Code Formatters

To Nha Notes | Dec. 31, 2022, 10:41 p.m.

We can use clang-format for C++; an in-house wrapper around yapf for Python; gofmt for Go; dartfmt for Dart; and buildifier for our BUILD files.

Most of the current formatters for Python --- e.g., autopep8, and pep8ify --- are made to remove lint errors from code. This has some obvious limitations. For instance, code that conforms to the PEP 8 guidelines may not be reformatted. But it doesn't mean that the code looks good.

An example of the type of formatting that YAPF can do, it will take this ugly code:

x = {  'a':37,'b':42,

'c':927}

y = 'hello ''world'
z = 'hello '+'world'
a = 'hello {}'.format('world')
class foo  (     object  ):
  def f    (self   ):
    return       37*-+2
  def g(self, x,y=42):
      return y
def f  (   a ) :
  return      37+-+a[42-x :  y**3]

and reformat it into:

x = {'a': 37, 'b': 42, 'c': 927}

y = 'hello ' 'world'
z = 'hello ' + 'world'
a = 'hello {}'.format('world')


class foo(object):
    def f(self):
        return 37 * -+2

    def g(self, x, y=42):
        return y


def f(a):
    return 37 + -+a[42 - x:y**3]