How to auto-indent code in the Atom editor?

Question

How do you auto-indent your code in the Atom editor? In other editors you can usually select some code and auto-indent it.

Is there a keyboard shortcut as well?

Heath

Answer 1

I found the option in the menu, under Edit > Lines > Auto Indent. It doesn't seem to have a default keymap bound.

You could try to add a key mapping (Atom > Open Your Keymap [on Windows: File > Settings > Keybindings > "your keymap file"]) like this one:

'atom-text-editor':
  'cmd-alt-l': 'editor:auto-indent'

It worked for me :)

---

For Windows:

'atom-text-editor':
  'ctrl-alt-l': 'editor:auto-indent'

Calculable

Thank you! Would be nice if it did a core:select-all right before, but no clue on how to script that. – Manhour

@Manhour I created a question with an answer on how to compose two commands into a new command here: #24457495 – Dovev

I think me keymap stopped working after some upgrade. Had to change .atom-text-editor to atom-text-editor (remove class dot) – Dearth

You can also cmd + shift + p and search for Editor: Auto Indent – Ciliary

I figured out a way to bind this approach with "Select All" first (and then restore the original selection after), so you can do it all in one key press -- see my answer below. https://mcmap.net/q/86164/-how-to-auto-indent-code-in-the-atom-editor – Hunks

Works well thanks! Cmd + a then Cmd + shift + a (auto reindent) is so awesome! – Gee

For ubuntu, its [Edit > Open Your Keymap]. And as ctrl-alt-l is ubuntu's default shortcut for lock screen, I'm mapping with ctrl-shift-] for now. – Francoisefrancolin

I had to save the file with extension to make it work. Don't know why! – Faggot

Wow - I searched for it - found it and solved it. That was fast ;) Thanks. – Sextuple

for ubuntu 18.04 with atom 1.26.1 -> Go to Edit -> Keymaps -> add 'atom-text-editor': 'ctrl-alt-]': 'editor:auto-indent'. After this select all your unindented texts and apply ctrl+alt+] and you are done. – Agreed

Hi, where can I find a list of editor keymap options? – Into

Answer 2

The accepted answer works, but you have to do a "Select All" first -- every time -- and I'm way too lazy for that.

And it turns out, it's not super trivial -- I figured I'd post this here in an attempt to save like-minded individuals the 30 minutes it takes to track all this down. -- Also note: this approach restores the original selection when it's done (and it happens so fast, you don't even notice the selection was ever changed).

1.) First, add a custom command to your init script (File->Open Your Init Script, then paste this at the bottom):

atom.commands.add 'atom-text-editor', 'custom:reformat', ->
    editor = atom.workspace.getActiveTextEditor();
    oldRanges = editor.getSelectedBufferRanges();
    editor.selectAll();
    atom.commands.dispatch(atom.views.getView(editor), 'editor:auto-indent')
    editor.setSelectedBufferRanges(oldRanges);

2.) Bind "custom:reformat" to a key (File->Open Your Keymap, then paste this at the bottom):

'atom-text-editor':
    'ctrl-alt-d': 'custom:reformat'

3.) Restart Atom (the init.coffee script only runs when atom is first launched).

Hunks

Interesting. I'm not sure I'd want it to automatically auto indent everything though. The built-in allows for indenting the selection. You could argue, that proper indentation is always something, that should be had. – Orten

@Zelphir I usually have one keybinding for indent selection, and another keybinding for indent all. -- I don't use indent all as often, but it's nice to have it when you need it. – Hunks

@Hunks Maybe a little bit offtopic: I've noticed that there is a problem when trying to auto indent languages, which don't use braces to mark blocks of code and allow to define functions or classes within others. The editor can't know what is on which level in those cases. – Orten

if oldRanges != null && oldRanges[0].start.column == oldRanges[0].end.column && oldRanges[0].start.row == oldRanges[0].end.row adding this condition to editor.selectAll(); will still allow indenting only the selection. If there is no selection, it will indent the entire file. – Antinomy

Worked like a charm! Tho i got frustrated over cmd+alt+l not reformating til i discovered the shortcut was set to ctrl and not cmd :) – Traherne

If you want to have a single undo step for the whole command, add this after defining editor: checkpoint = editor.createCheckpoint(); and this at the end: editor.groupChangesSinceCheckpoint(checkpoint); – Kirshbaum

For my case, I only needed this done for at most a few files (extracted from a third party lib only so I could read it clearly...), so select all with auto indent is enough. There was too much nesting. – Crites

Answer 3

Package auto-indent exists to apply auto-indent to entire file with this shortcuts :

ctrl+shift+i

or

cmd+shift+i

Package url : https://atom.io/packages/auto-indent

Trope

needs an update I think - not working for me. Using deprecated calls to the API – Gramophone

Instead I downloaded and installed manually from github.com/griiin/atom-auto-indent and now seems to work... – Gramophone

Note : it uses 1 tab indent by default :/ – Eboni

Answer 4

I prefer using atom-beautify, CTRL+ALT+B (in linux, may be in windows also) handles better al kind of formats and it is also customizable per file format.

more details here: https://atom.io/packages/atom-beautify

Catanzaro

With twig it adds an space for path function so the route couldn't be found – Abrogate

I think this is the simplest and cleaner solution. Thanks. – Dissemble

Answer 5

You can just quickly open up the command palette and do it there
Cmd + Shift + p and search for Editor: Auto Indent:

Ciliary

That's not quick if you're a power user :) – Gulick

Answer 6

This works for me:

'atom-workspace atom-text-editor':
    'ctrl-alt-a': 'editor:auto-indent'

You have to select all with ctrl-a first.

Symmetry

Answer 7

This is the best help that I found:

https://atom.io/packages/atom-beautify

This package can be installed in Atom and then CTRL+ALT+B solve the problem.

Peggy

Yeah it is great ! – Cauterant

Answer 8

On Linux

(tested in Ununtu KDE)

There is the option in the menu, under Edit > Lines > Auto Indent or press Cmd + Shift + p, search for Editor: Auto Indent by entering just "ai"

Note: In KDE ctrl-alt-l is already globally set for "lock screen" so better use ctrl-alt-i instead.

You can add a key mapping in Atom:

• Cmd + Shift + p, search for "Settings View: Show Keybindings"
• click on "your keymap file"

• Add a section there like this one:

   'atom-text-editor':
      'ctrl-alt-i': 'editor:auto-indent'
  

If the indention is not working, it can be a reason, that the file-ending is not recognized by Atom. Add the support for your language then, for example for "Lua" install the package "language-lua".

If a File is not recognized for your language:

• open the ~/.atom/config.cson file (by CTRL+SHIFT+p: type ``open config'')

• add/edit a customFileTypes section under core for example like the following:

  core:
    customFileTypes:
      "source.lua": [
        "conf"
      ]
      "text.html.php": [
        "thtml"
      ]
  

(You find the languages scope names ("source.lua", "text.html.php"...) in the language package settings see here)

Naomanaomi

Answer 9

If you have troubles with hotkeys, try to open Key Binding Resolver Window with Cmd + .. It will show you keys you're pressing in the realtime.

For example, Cmd + Shift + ' is actually Cmd + "

Shirker

Answer 10

You could also try to add a key mapping witch auto select all the code in file and indent it:

'atom-text-editor':
  'ctrl-alt-l': 'auto-indent:apply'

Virgel

@IB Try with 'atom-text-editor': 'ctrl-alt-l': 'editor:auto-indent' Before pressing the shortcut select all text in the file. – Virgel

Answer 11

I was working on some groovy code, which doesn't auto-format on save. What I did was right-click on the code pane, then chose ESLint Fix. That fixed my indents.

Chum

Answer 12

If you are used to the Eclipse IDE or the Netbeans, you can use the package eclipse-keybindings (https://atom.io/packages/eclipse-keybindings):

This Atom package provides Eclipse IDE key mappings for Atom. Currently, the Eclipse shortcuts are directly mapped to existing Atom commands.

To format all lines from a file, just use: Ctrl+Shift+F.

Charmeuse

Answer 13

Ctrl+Shift+i worked for me in PHP under Windows ... but some files did not react. Not being the brightest it took me a while to work out that it was the include files that were the problem. If you are using echo(' ... PHP ...') then the PHP does not get re-formatted. To get over this, create a temporary PHP file, say t.php, copy the PHP part into that, reindent it (Ctrl+Shift+i ... did I mention that?) and then copy the newly reformatted PHP back into the original file. Whilst this is a pain, it does give you correctly formatted PHP.

Inmesh