C# Formatting Always Moving #pragmas to Left Margin

Question

5.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

Hi,

There are many options in the C# code formatting dialog, but there doesn't appear to be one to stop #pragmas being forced to the left-hand margin? Personally, I have always found this leads to less-readable code, and so I would like to be able to put them where I want. This seems to mean that I have to turn off all code formatting because I can't find a way to stop the formatter putting the #pragmas against the left margin.

Given the modern trend for everything to be controlled by separate XML (or similar) files, I wondered if anyone knew a 'back door' method of getting the formatter to leave my #pragma statements where I put them.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Best wishes, Patrick

Posted 24-Aug-10 3:33am

Patrick Skelton

Updated 24-Aug-10 8:35am

Deeksha Shenoy

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

Toli Cuturicu 24-Aug-10 10:11am

What if somebody else would ever want (or have) to read your strangely indented code?!

Patrick Skelton 24-Aug-10 10:23am

They would have to do what I have had to do hundreds of times in my 20-year career as a professional developer - accept that the way the code was formatted at the time of writing suited the development team who wrote it. In other words, accept that other professionals may have different opinions to me.

I worked in a large team as a senior developer on a video game that ran on multiple platforms and hence required a fair amount of #if code, and the whole team of 15 developers agreed that indenting #if statements within functions as if they were normal if() statements produced much more readable code.

I urge you to try it before you dismiss it. I personally find multiple levels of #if all against the margin to be TOTALLY unreadable.

- Patrick

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

#realJSOP · Answer 1 · 2010-08-24T04:39:00

Solution 1

When you're working on an existing file, you should format your code to match the formatting of the existing code. If you are creating a new file (and if corporate code stayle guidelines permit it), then you can use your own style.

I rarely use compiler definitions, and if I do, it's only one level, and usually just to omit code that's been refactored until I'm happy that the refactored code is as good/better than what it replaced.

Posted 24-Aug-10 4:39am

#realJSOP

Comments

Sandeep Mewara 24-Aug-10 12:16pm

Comment by OP: Thanks for the reply.

I agree that #if blocks of code are to be avoided if possible, but sometimes it simply isn't possible (take a look at Microsoft's own XNA examples or the standard C++ header files or any Unix kernel code or similar).

I also agree you should generally match the style of the code that has already been written when working on it.

I'd prefer not to use #ifs at all, but when I do have to on my own new code, I reserve the right to put them where I want them and not where Microsoft think I should put them. Just because they are Microsoft doesn't make them automatically right - as I am sure many readers on here will agree.

- Patrick