I’ve taken over a mixed PHP4/PHP5 project which has been handed down from developer to developer, with each one making things worse. Before I spend too much time on it I’d like to develop a base-standard, with consistent formatting at a minimum.
Can anyone recommend a utility (Linux or Mac OS X preferably) that will reformat the code?
If I can set parameters which influence output (like tab-indentation, brace/bracket placement, when to split array values onto new lines etc.) then that’s a benefit, though not crucial.
Preference goes to Open Source tools, though I’d like to know your experiences with purchased software too.
You can do that with Netbeans or with Eclipse PDT, both excellent PHP editors. There’s a Format Code option in each, which will reformat a selected file according to your code style preferences. There may be an option to format code in bulk as well.
I do recommend that if you do this, do the format and immediately check the code back in with a big fat ‘REFORMATTING!’ comment. Trying to mix in other bug fixes with the reformat makes for nasty-looking diff files to try to decipher down the road.