Is there an Eclipse line-width marker?

Mocky picture Mocky · Aug 8, 2009 · Viewed 86.6k times · Source

I have a specific project where I need to wrap every code line at 65 characters. I have set up the eclipse Java code formatter properly for this. But what I really want is a vertical line to be drawn in the editor showing where the max line width while I am typing, not just when I run the formmater. I know this feature is available in some capacity because it is displayed in the code formatter property page.

I don't see any option in eclipse to turn this on and I didn't see any plug-ins that do it on Eclipse Plugin Central

Answer

Jon Skeet picture Jon Skeet · Aug 8, 2009

Look in Windows / Preferences (at least on Windows - IIRC it moves around for different operating systems) then:

General -> Editors -> Text Editors -> Show Print Margin

Tick this and it should show the line.

As a quick way of finding this, use the search filter in the top and filter on "margin".

Notes from the comments - unverified by me, but I have no reason to doubt them:

It has changed somehow in 2016: For details see [here] (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=495490#c2) You have to set it in the formatter: From menu [Window]-->[Preferences], select [Java]-->[Code Style]-->[Formatter], and then edit your formatter profile. In the tab page [Line wrapping], you can find a setting named "Maximum line width". Change this setting, and the print margin in Java source editor will be changed too.