How to add multiple formatters to languages.toml

[AH-Merii]

I am currently using black formatter to autoformat my python code on save. Is it possible to add isort as a formatter in order to format my imports?

Here is part of my languages.toml file:

[[language]]
name = "python"
rulers = [79,88]
auto-format = true
formatter = {command = "black", args = ["-",  "--quiet","--line-length=88",]}

[pascalkuthe]

you can create a shell scpit that calls both

[AH-Merii]

Thanks for the reply, I did think that we need to somehow pass the stdin, which is why I was checking for arguments. What I initially thought is that helix would pass in the path to the current file that was being edited by default, which then I would take the input for in my shell script above.

Thanks for suggesting logging the stdin values, that's not something I though of doing.

Will continue testing it in my free time.

[thomasaarholt]

I thought exactly the same as you wrt helix passing a path 😄

[thomasaarholt]

Figured it out!

#!/bin/bash
ruff --fix - | black -

Add any options you want before the - on either black or ruff! - is interpreted as stdio (the "piped input/output"), instead of the filename.

(edit: I originally formatted with black the ruff, but the opposite order makes much more sense)

[AH-Merii]

That's awesome, I didn't try it yet, I am currently away from my PC.

#!/bin/bash
isort --profile black - | black  "--quiet","--line-length=88" -

I am assuming that this would translate to the above for my application. Will try it out as soon as I get back home.

[thomasaarholt]

Apologies, I was too excited about my own usage 😅

Yep! That is correct! I was using cat to figure this all out, for instance:

cat test.py | isort - | black -

[dustinlagoy]

Another option is to just embed the shell script into your config. This works fine for me:

formatter = { command = "bash", args = ["-c", "isort - | black -"] }

[AH-Merii]

I really like this solution, it's really elegant compared to the one I was using. Thanks for sharing! @dustinlagoy

formatter = {command = "bash", args = ["-c", "isort --profile black - | black --quiet --line-length=88 -"]} 

[ubitux]

You better be sure that black and isort are installed on your system, because otherwise you'll get your file emptied and saved. That's one of the main issue with this approach.

I thought there was hope with ruff, but they decided to keep the header sorting out of the formatter so we end up with exactly the same issue, that is the need to execute 2 separate commands. I thought about adding the isort command to the formatter, but then this disables the formatter of the ruff lsp, and so defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

I have yet to find a decent solution for this issue.