4.3. Braces

Controls the handling of curly braces (the Java block delimeters).

4.3.1. General

Controls how the enclosing block delimeters - opening and closing curly brace - are printed. You can either choose from a predefined set of common styles or build one on your own.

4.3.1.1. Styles

Controls which brace style will be used to lay out blocks.

C style
Selects the C indent style. This style is sometimes called "Allman style" or "BSD style".
Example 4.1. C style
if (!isDone) { doSomething(); } else { System.err.println("Finished"); }

Sun style

Selects the Sun indent style. Sometimes called "K&R style".

Example 4.2. Sun style

if (!isDone) {    
    doSomething();  
} else {
    System.err.println("Finished");   
}

GNU style

Selects the GNU indent style.

Example 4.3. GNU style

if (!isDone)
  {
    doSomething();  
  }
else
  {
    System.err.println("Finished");
  }

Custom style
Selecting this option will enable you to freely choose from the different brace style options discussed below.

4.3.1.2. Wrapping

Controls the brace wrapping options.

Newline before left brace
If enabled, always prints a newline before the opening curly brace.
Newline after right brace
If enabled, prints a newline after the closing curly brace (when possible).
Treat class and method blocks different
It is common in the Java developer community to have the opening brace at the end of the line of the keyword for all types of blocks. One may find the C++ convention of treating class and method blocks different from other blocks useful. With this switch you can achieve exactly that: class/interface and method/constructor blocks are then always printed in C brace style.

4.3.1.3. Whitespace

Controls the indentation whitespace for the opening and closing curly brace.

Before left brace
Number of spaces to print before the opening curly brace.
After left brace
Number of spaces to print after the opening curly brace.
After right brace
Number of spaces to print after the closing curly brace.

4.3.2. Misc

Controls miscellaneous brace options.

4.3.2.1. Insert braces

Per definition braces are superfluous on single statements, but it is a common recommendation that braces should be always used in such cases. With this option, you can specify whether missing braces for single statements should be inserted for the control statements if, for, while and do-while.

Enabling this option for while statements would render

Example 4.4. Brace insertion

while (!isDone)
    doSomething();

into

while (!isDone)
{
    doSomething();
}

4.3.2.2. Remove braces

It is also possible to remove braces in case they are superfluous. This applies to the control statements if, for, while and do-while but also to every block in general (remember a block is just a sequence of statements, local class declarations and local variable declaration statements within braces).

Example 4.5. Brace removal

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
    sum += value[i];
}

would become

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    sum += value[i];

4.3.2.3. Empty braces handling

Controls how empty braces should be handled. If no option is selected, they are left untouched.

Example 4.6. Empty braces

if (in != null)
{
    try
    {
        in.close();
    }
    catch (IOException ignored)
    {
    }
}

All options don't apply to class/interface and method/constructor bodies but are only used for control statements and blocks.

Insert empty statement
Inserts an empty statement to make it obvious for the reader that the empty braces are intentional.
Example 4.7. Empty braces with empty statement
if (in != null) { try { in.close(); } catch (IOException ignored) { ; } }

Cuddle braces
Cuddles the braces. They will be printed right after the control statement.
Example 4.8. Cuddled empty braces
if (in != null) { try { in.close(); } catch (IOException ignored) {} }