I program with different languages and for a while now I have wanted to make the K&R variant coding style my default in Visual Studio.
So what do I mean by the K&R variant coding style, this coding style was named after co authors of the book The C Programming Language (thank you Wikipedia!) Kernighan and Ritchie. The variant I like is based on Java – rather than taking up a new line I like the opening brace on the first line of the statement block.
K&R variant coding style example:
public class Class1 { public Class1() { } public string Method1() { return "Method1"; } }
Visual Studio default (Allman coding style):
public class Class1 { public Class1() { } public string Method1() { return "Method1"; } }
I was put off using the K&R variant coding style when using C# because the default in Visual Studio is the Allman coding style. However after recently downloading the MVC 2.0 RTM source I noticed that the project uses the K&R variant coding style.
ChildActionOnlyAttribute snippet from the MVC 2.0 source code:
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, Inherited = true, AllowMultiple = false)] public class ChildActionCacheAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute { private const string _cacheKeyPrefix = "__MVC_ChildActionCache_Entry_"; private static readonly object _typeId = new object(); private readonly object _itemsCacheKey = new object(); private string _key; public int Duration { get; set; } public string Key { get { return _key ?? String.Empty; } set { _key = value; } } }
Knowing that a very popular C# project uses the K&R variant coding style I decided to change my default coding style in Visual Studio. Below is a basic screencast I created that shows you how to change the default coding style to the K&R variant in Visual Studio 2010. BTW the settings are in exactly the same place in Visual Studio 2008.
A quick Google search found that I’m not alone in my thinking http://scyanide.com/2010/02/xcode-the-starting-curly-brace/.
Is there a way to do the same thing for C++?
Yes what IDE are you using?
when using c/c++ in VS…. how can i change my coding style to K&R?
hi, could you send me the video via email, because i can’t open all the YouTube videos, thanks
Hi, I could not find the “new line” option for C++, which exists for C#… Could you please show me how to configure it for C++? Thanks.
Hi thanks for your comment it appears this option isn’t available in Visual Studio 2010 for C++ which I think is very strange.
[…] problemu, którego nie do końca potrafiłem nazwać natknąłem się na tę oto stronę Visual Studio 2010 – K&R Coding Style Variant. Okazuje się, że styl pisania kodu ma nawet swoją nazwę! I tak jak to jest opisane w artykule […]