- Qt Creator Manual
- C++ Code Style
- Qt Creator Manual 12.0.1

Reference

# C++ Code Style

Qt Creator uses the Clang LibFormat library to automatically format and indent C++ code. It enforces a coding style for a project or the whole organization.

To specify global indentation settings for the C++ editor:

1. Select Preferences > C++.

2. In Formatting mode, select:
   - Indenting Only to only indent code.
   - Full Formatting to use the Ctrl+I keyboard shortcut to format code instead of indenting.
   - Disable to turn off ClangFormat.
3. To apply the formatting while you type, select Format while typing.
4. To apply the formatting to the edited code when you save the file, select Format edited code on file save.
5. To change the ClangFormat style globally for all projects, select Override ClangFormat configuration file.
6. In the Current settings field, select the settings to modify and click Copy.
7. Give a name to the settings and click OK.
8. Click Edit to set ClangFormat Style Options.

In the other tabs, you can specify how to:

- Interpret the Tab and Backspace key presses.
- Indent the contents of classes, functions, blocks, and namespaces.
- Indent braces in classes, namespaces, enums, functions, and blocks.
- Control switch statements and their contents.
- Align continuation lines.
- Bind pointers (*) and references (&) in types and declarations to identifiers, type names, or left or right `const` or `volatile` keywords.
- Name getter functions.

Use the live preview to see how the preferences change the indentation.

## Specifying Settings for Content

You can indent public, protected, and private statements and declarations related to them within classes.

You can also indent statements within functions and blocks and declarations within namespaces.

## Specifying Settings for Braces

You can indent class, namespace, enum and function declarations and code blocks.

## Specifying Settings for Switch Statements

You can indent case or default statements, or statements or blocks related to them within switch statements.

## Specifying Alignment

To align continuation lines to tokens after assignments, such as `=` or `+=`, select the Align after assignments check box. You can specify additional settings for aligning continuation lines in the General tab.

You can also add spaces to conditional statements, so that they are not aligned with the following line. Usually, this only affects `if` statements.

## Binding Pointers and References

To bind pointers (`*`) and references (`&`) in types and declarations to identifiers, type names, or left or right `const` or `volatile` keywords, select the check boxes in the Pointers and References tab.

The `*` and `&` characters are automatically bound to identifiers of pointers to functions and pointers to arrays.

## Creating Project-Specific ClangFormat Files

To override the `.clang-format` file for a particular project, create a copy of the built-in style and edit its settings by selecting Projects > Project Settings > Code Style > Copy > Edit > ClangFormat > Override ClangFormat configuration file.

## Creating ClangFormat Files from Command Line

You can create `.clang-format` files that have the configuration options of a certain predefined style from the command line. For example, to create a format file for the LLVM style, enter the following command:

     clang-format -style=llvm -dump-config > .clang-format

See also Indent text or code, Behavior, Qt Quick Code Style, and Nim.

Reference