How to indent the fluent interface pattern "correctly" with eclipse?

Question

I just created a generator for some fluent interfaces. Now I have lots of code looking like this:

new MyFluentInterface()
    .setFirst( "first" )
    .setSecond( "second" )
    .setThird( "third" )
    .invoke( obj );

I like the indentation shown above, but I can't find a way to configure eclipse to indent this correctly.

eclipse always indents like this:

new MyFluentInterface()
.setFirst( "first" )
.setSecond( "second" )
.setThird( "third" )
.invoke( obj );

How can I configure eclipse so that it indents this fluent interface pattern as shown in my first code example?

Alumna

Do you want the formatter to do that? I mean "CONTROL+SHIFT+f" on the whole buffer or do you want to be able to indent only that line? – Cioffi

It would be fine if either the formatter or the indenter of eclipse could produce this... – Alumna

Hi, I know this is an old thread, have you noticed that Ctrl+A, Ctrl+I undoes this formatting? – Wasp

This Ctrl+I thing is annoying as hell :) – Quenby

Answer 1

With Eclipse 3.6, this seems doable by configuring your custom Java > Code Style > Formatter profile. Edit it and go to the Line Wrapping tab and select Function Call > Qualified invocations. Then, in the Settings for qualified invocations, configure things like this:

This will (should) produce the expected result:

SomeEntity e1 = new SomeEntity.Builder()
    .age(10)
    .amount(10.0d)
    .firstname("foo")
    .lastname("bar")
    .build();

But this will obviously affect all the code, which I personally don't like. So I'm using the new Off/On Tags from Eclipse 3.6 (last tab when editing a profile):

And enclose the parts that don't get formatted as I want and do it myself:

// @formatter:off
SomeEntity e2 = new SomeEntity.Builder()
    .age(10)
    .amount(10.0d)
    .firstname("foo")
    .lastname("bar")
    .build();
// @formatter:on

Pick your poison :)

Feet

@seanizer: Actually, the above is the result of the Builder Pattern Eclipse Plugin. I like this little plugin as it is :) – Feet

This didn't work for me. Even after setting this up, the beginning of the "."-lines still match the beginning of the initial line – Macey

At first I didnt think this worked. I found out that it works with auto-format but adding "Correct indentation" to save actions overwrites and pulls it back. Im going to raise an eclipse bug. – Benito

I have show whitespace enabled (eclipse.org/forums/index.php/m/249836), and I use off/on tags to create a custom indentation for the different nestings (I'm using a Json builder). – Program

@SeanPatrickFloyd you may want to try this one: code.google.com/p/fluent-builders-generator-eclipse-plugin – Wherry

If it doesn't work ensure there are no compile errors. That stung me for weeks in Eclipse while sorting out formatting issues. – Breeden