Formatting PHP Code within Vim

Question

I'm currently using Vim as a lightweight IDE. I have NERDTree, bufexplorer, supertab, and ctags plugins which do almost everything I want. Only big thing missing for me is auto code formatting.

I'm working with some messy PHP code which has inconsistent indenting and code formatting, ideally I could highlight the code I want formatted (whole files would be fine too) and run a command to tidy it.

Does anybody have a nice solution for this working in Vim?

I like Wesley Mason's idea using "shift-v" followed by "=". I record the key sequence of "shift-v" and "=" into a macro. Then I call the macro as many times as I want to format multiple lines of code. — user975144
– user975144, Commented Oct 2, 2011 at 5:21

Wes Mason · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 17:03:35Z

80

Quick way to fix PHP indentation in vim is to visually select the lines you want to work with using shift-v, and then press equals (=) to trigger auto-formatting.

As for other formatting issues you're probably looking at employing some regex search and replaces, such as :%s/^M/\r/g (that's ctrl-V ctrl-m, not caret-M) to fix line endings

edited Nov 14, 2011 at 17:03

user212218

answered May 13, 2009 at 13:20

Wes Mason

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8 Comments

gacrux Over a year ago

I can't believe I didn't know about equals auto-formatting years ago, that's really useful. For the formatting issues I could build some custom regex's, I guess I was hoping someone had already done (and tested) it.

Whaledawg Over a year ago

Protip: ggvG= will select every line in the file and autoformat

michael Over a year ago

Whaledawg. you can even just gg=G and save a character. Its worth remembering you can action-motion most commands in vim

recluze Over a year ago

Love the shift-v + = shortcut. This is going to save me some headaches. Thanks a lot. How do I give more votes to you :)

zx1986 Over a year ago

WOW! simple & powerful!

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-02 00:20:27Z

20

Enter normal mode in vim and then type

1GVG=

edited Feb 2, 2019 at 0:20

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 14, 2011 at 12:01

wormhit

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5 Comments

wormhit Over a year ago

1G - goes to first line; V - switches to visual mode; G - goes to end of file; = - auto format selected code;

puk Over a year ago

gg=G is slighlty easier (less capslock)

chtenb Over a year ago

Actually this command triggers the functionality in the indent script. It only reindents the code, no complete reformatting.

Randy Lam Over a year ago

I would use ggvG= instead also for the record they are the same thing

ako Over a year ago

gg: Cursor to line N, default first line

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

10

Format in PSR-2 style

For the new standard Coding Style Guide PSR-2 use the PHP-CS-Fixer.

There is a Vim plugin: Vim-php-cs-fixer

How to install:

Install PHP-CS-Fixer (globally with Composer):

composer global require friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer

Then add the Vim plugin (Pathogen):

cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone [email protected]:stephpy/vim-php-cs-fixer.git

Restart Vim.

Default mapping:

<leader>pcd " For directory
<leader>pcf " For flie

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 9, 2015 at 10:46

Janghou

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3 Comments

Jun Hsieh Over a year ago

To run php-cs-fixer automatically after the file is saved, add the following line in ~/.vimrc: autocmd BufWritePost *.php call PhpCsFixerFixFile()

Mahdi mehrabi Over a year ago

I get the error E117: Unknown function: php_cs_fixer#fix

ODelibalta Over a year ago

@Mahdimehrabi Same here, any luck?

chtenb · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-14 09:53:04Z

8

There is a vim plugin that enables formatting on your code from within vim. It's called vim-autoformat and you can read about it and download it here:

https://github.com/vim-autoformat/vim-autoformat

It integrates external code-formatting programs into vim. When this plugin is installed, you only have to install an external code formatter to get everything to work out of the box. It supports the php formatter phpCB, which is the best php formatter i've seen so far.

UPDATE: phpCB is not supported anymore, due to code breaking behaviour. However, vim's indentfile is always used as fallback, allowing you to at least indent your code when there's is no formatter available.

edited Jul 14, 2021 at 9:53

answered Dec 6, 2012 at 23:02

chtenb

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Comments

Whaledawg · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 17:02:10Z

2

The vim website is not the easiest to navigate, but there is a wealth of chewy nougat center there.

For instance I found this php indenting script there. Give it a try.

edited Nov 14, 2011 at 17:02

user212218

answered May 13, 2009 at 14:11

Whaledawg

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