Getting Xcode to put opening braces on a new line
By default Xcode (the Apple Developer IDE) puts opening braces at the end of the current line like so:
if ( condition ) {
// code here...
}
However I have been working on projects for years with a different convention:
if ( condition )
{
// code here...
}
Of course developers have different preferences here. One is not right and the other wrong – that is dictated by a company or by a project, or by the consensus of the developers starting a new project. Once a convention is in place then it must be adhered to for the life of the project. And of course a decent IDE will work with developers preferences.
So – how do we get Xcode to support this alternate convention? The problem being that there is no UI preference to set this.
To change this preference the quick way:
Open the Terminal App and paste the following code:
defaults write com.apple.Xcode XCCodeSenseFormattingOptions -dict BlockSeparator "\n"
Then restart Xcode. Thats it.
What does this do? It places a new entry in a plist file that is located in your user Home Directory. Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.Xcode.plist.
Next time you start coding in Xcode it will autocomplete with opening braces on a new line.
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Worked like a charm. Thanks.
June 21st, 2010 at 7:15 am
Excellent. Much better.
How do we change it back, however? I’m a total beginner, so although I think I can see what to type I don’t want to muck it up.
Ta.
August 28th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Great, many thanx!
@Brother Mugga: To change it back you can execute
defaults delete com.apple.Xcode XCCodeSenseFormattingOptions
in the Terminal.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
This worked great..Thanks
November 30th, 2010 at 9:53 am
To reverse the action, just put the space back into the plist:
write com.apple.Xcode XCCodeSenseFormattingOptions -dict BlockSeparator ” “