How do you format code on save in VS Code

I would like to automatically format TypeScript code using the build-in formatter when I save a file in Visual Studio Code.

I'm aware of the following options, but none of them is good enough:

• Format manually Shift + Alt + F
• Format on type "editor.formatOnType": true
  • It formats the line when you press enter. Unfortunatelly, it leaves it unformatted when you mouse-click another line or press up/down arrow.
• Use existing extension
  • I tried this one, but it does not seem to work too well.
• Use beautify "beautify.onSave": true
  • It does not work with TypeScript
• Write custom extension
  • It's tricky if you want to handle autosaves and builds correctly.

0

9 Answers

As of September 2016 (VSCode 1.6), this is now officially supported.

Add the following to your settings.json file:

"editor.formatOnSave": true

8

No need to add commands anymore. For those who are new to Visual Studio Code and searching for an easy way to format code on saving, kindly follow the below steps.

1. Open Settings by pressing [Cmd+,] in Mac or using the below screenshot.

2. Type 'format' in the search box and enable the option 'Format On Save'.

You are done. Thank you.

If you would like to auto format on save just with Javascript source, add this one into Users Setting (press CmdShiftP or CtrlShiftP then type Open Settings (JSON) to open settings.json file)

"[javascript]": { "editor.formatOnSave": true }

1

For eslint:

"editor.codeActionsOnSave": { "source.fixAll.eslint": true }

For neet formatting for any language you can use Prettier - code formatter. After applying this you can format code Alt + Shift + f

For MAC user, add this line into your Default Settings

File path is: /Users/USER_NAME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json

"tslint.autoFixOnSave": true

Sample of the file would be:

{ "window.zoomLevel": 0, "workbench.iconTheme": "vscode-icons", "typescript.check.tscVersion": false, "vsicons.projectDetection.disableDetect": true, "typescript.updateImportsOnFileMove.enabled": "always", "eslint.autoFixOnSave": true, "tslint.autoFixOnSave": true
}

After hours of struggle... below steps worked.
Full details below.

1. Install this extension

2. Add below json, to below file:

File:

<your-project-directory>\.vscode\settings.json OR
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json

JSON:

NOTE: Make sure commas before and after below block.

 "files.autoSave": "afterDelay", "files.autoSaveDelay": 1000, "runOnSave.statusMessageTimeout": 3000, "runOnSave.commands": [ { "match": ".*\\.*", "command": "editor.action.formatDocument", "runIn": "vscode" } ],

Now, when the code is changed, after 1 second, it gets formatted & saved automatically.

3

For me formatOnSave wasn't working because I had prettier installed and hadn't yet chosen between the built-in and prettier as my default formatter.

To trigger the selection dialog I had to press Alt + Shift + f on my json file.

In addition to enabling setting Format On Save, for python developers, you may need to install autopep8 package which is used by vscode as default to format the python code when the code is saved.

pip install autopep8

and then, press ctrl + s to see changes.

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