Code Formatting in Delphi 13

RAD Studio 13 was released today and has several much-anticipated features and wonderful enhancements. There have been many blog posts talking about them and I'm excited to start using them; but today, I want to share some tips on how to deal with a feature that was removed: code formatting.

The Problem

As with all advancing technology, some things get better and some things must get left behind. Starting with Delphi 12, the modeling features were moved to an optional add-on installation, and in Delphi 13, they're being removed entirely due to technical constraints. This eliminates the built-in code formatter that many developers relied on for consistent code styling. A recommended replacement module for the refactoring capabilities is the well-supported MMX Code Explorer IDE plug-in. It does a great job but does not currently support code formatting. One suggestion is to use pasfmt, an open-source code formatter for Delphi code, ironically written in Rust, not Delphi!

A Solution: formatter.exe

Fortunately, there's a workaround that leverages an existing tool in previous versions of RAD Studio. Formatter.exe is a command-line formatter for Delphi and C/C++ source code files that ships in older versions of RAD Studio's \bin folder. This standalone utility can format your code using predefined profiles created in earlier versions of the IDE.

Setting Up the Workaround

Step 1: Create a Formatter Profile

Use a prior version of Delphi (before Delphi 13) such as Delphi 11 or Delphi 12 that has formatting options available and perform the following steps:

• From the menu, select Tools → Options → Language → Formatter
• Configure your preferred formatting settings (indentation, spaces, line breaks, etc.)
  
• Once you are satisfied, go to the "Profiles and Status" section and click "Save As..." to save your settings to a file, typically with the pattern Formatter_*.config
• The profile will be saved as an XML file in your user's roaming folder, typically at %AppData%\Embarcadero\BDS\[version]\Formatter.config; but you can change the location to something more suitable to your programming environment.

Step 2: Call formatter.exe

To format a source file, run the formatter from command line:

formatter.exe -config "path\to\your\profile.config" -delphi "source_file.pas"

This will modify that file so it would be wise to make a backup first. Of course, if you use version control, you could simply revert to a previous version of the file if something goes awry.

Now, you might think this is a little cumbersome, a far cry from the simply hitting Ctrl+D (or whatever hotkey you had assigned for code formatting in your IDE). But there's a cool way of adding this right into Delphi itself.

Step 3: Add IDE Integration

The Delphi "Tools" menu has long had the capability to add links to additional external tools. But it's more than just launching an executable, you can pass in IDE macros as parameters to these tools; that's what makes this such a cool solution!

Here's how to call the formatter with the current code file open in your IDE's editor:

• Go to Tools → Configure Tools
• Add a new tool with the following:
  • Title: "Format Code"
  • Program: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\23.0\bin\Formatter.exe
  • Parameters: -config "C:\path\to\your\profile.config" -delphi "$EDNAME"

Since this is an external tool, it doesn't have access to the current file loaded in the editor, so be sure and save it first. After you run this (the black, command-prompt window will briefly flash as the formatter runs) and the editor regains focus, the IDE will notice the file was updated and show this warning:

This is to be expected, so simply click Yes and your editor will be refreshed with the formatted code.

Limitations

Note that if a source code file cannot be compiled, the formatting results may be incorrect. The formatter works best with syntactically correct code. Also, the Formatter tool does not come with Delphi 13 so you need to keep around your previous version of Delphi.

Alternative Solutions

There are other options that should be noted as well, in addition to pasfmt mentioned above:

• GExperts is an awesome IDE plug-in that has many productivity-enhancing features, including its own code formatter. I have used this in earlier versions of Delphi that did not have a formatter built in.
• JEDI Code Format: There's an old JEDI Code Format on SourceForge and a newer JCF Code Formatter on Github that may be good options--I have no experience with either of these.

Conclusion

While losing the built-in formatter is inconvenient, the external tool, formatter.exe, existing in previous versions of Delphi, is a great workaround and provides a bridge solution for teams wanting to maintain consistent code formatting in Delphi 13. Combined with tools like MMX Code Explorer for refactoring needs, developers can maintain productive workflows despite the modeling feature removal.

The key is to keep your older version of Delphi until there's a better, more official solution--or just use GExperts!

P.S. The code shown in the image at the top of this post is taken from an actual, compilable Delphi VCL program. It's a test program (written by Claude.ai) that counts the number of words entered in an edit box and displays the results in a memo!