dart format

To update your code to follow the Dart formatting guidelines, use the dart format command. This formatting follows what you get when using an IDE or editor with Dart support.

To reformat one or more Dart files, provide a list of paths to the desired files or directories.

Provide the path to one file or directory. If you pass a directory path, dart format recurses into its subdirectories as well.

Example: To format all the Dart files in or under the current directory:

$ dart format .

To specify multiple files or directories, use a space-delimited list.

Example: To format all Dart files under the lib directory, plus one Dart file under the bin directory:

$ dart format lib bin/updater.dart

By default, dart format overwrites the Dart files.

• To not overwrite the files, add the --output or -o flag.
• To get the contents of the formatted files, add -o show or -o json.
• To see only which files would change, add -o none.

$ dart format -o show bin/my_app.dart

To make dart format return an exit code when formatting changes occur, add the --set-exit-if-changed flag.

• If changes occur, the dart format command returns an exit code of 1.
• If changes don't occur, the dart format command returns an exit code of 0.

Use exit codes with continuous integration (CI) systems so they can trigger another action in response to the exit code.

$ dart format -o none --set-exit-if-changed bin/my_app.dart

dart format makes the following formatting changes:

• Removes whitespace.
• Wraps every line to 80 characters long or shorter.
• Adds trailing commas to any argument or parameter list that splits across multiple lines, and removes them from ones that don't.
• Might move comments before or after a comma.

To learn more about best practices for writing and styling Dart code, check out the Dart style guide.

When you run dart format, the formatter defaults to 80 character line length or shorter. If you'd like to configure the line length for your project, you can add a top-level formatter section to the analysis_options.yaml file, like so:

formatter:
  page_width: 123

With the analysis options file typically at the root, the configured line length will apply to everything in the package.

You can also configure individual files' line length, overriding the analysis options file, with a marker comment at the top of the file before any other code:

// dart format width=123

To learn about additional command-line options, use the dart help command or see the documentation for the dart_style package

$ dart help format

Check out the formatter FAQ for more context behind formatting decisions.

Unless stated otherwise, the documentation on this site reflects Dart 3.7.0. Page last updated on 2025-01-31. View source or report an issue.