Managing Blank Lines

With the Code Formatter you can insert blank lines before/after code lines containing specific Visual Basic keywords and also limit the number of consecutive blank lines.

To insert or remove blank lines:

1. In the CodeSMART main menu, select the Code Formatter entry, or click the same button from the Code Edit Tools toolbar to display the Code Formatter dialog-box (quick toolbar and menu references are available).
2. Specify the operation scope. Depending on the current position in code and the active code or designer window, only valid options are listed.
3. Click on the Blank Lines tab.

   

4. If you want to activate blank lines insertion, check the Insert blank lines before/after the following statements option.
5. Specify how many blank lines should be inserted before and/or after code lines containing specific Visual Basic keywords in the corresponding grid. Use the Add to List and Remove buttons to add or exclude keywords.
6. Check the Together option if you want to keep similar consecutive lines together (i.e. no empty lines between similar code lines) when formatting.
7. Keep comments together with the keyword they precede: check this option if you want to avoid inserting blank lines between a code line and the preceding comment line(s).
8. If you want to activate blank lines removal, check the Remove all existing blank lines before inserting new ones. Please note that this option can be used in conjunction with Insert blank lines before/after the following statements, the result being a replacement of blank lines since the code formatter operates in the order remove and/or insert.
9. Limit the number of consecutive blank lines: specify the maximum amount of consecutive blank lines allowed in your code (this value must be greater or equal to the largest value used for blank line insertion).
10. Press Begin in order to start formatting. Depending on the situation, a progress bar may appear to illustrate the operation progress.

 Notes

• The Code Formatter will first perform indentation then blank lines management and only at last code wrapping/compacting. If you want the formatter to only perform certain tasks then click on the corresponding tabs and disable unwanted features.
• Code formatting settings are saved to the Team.mdb database. You can share these settings with other users in your development team as described in How To Share CodeSMART 2007 for VB6 Settings and Data Within a Team.
• When you share Code Formatter settings with your team colleagues, remember that updates are global.
• The Code Formatter can be invoked for the currently open document by using the corresponding CodeSMART code window context menu.

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