Understanding the Main Section of .editorconfig

Understanding the Main Section of .editorconfig

As part of our Code Cleanup series, let’s dive into the core configuration options in .editorconfig. Understanding these settings is crucial for maintaining consistent coding standards across your team.

Basic Configuration Example

# Remove the line below if you want to inherit .editorconfig settings from higher directories
root = true

# C# files
[*.cs]

#### Core EditorConfig Options ####

# Indentation and spacing
indent_size = 4
indent_style = space
tab_width = 4

# New line preferences
end_of_line = crlf
insert_final_newline = false

Root Setting

The root setting determines whether this is the top-most .editorconfig file. When set to true, EditorConfig stops searching for additional .editorconfig files in parent directories. This is useful for ensuring that your project uses its own specific settings without inheriting potentially conflicting rules from parent directories.

File-Specific Settings

[*.cs]

This section header specifies that all following rules apply only to C# files (files with .cs extension). You can have different rules for different file types, allowing for language-specific formatting preferences.

Core EditorConfig Options

Indentation Settings

indent_size = 4
indent_style = space
tab_width = 4

Indentation Style

• indent_style: Chooses between space and tab
  • Spaces provide consistent rendering across all editors
  • Tabs allow users to customize display width
  • Most C# projects prefer spaces for consistency

Indentation Size

• indent_size: Sets the number of spaces for each indentation level
• tab_width: Specifies the width of tab characters. This setting is not used when using spaces for indentation

New Line Preferences

end_of_line = crlf
insert_final_newline = false

Line Endings

The end_of_line setting determines the line ending style:

• LF (\n): Used on Unix/Linux systems
• CRLF (\r\n): Standard for Windows
• CR (\r): Mostly obsolete, used in older Mac systems

Final Newline

The insert_final_newline setting controls whether files should end with a newline:

• When true: Ensures each file ends with a newline character
• When false: Files end at the last character of the last line

How to set it up in Visual Studio?

Visual studio has built-in editor to update settings easily, it opens by default when we open .editorconfig file.

How to format code automatically?

For one file

• Format Document: Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D

For entire solution

1. Set Format Document section in Code Cleanup profile

2. Run Code Cleanup on solution

How to make sure that new code will be properly formatted?

1. Enable code cleanup on save It will automatically format code on save, so we don’t need to worry about it.

2. Integrate a step in your CI pipeline to run a formatting check

Just to make sure that everyone follows the rules, we can add a simple check to our CI pipeline:

- name: Check code format
  run: dotnet format --verify-no-changes