Code Formatting

The integrated formatter helps you keep the code looking clean and maintain the selected code style (e.g. "PSR-12").

Note: In order to format the document, it must be syntax-error free.

The code formatting normalizes whitespaces, line endings, opening and closing braces, indentation, adds or removes new lines when necessary and pretty print spaces.

Triggering format

The formatting can be triggered explicitly by two actions:

• Format Document (Shift+Alt+F) - Format the entire active file.
• Format Selection (Ctrl+K Ctrl+F) - Format the selected text.

Or it can be triggered based on specific user actions, such as typing, saving or pasting. You can alter this behavior by setting:

• editor.formatOnType to true which enables the editor to format code blocks and statements upon typing ; and }.
• editor.formatOnSave to true instructs the formatter to run when saving the document.
• editor.formatOnPaste to true triggers format when pasting.

Configuration

The formatting behavior is set in settings.json. All the relevant settings and their effects are summed up in the following table.

Code Styles

There are various code styles available:

• PSR-12
• PHP Tools
• PSR-2
• Allman

• K&R

  The styles are selected in settings. The styles share most features, summed up in the following table, while they differ in a couple of details, explained in their own sections.

// Pretty print
if ($volume != 0) {
    $density = $mass / $volume;
}

// Indentation
function foo ()
{
    if ($x) {
        if ($y) {
            echo $x + $y;
        }
    }
}

// PHP blocks indentation
<?php 
echo $x;
?>
      <?php
      if ($x == 0)
          $x++;
      ?>

// Multi-line comments
/* 
 * Following lines are offset
 * by the first asterisk
 */

// Statements
echo "hello"; // the secod echo must be on a new line
echo "world";

// Anonymous functions
if ($x) {
    $example = function ()
    {
        var_dump($x);
    };
}

// Use construct
$example = function () use ($x) 
{
    var_dump($x);
};

// Control flow
if ($a == 5):
    echo "a equals 5";
else:
    echo "a is not 5";
endif;

// Namespace and Use statements
namespace foo;

use My\Full\Classname as Another;
use My\Full\NSname;
use ArrayObject;

echo "hello world";

Code Style: PSR-12

This formatting style is compliant with PSR-12 which expands and replaces PSR-2, and requires adherence to PSR-1.

Code Style: PSR-2

This formatting style is compliant with PSR-1 and PSR-2 standards.

// Multi-line expressions
$x = $a +
    $b +
    $c;

// Code blocks
function foo()
{
    if ($x) {
        echo $x;
    }
}

Code Style: Allman

The Allman style is named after Eric Allman. This style puts the braces on the next line. This applies to all control statements and declarations.

while ($x == $y)
{
    foo();
}

Code Style: K&R

The K&R style (Kernighan & Ritchie Style) keeps open braces on the same line for control structures, types, functions and methods.

while ($x == $y) {
    foo();
}

Code Style: PHP Tools

The default code style is compliant with the formatting in PHP Tools for Visual Studio. This style focuses on leaving the code visual structure as untouched as possible while normalizing the whitespaces where possible.

// Multi-line expressions
$x = $a +
     $b +
     $c;

// Code blocks
function foo()
{
    if ($x)
    {
        echo $x;
    }
}

Code Style: Off

To turn off the formatting select the setting Off. Remaining features like PHPDoc auto-generation will work but Document Format, Selection Format, Format On Paste and Format On Type will do nothing.

HTML, JS and CSS Formatting

PHP Tools support HTML, JavaScript and CSS formatting in PHP files. The formatting of these different language sections is performed according to VS Code settings. To customize it, please consult the official VS code documentation for:

• HTML Formatting
• CSS Formatting
• Javascript Formatting