Intellij: how to convert indents for all files

Question

I know how to convert indent for a single file. I go to edit -> convert indent -> space/tab.

But I want to do this for all files under a directory.

I try click on a directory and then go to edit -> convert indent, but the options are grayed out.

Did you try going in the Code Style settings - see this [answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37754203/intellij-change-project-indent-from-4-spaces-to-2-spaces) — forgetaboutme, Jun 18 '18 at 18:59
Have you run "Code | Reformat Code" on the directory after configuring code style? — y.bedrov, Jun 19 '18 at 09:07

valdeci · Answer 1 · 2020-11-05T22:39:48.857

8

You can use the shortcut Ctrl+ALT+L (Windows/Linux) or ⌥⌘+L (MAC OS X) and select the Rearrange entries option to reformat the code in the current file or reformat a module or directory.

You can also Right-click a module, file, or directory from the context menu and select Reformat Code and also select the Rearrange entries option.

This will convert the indents for all files/directories selected:

This works on most of the Jetbrains IDES (iDea, PyCharm, WebStorm, RubyMine, and so on.)

edited Nov 05 '20 at 22:39

answered Aug 30 '18 at 19:36

valdeci

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Reformatting/Rearranging code is not what the OP asked for. Changing the indents is just a minor fraction of what *Reformat code* does and is irrelevant to *Rearrange entries*. I'm also looking for something like this, in order just to change indents in a badly formatted codebase, without breaking the git history tracking completely. – Giovanni Jun 02 '21 at 13:24

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 02 '21 at 13:46

It seems there is no such dedicated option in IntelliJ, but you could just work around it using a "low-level" Replace All action.

Open the Edit → Find → Replace in Files... dialog
In case you want to convert spaces to tabs, you should
- Enter in the Find field (i.e. four spaces (or whatever number of spaces the project is currently indented with))
- Press the Regex search modifier (Alt + X)
- Enter \t in the Replace field
- NB: In case you have valid strings with 4+ spaces in them, they will get replaced too. In most use cases, however, this is not happening.
In case you want to convert tabs to spaces, you should do the same as above, but swap the Find and Replace field contents
- NB: Again, if you have valid strings with tabs in them, they will get replaced too. I haven't had this use case, because I've only needed to convert in the opposite direction.
You will probably also want to set a File mask in order not to replace spaces in code-irrelevant files

Intellij: how to convert indents for all files

2 Answers2