Stop Visual Studio 2013 from automatically removing extra spaces in assignments

Question

I'm trying to align some assignments to improve readability, but each time I paste something, Visual Studio 2013 automatically removes the extra spaces before the =.

For example, this:

static class Constants {
    public static string Something      = "A value";
    public static string SomethingElse  = "Another value";
}

gets re-formatted like this:

static class Constants {
    public static string Something = "A value";
    public static string SomethingElse = "Another value";
}

Is there a way to turn this off?

Monarchal

I'm not sure the feature, but you can press ctrl+z immediately after pasting to get the original formatting back. – Sanskritic

@Matthew: yes, I know, but it's quite annoying to have to undo every time... moreover, I would still like to be able to format the document (ctrl-k, ctrl-d) without all alignments exploding :) – Monarchal

Answer 1

This can be turned off in Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting->Spacing via the "Ignore spaces in declaration statements" option.

Shithead

No problem :-) Seems there's only an option for declarations though, not assignments in general. Ah well. – Shithead

Yes, it would be nice to have some more "ignore" options. – Monarchal

While this should work, it does not appear to have the desired effect as Format Document still removes extra blanks and tabs – Striper

Answer 2

VB.net for VisualStudio 2016 instructions:

|<-- main menu bar -->|<------------Side Panel Of Options Window------>|
Tools --> Options --> | Text Editor v | --> | Basic v | --> | Advanced |

    Options.Advanced window:
 =========================================================  
 =   +----Highlighting-------------------------------+   =
 =   | (...)                                         |   =
 =   +-----------------------------------------------+   =
 =                                                       =
 =   +----Outlining----------------------------------+   =
 =   | (...)                                         |   =
 =   +-----------------------------------------------+   =
 =                                                       =
 =   +----Editor Help--------------------------------+   =
 =   |                                               |   =
 =   | [ ] Pretty listing (reformatting) of code     |   =
 =   |                                               |   =
 =   +-----------------------------------------------+   =
 =========================================================

Screen shot:

Clerihew