a directory or a file in the project view, right-click, and choose Reformat Code (or use the shortcut) to format all files in the directory.
• In the Commit Tab, you can enable "Reformat code" to format the code before committing it.
• Format on save

Note: At the moment, it is not possible to format only a selection of the code.

Format on save

To enable the format on save feature, follow these steps:

For Most JetBrains IDEs

1. Go to File | Settings | Tools | Actions on Save
2. Enable the Reformat code action
3. Optionally, choose the file types you want to format on save

For Rider

Unfortunately, Rider is not supported by the Actions on Save feature, but you can use the Clang-Format action instead.

1. Go to File | Settings | Tools | Actions on Save
2. Enable the Clang-Format action

Configuration

This plugin should work out of the box, but if you want to customize the behavior, you can do so in the settings.

The setting page is located at File | Settings | Languages & Frameworks | Clang-Format Tools.

All configuration are stored at the application level, so they are shared across all projects.

• Enabled: Globally enable/disable formatting utilities (The language support remains active)
• Path: Allows you to specify a custom path to the clang-format executable, if it's not in your PATH

Code style settings

This plugin will automatically detect the indentation style and column limit from the .clang-format file.

• ColumnLimit: The IDE will show a vertical line at the specified column limit.
• IndentWidth: The number of spaces to add when "tab" is pressed, not used if UseTab is enabled.
• TabWidth: The size of the tab character in columns.
• UseTab: Indicates if the tab should be used for indentation instead of spaces. Only used when "tab" key is pressed.

Note: At the moment, options from .editorconfig files take precedence over .clang-format files. Ensure that the .editorconfig file is correctly configured to avoid conflicts.

General clang-format guide

The .clang-format file is a YAML file that contains the style options for clang-format. You can find the full list of options here.

Example of a .clang-format file:

Always use spaces for indentation

UseTab: Never
IndentWidth: 4

Always use tabs for indentation

UseTab: Always
TabWidth: 4
IndentWidth: 4

Contributing

If you have any suggestions, bug reports, or contributions, please feel free to open an issue or a pull request.

Installation

• Using IDE built-in plugin system:

  Settings/Preferences > Plugins > Marketplace > Search for "idea-clang-format" > Install Plugin

• Manually:

  Download the latest release and install it manually using Settings/Preferences > Plugins > ⚙️ > Install plugin from disk...

---

Plugin based on the [IntelliJ Platform Plugin Template][https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-platform-plugin-template].