Java Better alignment of fields declarations using Eclipse

Question

Adding too many fields into a class it becomes a mess like this:

private static final int UNAVAILABLE = -1;
private static final int EXTERNAL_BUFFER_SIZE = 4000 * 4;
private static final int SKIP_INACCURACY_SIZE = 1200;
private Thread thread = null;
private Object dataSource;
private AudioInputStream audioInputStream;
private AudioInputStream encodedAudioInputStream;
private int encodedAudioLength = -1;
private AudioFileFormat audioFileFormat;
private SourceDataLine sourceDataLine;

I want Eclipse to reformat the code and make it better to read so I modified default formatter and have achieved this:

private static final int UNAVAILABLE = -1;
private static final int EXTERNAL_BUFFER_SIZE = 4000 * 4;
private static final int SKIP_INACCURACY_SIZE = 1200;
private Thread thread = null;
private Object dataSource;
private AudioInputStream audioInputStream;
private AudioInputStream encodedAudioInputStream;
private int encodedAudioLength = -1;
private AudioFileFormat audioFileFormat;
private SourceDataLine sourceDataLine;

But it's still messy and I can't find how to modify the editor further to achieve this (you can see the difference in static)

(Found this piece of code here and I think it can be even more improved to create and an empty column for final):

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Image of the Editor in Eclipse:

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How can I do this?

• Joop Eggen: The first thought was "switch to COBOL", but I can understand. However not even 0.01% of the fellow java programmers will have experienced such a formating and appreciate it. If you want to work with others better live with the scrubby java code.
• GOXR3PLUS: @Joop Eggen It's clear and beautiful for eyes.For the usual code i have to open search window :).
• fabian: "Modified the Tags cause the code contains also JavaFX Classes." If only the code that you want to format contains JavaFX classes, but not the formatter and you're not trying to achieve some special formatting for JavaFX classes, the javafx tag is misleading here, since it would not matter, if the code contains ObjectProperty<Color> or List<BigInteger>.
• DVarga: Possible duplicate of Formatting Field Declarations in Eclipse
• Marco13: It's likely far from trivial. I just fiddled around with this. The option to select a block of variable declarations and format them ("nicely"!) with a dedicated menu command may be reasonable. In any case, there are open issues: What should happen for int final x=3; final int y=3;. Should modifiers be reordered? But for a real formatter, one would have to dive into git.eclipse.org/c/jdt/eclipse.jdt.core.git/tree/… etc. I tried it, but ... not the slightest chance of getting anywhere there.

Answer 1

My suggestion would be to write your own formatting program that takes a file location as input and writes formatted content back to the same file. It can be made as an eclipse plugin that can run on a particular key stroke.
The upside is that you can customize the way you want.
The downside is that it would be re-inventing the wheel if someone already had done it.

• GOXR3PLUS: Yes creating a Plugin would be great but it needs time and good knowledge , except of complexity . This will be the last solution if someone hasn't already done it...

Answer 2

When I run into formatting issues like this my first reaction is "is this class doing too much?".

Through repeated application of the Single Responsibility Principle you should be able to trim down the number of fields to a readable number - and such that no special formatting is required.

• GOXR3PLUS: James thanks for the answer,i readed your link.Sometimes a class which exists to do only one think can have a lot of variables.Here in this question i want a general formatter to make the code more wonderfull and human readable.