Visual Studio 2022 - Using Clang Format

How to format code using clang format inside Visual Studio 2022.

Configuration

Use the Tools > Options... menu

Set these options:

info

The options under Formatting such as Indentation, New Lines, Spacing, Wrapping have no effect when clang formatting is enabled.

The .clang-format file

Create a file called .clang-format in the Source directory of your project and paste this in to start with:

.clang-format

---
BasedOnStyle: LLVM

TabWidth: 4
UseTab: Always
IndentWidth: 4

AccessModifierOffset: -2
AlignAfterOpenBracket: Align
AlignArrayOfStructures: None
AlignConsecutiveAssignments:
  Enabled: false
  AcrossEmptyLines: false
  AcrossComments: false
  AlignCompound: false
  AlignFunctionPointers: false
  PadOperators: true
AlignConsecutiveBitFields:
  Enabled: false
  AcrossEmptyLines: false
  AcrossComments: false
  AlignCompound: false
  AlignFunctionPointers: false
  PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveDeclarations:
  Enabled: false
  AcrossEmptyLines: false
  AcrossComments: false
  AlignCompound: false
  AlignFunctionPointers: false
  PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveMacros:
  Enabled: false
  AcrossEmptyLines: false
  AcrossComments: false
  AlignCompound: false
  AlignFunctionPointers: false
  PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveShortCaseStatements:
  Enabled: false
  AcrossEmptyLines: false
  AcrossComments: false
  AlignCaseColons: false
AlignEscapedNewlines: Right
AlignOperands: Align
AlignTrailingComments:
  Kind: Always
  OverEmptyLines: 0
AllowAllArgumentsOnNextLine: true
AllowAllParametersOfDeclarationOnNextLine: true
AllowBreakBeforeNoexceptSpecifier: Never
AllowShortBlocksOnASingleLine: Never
AllowShortCaseLabelsOnASingleLine: false
AllowShortCompoundRequirementOnASingleLine: true
AllowShortEnumsOnASingleLine: true
AllowShortFunctionsOnASingleLine: None
AllowShortIfStatementsOnASingleLine: Never
AllowShortLambdasOnASingleLine: All
AllowShortLoopsOnASingleLine: false
AlwaysBreakAfterDefinitionReturnType: None
AlwaysBreakAfterReturnType: None
AlwaysBreakBeforeMultilineStrings: false
AlwaysBreakTemplateDeclarations: MultiLine
AttributeMacros:
  - __capability
BinPackArguments: true
BinPackParameters: true
BitFieldColonSpacing: Both
BraceWrapping:
  AfterCaseLabel: false
  AfterClass: false
  AfterControlStatement: Never
  AfterEnum: false
  AfterFunction: false
  AfterNamespace: false
  AfterObjCDeclaration: false
  AfterStruct: false
  AfterUnion: false
  AfterExternBlock: false
  BeforeCatch: false
  BeforeElse: false
  BeforeLambdaBody: false
  BeforeWhile: false
  IndentBraces: false
  SplitEmptyFunction: true
  SplitEmptyRecord: true
  SplitEmptyNamespace: true
BreakAdjacentStringLiterals: true
BreakAfterAttributes: Leave
BreakArrays: true
BreakBeforeBinaryOperators: None
BreakBeforeBraces: Allman
BreakBeforeConceptDeclarations: Always
BreakBeforeInlineASMColon: OnlyMultiline
BreakBeforeTernaryOperators: true
BreakConstructorInitializers: BeforeColon
BreakInheritanceList: BeforeColon
BreakStringLiterals: true
ColumnLimit: 180
CommentPragmas: "^ IWYU pragma:"
CompactNamespaces: false
ConstructorInitializerIndentWidth: 4
ContinuationIndentWidth: 4
Cpp11BracedListStyle: true
DerivePointerAlignment: false
DisableFormat: false
EmptyLineAfterAccessModifier: Never
EmptyLineBeforeAccessModifier: LogicalBlock
ExperimentalAutoDetectBinPacking: false
FixNamespaceComments: true
ForEachMacros:
  - foreach
  - Q_FOREACH
  - BOOST_FOREACH
IfMacros:
  - KJ_IF_MAYBE
IncludeBlocks: Preserve
IncludeCategories:
  - Regex: ^"(llvm|llvm-c|clang|clang-c)/
    Priority: 2
    SortPriority: 0
    CaseSensitive: false
  - Regex: ^(<|"(gtest|gmock|isl|json)/)
    Priority: 3
    SortPriority: 0
    CaseSensitive: false
  - Regex: .*
    Priority: 1
    SortPriority: 0
    CaseSensitive: false
IncludeIsMainRegex: (Test)?$
IncludeIsMainSourceRegex: ""
IndentAccessModifiers: false
IndentCaseBlocks: false
IndentCaseLabels: false
IndentExternBlock: AfterExternBlock
IndentGotoLabels: true
IndentPPDirectives: None
IndentRequiresClause: true
IndentWrappedFunctionNames: false
InsertBraces: false
InsertNewlineAtEOF: false
InsertTrailingCommas: None
IntegerLiteralSeparator:
  Binary: 0
  BinaryMinDigits: 0
  Decimal: 0
  DecimalMinDigits: 0
  Hex: 0
  HexMinDigits: 0
KeepEmptyLinesAtEOF: false
KeepEmptyLinesAtTheStartOfBlocks: true
LambdaBodyIndentation: OuterScope
Language: Cpp
LineEnding: DeriveLF
MacroBlockBegin: ""
MacroBlockEnd: ""
MaxEmptyLinesToKeep: 1
NamespaceIndentation: None
ObjCBinPackProtocolList: Auto
ObjCBlockIndentWidth: 2
ObjCBreakBeforeNestedBlockParam: true
ObjCSpaceAfterProperty: false
ObjCSpaceBeforeProtocolList: true
PPIndentWidth: -1
PackConstructorInitializers: BinPack
PenaltyBreakAssignment: 2
PenaltyBreakBeforeFirstCallParameter: 19
PenaltyBreakComment: 300
PenaltyBreakFirstLessLess: 120
PenaltyBreakOpenParenthesis: 0
PenaltyBreakScopeResolution: 500
PenaltyBreakString: 1000
PenaltyBreakTemplateDeclaration: 10
PenaltyExcessCharacter: 1000000
PenaltyIndentedWhitespace: 0
PenaltyReturnTypeOnItsOwnLine: 60
PointerAlignment: Right
QualifierAlignment: Leave
ReferenceAlignment: Pointer
ReflowComments: true
RemoveBracesLLVM: false
RemoveParentheses: Leave
RemoveSemicolon: false
RequiresClausePosition: OwnLine
RequiresExpressionIndentation: OuterScope
SeparateDefinitionBlocks: Leave
ShortNamespaceLines: 1
SkipMacroDefinitionBody: false
SortIncludes: CaseSensitive
SortUsingDeclarations: LexicographicNumeric
SpaceAfterCStyleCast: false
SpaceAfterLogicalNot: false
SpaceAfterTemplateKeyword: true
SpaceAroundPointerQualifiers: Default
SpaceBeforeAssignmentOperators: true
SpaceBeforeCaseColon: false
SpaceBeforeCpp11BracedList: false
SpaceBeforeCtorInitializerColon: true
SpaceBeforeInheritanceColon: true
SpaceBeforeJsonColon: false
SpaceBeforeParens: ControlStatements
SpaceBeforeParensOptions:
  AfterControlStatements: true
  AfterForeachMacros: true
  AfterFunctionDeclarationName: false
  AfterFunctionDefinitionName: false
  AfterIfMacros: true
  AfterOverloadedOperator: false
  AfterPlacementOperator: true
  AfterRequiresInClause: false
  AfterRequiresInExpression: false
  BeforeNonEmptyParentheses: false
SpaceBeforeRangeBasedForLoopColon: true
SpaceBeforeSquareBrackets: false
SpaceInEmptyBlock: false
SpacesBeforeTrailingComments: 1
SpacesInAngles: Never
SpacesInContainerLiterals: true
SpacesInLineCommentPrefix:
  Minimum: 1
  Maximum: -1
SpacesInParens: Custom
SpacesInParensOptions:
  InConditionalStatements: true
  InCStyleCasts: false
  InEmptyParentheses: false
  Other: true
SpacesInSquareBrackets: false
Standard: Latest
StatementAttributeLikeMacros:
  - Q_EMIT
StatementMacros:
  - Q_UNUSED
  - QT_REQUIRE_VERSION
VerilogBreakBetweenInstancePorts: true
WhitespaceSensitiveMacros:
  - BOOST_PP_STRINGIZE
  - CF_SWIFT_NAME
  - NS_SWIFT_NAME
  - PP_STRINGIZE
  - STRINGIZE

Configuration site

You can interactively create or modify and .clang-format file using this configurator.

From a command line check the version of clang-format installed with this command:

clang-format --version

clang-format version 18.1.8

On the configurator change the version to match the one you have installed.

Note this site allows you to upload an existing file and modify it using the Config File button then the Upload button.

Format on Save

Formatting is done as what is called "Code Cleanup" in Visual Studio.

Use the Tools > Options... menu

Set this option:

Use Analyze > Code Cleanup > Configure Code Cleanup and set it like this:

Note that "Format Document" and "Format Document C++" are two different options, use the one shown.

References

• Unreal Engine & Visual Studio
• ClangFormat Support in Visual Studio 2017
• Options, Text Editor, C/C++, Formatting
• Clang format file

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