#Prettier code formatter how to
#Prettier code formatter install

#Prettier code formatter how to

Now, get on with more interesting programming tasks than dealing with how to format code, and don’t argue with it anymore. Open Files -> Preferences -> Settings (or Ctrl +, in Windows). Īnd you’re done, formatting is done by editors directly, checked by the CI, and everyone can read it. You’ll also need to add the next line to your CI: npx prettier -check. Īs your branch will be quite hard to rebase, do merge other PRs before that and sync with your team as when it is best to apply this new coding guideline. First, set it up in your code-editor, then make a first pass with (at project root) (it will only format known files): npx prettier -write. I use it in my new web projects, where it’s really easy to integrate. Overall, formatting is not though anymore, just done. Or merging an object initialization if it is small enough. As such, no more endless discussion on it, just use it™©®! It has many advantages, such as splitting a function call when too many arguments are passed. Im talking about Prettier as an extension, not as a package. If you use VS Code mostly for web development, you most likely also use Prettier for formatting. One of the most interesting features it has, is that it doesn’t compromise: you can’t (much) configure it. Youve followed Microsofts tutorial on setting up Python in VS Code but formatting is just not working It might be that other extensions are interfering with your Python formatter. A friendly newcomer and well accepted already. And finally, it is used by some very big project: Dropbox, ReactJS, Webpack & Facebook. It works with most editors, Vim, Emacs, Atom, VS and JetBrains’ IDEs. Let’s welcome prettier, a newcomer in the formatting world, aimed at precisely theses languages.Īmong others, it supports JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, HTML, Angular, CSS, Markdown, YAML, TOML, XML, enough for any webapp. Do you remember the hours-long discussions on using tabs versus spaces? Where to add empty lines? Alignment of fields? For some years now, many languages provide their own code formatter, Go has gofmt, Rust has cargo fmt, some have a standard-by-usage, Python has black, Scala has scalafmt, but nothing was appropriate for the web languages in general. Prettier isn’t the first or only tool for the job, so if it is not suitable for you, then there is bound to be another one to suit your environment or team.Code formatting is the most known instance of bikeshedding: everyone has a different opinion on it and nobody is willing to compromise. It works well and is very easy to setup, so it should be considered a must in any project. eslintrc file with the following contents: ConclusionĪutomated code formatting against sane settings saves a lot of grief and time. Step 3: Create the Prettier and ESLint Configuration filesĬreate an.

#Prettier code formatter install

Install the following Visual Studio Code Extensions: yarn add -dev -exact prettier yarn add -dev eslint-plugin-prettier Step 2: Install the Prettier and ESLint VS Code Extensions The plugin allows Prettier violations to be reported as ESLint errors.

You will need to install the Prettier package and then the ESLint Prettier plugin. Note: You will need to install ESLint if you are not using Create React App Step 1: Install Prettier and the ESLint Plugin The errors will only be shown in Visual Studio Code. Please note that Create React App will not show any Prettier errors in the browser console or terminal output. The instructions shouldn’t be too different if you are using NPM or another React/JavaScript environment. This tutorial assumes that you are using Create React App, Yarn and Visual Studio Code. By using an automated and opinionated tool everyone’s personal opinion is taken out of the equation and developers can just get on with developing and no longer have to waste time formatting their code. Prettier is an “opinionated code formatter” which has some very sensible defaults and can be used to ensure that all committed code looks the same. For example I used to think that JSX was an abomination, but I quickly came to realise that it is actually a thing of beauty. Thankfully human beings are incredibly adaptive and will quickly “get used” to using a new style of tool if they don’t have a choice. The meeting ends up being a wash, people are frustrated and “Frank” ends up getting a special pass to prefix his private fields with my_ and use tabs while everyone else uses _ and spaces. It starts off with good intentions and good progress is initially made, but then a roadblock is encountered trying to come to an agreement on a private field prefix or to use spaces instead of tabs. A frequent scenario seems to be that a developer meeting is held to come up with a company coding standard. Having consistent code formatting and style is an important part of reducing cognitive load when working with others or when jumping around between projects.