C++ access modifier auto indentation in Visual Studio 2010 slowly driving me crazy - can it be changed?

Question

When programming C++ in Visual Studio, it insists on giving me these awful indentations on access modifiers - my condolences if anyone actually likes them this way ;) (a joke folks!)

public class MyClass
{
public:
   MyClass();
   ~MyClass();
   int wowAnInt();
}

Needless to say, I want this:

public class MyClass
{
    public:
       MyClass();
       ~MyClass();
       int wowAnInt();
} 

Is there any way to achieve this using anything (I've got ReSharper and Highlighter) or perhaps vanilla VS?

Toner

I like them this way! (I would venture that in fact, this style is very common and popular...) – Overland

@Oli You might be right, and I MIGHT just have to settle on this... But it just seems weird with the brace and then the text directly below it.. Feels unnatural to a C#er like me! Just thought I'd pop the question. :) – Toner

I agree with Oli; however, I also find it irritating when a tool insists on formatting things a particular way and it's not what I'd prefer. Even if my preference isn't in agreement with general usage. – Lierne

Type Ctrl+Z after pressing Enter. – Subastral

I also agree with Oli. My vim is set up (my friend's set up, don't ask) to indent the access modifiers, and it annoys the hell out of me. I always have to go in and remove the indent. – Scarlett

@OliverCharlesworth You'll find that having 2000 lines in a function is very common too; doesn't mean that everyone wants to work with it! That's why almost all the other options are configuration such as starting new line for { etc everyone has their preference! – Fist

As a side note: this indentation style seems to be promoted by the inventor of C++ language Bjarne Stroustrup. Read about Stroustrup indetation style. – Bullace

Answer 1

The closest you can get with the built-in Visual Studio editor settings is to change the indenting mode from "Smart" to "Block" (Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> C/C++ -> Tabs -> Indenting).

When you do this, you can indent anything however you like, you just lose the "automatic indenting." Basically, whenever you press [enter] the new line will be indented the same number of tab stops / spaces as the previous line and it won't automatically reformat lines to get them to line up.

Drenthe

But it still seems to reformat things when I copy/paste – Lang

Thanks, this works! Ten years later and VS still doesn't have that one tiny extra checkbox for visibility label indentation... injury to insult, found out that unlike C#, with C++ it allows to configure automatic space before block opening (( int fn() {...} vs int fn(){ ... } )) which is something that drives me crazy. – Gambia

@ProQ does changing TextEditor > C/C++ > CodeStyle > Formatting >When I Paste to "Do Nothing" help? – Gambia

I now use VS Code, so unfortunately I won’t be able to answer this – Lang

Answer 2

There are two options to change that should help get the code looking the way you want. (Coming from Python, it really bothers me if stuff is not indented after a colon.)

I did use James McNellis's answer and change it from "Smart" to "Block", though I'm not sure how much that helped.

There is a setting under Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> C/C++ -> Formatting -> Indentation -> Indent Access Specifiers which does indent the access specifiers, but doesn't indent the stuff after them.

I also chose "Do nothing" under Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> C/C++ -> Formatting -> General -> When I paste, so that it doesn't change things just by copy/pasting.

This isn't a perfect solution, but it's at least a little bit closer.

Lang