prettier / prettier/plugin-php

Keep comments associated with a condition at the condition's indentation level

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#1,000 3 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
PHP
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Description

Note: This very same issue has been open for a pretty long time over at the Prettier repo. It's gotten positive signals from maintainers, but nobody has taken on it yet.

@prettier/plugin-php v0.10.2
Playground link

Input:

<?php

// Do something
if (condition) {
    do_something();

// Explaining why doing another thing
} else {
    do_another_thing();
}

Output:

<?php

// Do something
if (condition) {
    do_something();

    // Explaining why doing another thing
} else {
    do_another_thing();
}

Expected behavior:

<?php

// Do something
if (condition) {
    do_something();

// Explaining why doing another thing
} else {
    do_another_thing();
}

Reasoning:
Comments that can clearly be associated with a condition should stick with that condition, indentation-wise.

Instead, the comment is (incorrectly) recognized as part of the if block and indented with it.

Resolving:
I'm going to list the characteristics to recognize comments that should be aligned with their associated conditions. These characteristics are used in conjunction, so all of them need to apply to align a comment with its condition.

However, there's one precondition which I'll send ahead: For the following characteristics, multiple successive single-line comments with the same indentation level and with no empty lines between them, are one comment.

It's easier to grasp in code:

// In regard of the following characteristics,
// this is actually a single comment.

So, the characteristics for a comment to be intended with its condition are the following:

  • The comment ends on the last line before a conditional keyword after a brace.

    ✅ Applies to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // Last line before the conditional keyword
    } else {
    }
    

    ❌ Does not apply to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // The conditional keyword is not on next line
    }
    else {
    }
    
  • The comment has the same indentation level as the conditional keyword.

    ✅ Applies to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // Same level
    } else {
    }
    

    ❌ Does not apply to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
        // Not the same level
    } else {
    }
    
  • The associated conditional keyword continues an existing condition.

    ✅ Applies to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // The `else` refers to the `if` block above it
    } else {
    }
    

    ❌ Does not apply to:

    // The `if` opens the first branch of a condition
    if (...) {
        // ...
    }
    
    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // Nobody would ever do that, but it needs to be specified
    } if (...) {
    
    }
    
  • The continued condition has a body wrapped in braces.

    ✅ Applies to:

    if (...) {
        // ...
    
    // The `if` body is wrapped in braces
    } else {
    }
    

    ❌ Does not apply to:

    if (...)
        // ...
    
    // The `if` body is not wrapped in braces
    else {
    }
    
  • The surrounding block contains code other than the comment.

    ✅ Applies to:

    if (...) {
        $foo = 'bar';
    
    // Comment
    } else {
    }
    
    if (...) {
        // Comment
    
    // Comment
    } else {
    }
    
    if (...) {
    // This code example is probably debateable.
    
    // Comment
    } else {
    }
    

    ❌ Does not apply to:

    if (...) {
    // Comment
    } else {
    }
    
    if (...) {
    // Does not apply because this is
    // a single comment as per precondition
    } else {
    }
    

Conclusion: What do you think?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Use the supplied PHP input and output examples as behavioral fixtures, then inspect the formatter's comment-handling path. Apply the listed conditions together and verify that comments before a conditional keyword remain at the condition's indentation while unrelated comments retain existing formatting.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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