All patches and comments are welcome. Please squash your changes to logical
commits before using git-format-patch and git-send-email to
patches@git.madduck.net.
If you'd read over the Git project's submission guidelines and adhered to them,
I'd be especially grateful.
1 ![Black Logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambv/black/master/docs/_static/logo2-readme.png)
2 <h2 align="center">The Uncompromising Code Formatter</h2>
5 <a href="https://travis-ci.org/ambv/black"><img alt="Build Status" src="https://travis-ci.org/ambv/black.svg?branch=master"></a>
6 <a href="http://black.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest"><img alt="Documentation Status" src="http://readthedocs.org/projects/black/badge/?version=latest"></a>
7 <a href="https://coveralls.io/github/ambv/black?branch=master"><img alt="Coverage Status" src="https://coveralls.io/repos/github/ambv/black/badge.svg?branch=master"></a>
8 <a href="https://github.com/ambv/black/blob/master/LICENSE"><img alt="License: MIT" src="http://black.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_static/license.svg"></a>
9 <a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/black"><img alt="PyPI" src="http://black.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_static/pypi.svg"></a>
10 <a href="https://github.com/ambv/black"><img alt="Code style: black" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg"></a>
13 > “Any color you like.”
16 *Black* is the uncompromising Python code formatter. By using it, you
17 agree to cede control over minutiae of hand-formatting. In return,
18 *Black* gives you speed, determinism, and freedom from `pycodestyle`
19 nagging about formatting. You will save time and mental energy for
20 more important matters.
22 Blackened code looks the same regardless of the project you're reading.
23 Formatting becomes transparent after a while and you can focus on the
26 *Black* makes code review faster by producing the smallest diffs
30 ## Installation and Usage
34 *Black* can be installed by running `pip install black`. It requires
35 Python 3.6.0+ to run but you can reformat Python 2 code with it, too.
40 To get started right away with sensible defaults:
43 black {source_file_or_directory}
46 ### Command line options
48 Black doesn't provide many options. You can list them by running
52 black [OPTIONS] [SRC]...
55 -l, --line-length INTEGER Where to wrap around. [default: 88]
56 --check Don't write the files back, just return the
57 status. Return code 0 means nothing would
58 change. Return code 1 means some files would be
59 reformatted. Return code 123 means there was an
61 --diff Don't write the files back, just output a diff
62 for each file on stdout.
63 --fast / --safe If --fast given, skip temporary sanity checks.
65 -q, --quiet Don't emit non-error messages to stderr. Errors
66 are still emitted, silence those with
68 --version Show the version and exit.
69 --help Show this message and exit.
72 *Black* is a well-behaved Unix-style command-line tool:
73 * it does nothing if no sources are passed to it;
74 * it will read from standard input and write to standard output if `-`
75 is used as the filename;
76 * it only outputs messages to users on standard error;
77 * exits with code 0 unless an internal error occured (or `--check` was
81 ### NOTE: This is an early pre-release
83 *Black* can already successfully format itself and the standard library.
84 It also sports a decent test suite. However, it is still very new.
85 Things will probably be wonky for a while. This is made explicit by the
86 "Alpha" trove classifier, as well as by the "a" in the version number.
87 What this means for you is that **until the formatter becomes stable,
88 you should expect some formatting to change in the future**.
90 Also, as a temporary safety measure, *Black* will check that the
91 reformatted code still produces a valid AST that is equivalent to the
92 original. This slows it down. If you're feeling confident, use
96 ## The *Black* code style
98 *Black* reformats entire files in place. It is not configurable. It
99 doesn't take previous formatting into account. It doesn't reformat
100 blocks that start with `# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`. It also
101 recognizes [YAPF](https://github.com/google/yapf)'s block comments to
102 the same effect, as a courtesy for straddling code.
105 ### How *Black* wraps lines
107 *Black* ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal
108 and vertical whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal
109 whitespace are pretty obvious and can be summarized as: do whatever
110 makes `pycodestyle` happy. The coding style used by *Black* can be
111 viewed as a strict subset of PEP 8.
113 As for vertical whitespace, *Black* tries to render one full expression
114 or simple statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length,
129 If not, *Black* will look at the contents of the first outer matching
130 brackets and put that in a separate indented line.
134 l = [[n for n in list_bosses()], [n for n in list_employees()]]
139 [n for n in list_bosses()], [n for n in list_employees()]
143 If that still doesn't fit the bill, it will decompose the internal
144 expression further using the same rule, indenting matching brackets
145 every time. If the contents of the matching brackets pair are
146 comma-separated (like an argument list, or a dict literal, and so on)
147 then *Black* will first try to keep them on the same line with the
148 matching brackets. If that doesn't work, it will put all of them in
153 def very_important_function(template: str, *variables, file: os.PathLike, debug: bool = False):
154 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
155 with open(file, 'w') as f:
160 def very_important_function(
166 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
167 with open(file, "w") as f:
171 You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and
172 that a trailing comma is always added. Such formatting produces smaller
173 diffs; when you add or remove an element, it's always just one line.
174 Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a clear delimiter
175 between two distinct sections of the code that otherwise share the same
176 indentation level (like the arguments list and the docstring in the
179 If a line of "from" imports cannot fit in the allotted length, it's always split
180 into one per line. Imports tend to change often and this minimizes diffs, as well
181 as enables readers of code to easily find which commit introduced a particular
182 import. This exception also makes *Black* compatible with
183 [isort](https://pypi.org/p/isort/). Use `multi_line_output=3`,
184 `include_trailing_comma=True`, `force_grid_wrap=0`, and `line_length=88` in your
190 You probably noticed the peculiar default line length. *Black* defaults
191 to 88 characters per line, which happens to be 10% over 80. This number
192 was found to produce significantly shorter files than sticking with 80
193 (the most popular), or even 79 (used by the standard library). In
194 general, [90-ish seems like the wise choice](https://youtu.be/wf-BqAjZb8M?t=260).
196 If you're paid by the line of code you write, you can pass
197 `--line-length` with a lower number. *Black* will try to respect that.
198 However, sometimes it won't be able to without breaking other rules. In
199 those rare cases, auto-formatted code will exceed your allotted limit.
201 You can also increase it, but remember that people with sight disabilities
202 find it harder to work with line lengths exceeding 100 characters.
203 It also adversely affects side-by-side diff review on typical screen
204 resolutions. Long lines also make it harder to present code neatly
205 in documentation or talk slides.
207 If you're using Flake8, you can bump `max-line-length` to 88 and forget
208 about it. Alternatively, use [Bugbear](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear)'s
209 B950 warning instead of E501 and keep the max line length at 80 which
210 you are probably already using. You'd do it like this:
215 select = C,E,F,W,B,B950
219 You'll find *Black*'s own .flake8 config file is configured like this.
220 If you're curious about the reasoning behind B950, Bugbear's documentation
221 explains it. The tl;dr is "it's like highway speed limits, we won't
222 bother you if you overdo it by a few km/h".
227 *Black* avoids spurious vertical whitespace. This is in the spirit of
228 PEP 8 which says that in-function vertical whitespace should only be
231 *Black* will allow single empty lines inside functions, and single and
232 double empty lines on module level left by the original editors, except
233 when they're within parenthesized expressions. Since such expressions
234 are always reformatted to fit minimal space, this whitespace is lost.
236 It will also insert proper spacing before and after function definitions.
237 It's one line before and after inner functions and two lines before and
238 after module-level functions. *Black* will not put empty lines between
239 function/class definitions and standalone comments that immediately precede
240 the given function/class.
245 *Black* will add trailing commas to expressions that are split
246 by comma where each element is on its own line. This includes function
249 Unnecessary trailing commas are removed if an expression fits in one
250 line. This makes it 1% more likely that your line won't exceed the
251 allotted line length limit. Moreover, in this scenario, if you added
252 another argument to your call, you'd probably fit it in the same line
253 anyway. That doesn't make diffs any larger.
255 One exception to removing trailing commas is tuple expressions with
256 just one element. In this case *Black* won't touch the single trailing
257 comma as this would unexpectedly change the underlying data type. Note
258 that this is also the case when commas are used while indexing. This is
259 a tuple in disguise: ```numpy_array[3, ]```.
261 One exception to adding trailing commas is function signatures
262 containing `*`, `*args`, or `**kwargs`. In this case a trailing comma
263 is only safe to use on Python 3.6. *Black* will detect if your file is
264 already 3.6+ only and use trailing commas in this situation. If you
265 wonder how it knows, it looks for f-strings and existing use of trailing
266 commas in function signatures that have stars in them. In other words,
267 if you'd like a trailing comma in this situation and *Black* didn't
268 recognize it was safe to do so, put it there manually and *Black* will
273 *Black* prefers double quotes (`"` and `"""`) over single quotes (`'`
274 and `'''`). It will replace the latter with the former as long as it
275 does not result in more backslash escapes than before.
277 The main reason to standardize on a single form of quotes is aesthetics.
278 Having one kind of quotes everywhere reduces reader distraction.
279 It will also enable a future version of *Black* to merge consecutive
280 string literals that ended up on the same line (see
281 [#26](https://github.com/ambv/black/issues/26) for details).
283 Why settle on double quotes? They anticipate apostrophes in English
284 text. They match the docstring standard described in PEP 257. An
285 empty string in double quotes (`""`) is impossible to confuse with
286 a one double-quote regardless of fonts and syntax highlighting used.
287 On top of this, double quotes for strings are consistent with C which
288 Python interacts a lot with.
290 On certain keyboard layouts like US English, typing single quotes is
291 a bit easier than double quotes. The latter requires use of the Shift
292 key. My recommendation here is to keep using whatever is faster to type
293 and let *Black* handle the transformation.
295 ### Line Breaks & Binary Operators
297 *Black* will break a line before a binary operator when splitting a block
298 of code over multiple lines. This is so that *Black* is compliant with the
299 recent changes in the [PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#should-a-line-break-before-or-after-a-binary-operator)
300 style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
302 This behaviour may raise ``W503 line break before binary operator`` warnings in
303 style guide enforcement tools like Flake8. Since ``W503`` is not PEP 8 compliant,
304 you should tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
308 PEP 8 [recommends](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#whitespace-in-expressions-and-statements)
309 to treat ``:`` in slices as a binary operator with the lowest priority, and to
310 leave an equal amount of space on either side, except if a parameter is omitted
311 (e.g. ``ham[1 + 1 :]``). It also states that for extended slices, both ``:``
312 operators have to have the same amount of spacing, except if a parameter is
313 omitted (``ham[1 + 1 ::]``). *Black* enforces these rules consistently.
315 This behaviour may raise ``E203 whitespace before ':'`` warnings in style guide
316 enforcement tools like Flake8. Since ``E203`` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should
317 tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
321 Some parentheses are optional in the Python grammar. Any expression can
322 be wrapped in a pair of parentheses to form an atom. There are a few
327 - `for (...) in (...):`
328 - `assert (...), (...)`
329 - `from X import (...)`
331 In those cases, parentheses are removed when the entire statement fits
332 in one line, or if the inner expression doesn't have any delimiters to
333 further split on. Otherwise, the parentheses are always added.
336 ## Editor integration
340 Use [proofit404/blacken](https://github.com/proofit404/blacken).
349 2. Locate your `black` installation folder.
351 On MacOS / Linux / BSD:
354 /usr/local/bin/black # possible location
359 %LocalAppData%\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\black.exe # possible location
361 3. Open External tools in PyCharm with `File -> Settings -> Tools -> External Tools`.
363 4. Click the + icon to add a new external tool with the following values:
365 - Description: Black is the uncompromising Python code formatter.
366 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
367 - Arguments: $FilePath$
369 5. Format the currently opened file by selecting `Tools -> External Tools -> black`.
370 - Alternatively, you can set a keyboard shortcut by navigating to `Preferences -> Keymap`.
375 Commands and shortcuts:
377 * `,=` or `:Black` to format the entire file (ranges not supported);
378 * `:BlackUpgrade` to upgrade *Black* inside the virtualenv;
379 * `:BlackVersion` to get the current version of *Black* inside the
383 * `g:black_fast` (defaults to `0`)
384 * `g:black_linelength` (defaults to `88`)
385 * `g:black_virtualenv` (defaults to `~/.vim/black`)
387 To install with [vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug):
393 or with [Vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim):
399 or you can copy the plugin from [plugin/black.vim](https://github.com/ambv/black/tree/master/plugin/black.vim).
400 Let me know if this requires any changes to work with Vim 8's builtin
401 `packadd`, or Pathogen, and so on.
403 This plugin **requires Vim 7.0+ built with Python 3.6+ support**. It
404 needs Python 3.6 to be able to run *Black* inside the Vim process which
405 is much faster than calling an external command.
407 On first run, the plugin creates its own virtualenv using the right
408 Python version and automatically installs *Black*. You can upgrade it later
409 by calling `:BlackUpgrade` and restarting Vim.
411 If you need to do anything special to make your virtualenv work and
412 install *Black* (for example you want to run a version from master), just
413 create a virtualenv manually and point `g:black_virtualenv` to it.
414 The plugin will use it.
416 **How to get Vim with Python 3.6?**
417 On Ubuntu 17.10 Vim comes with Python 3.6 by default.
418 On macOS with HomeBrew run: `brew install vim --with-python3`.
419 When building Vim from source, use:
420 `./configure --enable-python3interp=yes`. There's many guides online how
424 ### Visual Studio Code
426 Use [joslarson.black-vscode](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=joslarson.black-vscode).
430 Use [sublack plugin](https://github.com/jgirardet/sublack).
434 Atom/Nuclide integration is planned by the author, others will
435 require external contributions.
437 Patches welcome! ✨ 🍰 ✨
439 Any tool that can pipe code through *Black* using its stdio mode (just
440 [use `-` as the file name](http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/special-chars.html#DASHREF2)).
441 The formatted code will be returned on stdout (unless `--check` was
442 passed). *Black* will still emit messages on stderr but that shouldn't
443 affect your use case.
445 This can be used for example with PyCharm's [File Watchers](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/file-watchers.html).
448 ## Version control integration
450 Use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Once you [have it
451 installed](https://pre-commit.com/#install), add this to the
452 `.pre-commit-config.yaml` in your repository:
455 - repo: https://github.com/ambv/black
459 args: [--line-length=88, --safe]
460 python_version: python3.6
462 Then run `pre-commit install` and you're ready to go.
464 `args` in the above config is optional but shows you how you can change
465 the line length if you really need to. If you're already using Python
466 3.7, switch the `python_version` accordingly. Finally, `stable` is a tag
467 that is pinned to the latest release on PyPI. If you'd rather run on
468 master, this is also an option.
471 ## Ignoring non-modified files
473 *Black* remembers files it already formatted, unless the `--diff` flag is used or
474 code is passed via standard input. This information is stored per-user. The exact
475 location of the file depends on the black version and the system on which black
476 is run. The file is non-portable. The standard location on common operating systems
479 * Windows: `C:\\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\black\black\Cache\<version>\cache.<line-length>.pickle`
480 * macOS: `/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.pickle`
481 * Linux: `/home/<username>/.cache/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.pickle`
486 **Dusty Phillips**, [writer](https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dusty+phillips):
488 > Black is opinionated so you don't have to be.
490 **Hynek Schlawack**, [creator of `attrs`](http://www.attrs.org/), core
491 developer of Twisted and CPython:
493 > An auto-formatter that doesn't suck is all I want for Xmas!
495 **Carl Meyer**, [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) core developer:
497 > At least the name is good.
499 **Kenneth Reitz**, creator of [`requests`](http://python-requests.org/)
500 and [`pipenv`](https://docs.pipenv.org/):
502 > This vastly improves the formatting of our code. Thanks a ton!
507 Use the badge in your project's README.md:
510 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/ambv/black)
513 Looks like this: [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/ambv/black)
521 ## Contributing to Black
523 In terms of inspiration, *Black* is about as configurable as *gofmt*.
526 Bug reports and fixes are always welcome! However, before you suggest a
527 new feature or configuration knob, ask yourself why you want it. If it
528 enables better integration with some workflow, fixes an inconsistency,
529 speeds things up, and so on - go for it! On the other hand, if your
530 answer is "because I don't like a particular formatting" then you're not
531 ready to embrace *Black* yet. Such changes are unlikely to get accepted.
532 You can still try but prepare to be disappointed.
534 More details can be found in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
539 ### 18.5a0 (unreleased)
541 * Slices are now formatted according to PEP 8 (#178)
543 * Empty parentheses in a class definition are removed (#145, #180)
548 * don't populate the cache on `--check` (#175)
553 * added a "cache"; files already reformatted that haven't changed on disk
554 won't be reformatted again (#109)
556 * `--check` and `--diff` are no longer mutually exclusive (#149)
558 * generalized star expression handling, including double stars; this
559 fixes multiplication making expressions "unsafe" for trailing commas (#132)
561 * Black no longer enforces putting empty lines behind control flow statements
564 * Black now splits imports like "Mode 3 + trailing comma" of isort (#127)
566 * fixed comment indentation when a standalone comment closes a block (#16, #32)
568 * fixed standalone comments receiving extra empty lines if immediately preceding
569 a class, def, or decorator (#56, #154)
571 * fixed `--diff` not showing entire path (#130)
573 * fixed parsing of complex expressions after star and double stars in
576 * fixed invalid splitting on comma in lambda arguments (#133)
578 * fixed missing splits of ternary expressions (#141)
583 * fixed parsing of unaligned standalone comments (#99, #112)
585 * fixed placement of dictionary unpacking inside dictionary literals (#111)
587 * Vim plugin now works on Windows, too
589 * fixed unstable formatting when encountering unnecessarily escaped quotes
595 * added `--quiet` (#78)
597 * added automatic parentheses management (#4)
599 * added [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com) integration (#103, #104)
601 * fixed reporting on `--check` with multiple files (#101, #102)
603 * fixed removing backslash escapes from raw strings (#100, #105)
608 * added `--diff` (#87)
610 * add line breaks before all delimiters, except in cases like commas, to
611 better comply with PEP 8 (#73)
613 * standardize string literals to use double quotes (almost) everywhere
616 * fixed handling of standalone comments within nested bracketed
617 expressions; Black will no longer produce super long lines or put all
618 standalone comments at the end of the expression (#22)
620 * fixed 18.3a4 regression: don't crash and burn on empty lines with
621 trailing whitespace (#80)
623 * fixed 18.3a4 regression: `# yapf: disable` usage as trailing comment
624 would cause Black to not emit the rest of the file (#95)
626 * when CTRL+C is pressed while formatting many files, Black no longer
627 freaks out with a flurry of asyncio-related exceptions
629 * only allow up to two empty lines on module level and only single empty
630 lines within functions (#74)
635 * `# fmt: off` and `# fmt: on` are implemented (#5)
637 * automatic detection of deprecated Python 2 forms of print statements
638 and exec statements in the formatted file (#49)
640 * use proper spaces for complex expressions in default values of typed
641 function arguments (#60)
643 * only return exit code 1 when --check is used (#50)
645 * don't remove single trailing commas from square bracket indexing
648 * don't omit whitespace if the previous factor leaf wasn't a math
651 * omit extra space in kwarg unpacking if it's the first argument (#46)
653 * omit extra space in [Sphinx auto-attribute comments](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/ext/autodoc.html#directive-autoattribute)
659 * don't remove single empty lines outside of bracketed expressions
662 * added ability to pipe formatting from stdin to stdin (#25)
664 * restored ability to format code with legacy usage of `async` as
667 * even better handling of numpy-style array indexing (#33, again)
672 * changed positioning of binary operators to occur at beginning of lines
673 instead of at the end, following [a recent change to PEP8](https://github.com/python/peps/commit/c59c4376ad233a62ca4b3a6060c81368bd21e85b)
676 * ignore empty bracket pairs while splitting. This avoids very weirdly
677 looking formattings (#34, #35)
679 * remove a trailing comma if there is a single argument to a call
681 * if top level functions were separated by a comment, don't put four
682 empty lines after the upper function
684 * fixed unstable formatting of newlines with imports
686 * fixed unintentional folding of post scriptum standalone comments
687 into last statement if it was a simple statement (#18, #28)
689 * fixed missing space in numpy-style array indexing (#33)
691 * fixed spurious space after star-based unary expressions (#31)
698 * only put trailing commas in function signatures and calls if it's
699 safe to do so. If the file is Python 3.6+ it's always safe, otherwise
700 only safe if there are no `*args` or `**kwargs` used in the signature
703 * fixed invalid spacing of dots in relative imports (#6, #13)
705 * fixed invalid splitting after comma on unpacked variables in for-loops
708 * fixed spurious space in parenthesized set expressions (#7)
710 * fixed spurious space after opening parentheses and in default
713 * fixed spurious space after unary operators when the operand was
714 a complex expression (#15)
719 * first published version, Happy 🍰 Day 2018!
723 * date-versioned (see: https://calver.org/)
728 Glued together by [Łukasz Langa](mailto:lukasz@langa.pl).
730 Maintained with [Carol Willing](mailto:carolcode@willingconsulting.com),
731 [Carl Meyer](mailto:carl@oddbird.net),
732 [Mika Naylor](mailto:mail@autophagy.io), and
733 [Zsolt Dollenstein](mailto:zsol.zsol@gmail.com).
735 Multiple contributions by:
736 * [Anthony Sottile](mailto:asottile@umich.edu)
737 * [Artem Malyshev](mailto:proofit404@gmail.com)
738 * [Christian Heimes](mailto:christian@python.org)
739 * [Daniel M. Capella](mailto:polycitizen@gmail.com)
740 * [Eli Treuherz](mailto:eli.treuherz@cgi.com)
742 * [Ivan Katanić](mailto:ivan.katanic@gmail.com)
743 * [Jonas Obrist](mailto:ojiidotch@gmail.com)
744 * [Osaetin Daniel](mailto:osaetindaniel@gmail.com)
745 * [Sunil Kapil](mailto:snlkapil@gmail.com)
746 * [Vishwas B Sharma](mailto:sharma.vishwas88@gmail.com)