VS Code + Prettier not using printWidth setting?

Question

I'm trying to get Prettier to format my files with a printWidth of 80 chars (what I understand to be the default). However, even with my user settings configured:

"prettier.printWidth": 80

AND using a .prettierrc config in the project:

{
  "tabWidth": 2,
  "useTabs": false,
  "printWidth": 80
}

...nothing changes when I save a file (other settings are implemented, which makes me think there is a conflict somewhere).

Even the Prettier output in VS Code shows that it's pulling in the config:

["INFO" - 8:27:53 PM] Using config file at '/Users/username/Documents/whatever/.prettierrc'
["INFO" - 8:27:53 PM] Prettier Options:
{
  "filepath": "/Users/username/Documents/whatever/project/file.mdx",
  "parser": "mdx",
  "tabWidth": 2,
  "useTabs": false,
  "printWidth": 80
}
["INFO" - 8:27:53 PM] Formatting completed in 93.855083ms.

"other settings are implemented" -- what does that mean exactly? — thorn0, Feb 23 '21 at 14:52
@thorn̈ sorry that was poorly worded - other configurations in my settings are properly applied, just not printWidth — Rob Lauer, Feb 24 '21 at 16:08
I guess you're looking for this option https://prettier.io/docs/en/options.html#prose-wrap. `printWidth` is just a number, not something disableable. — thorn0, Feb 24 '21 at 16:44

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 25 '21 at 22:04

You're formatting MDX, which is a variant of Markdown. Breaking text to respect the print width in Markdown is considered unsafe by default because this can affect some renderers sensitive to line breaks. That's why Prettier's option proseWrap(docs) defaults to preserve. Set it to always for Prettier to start wrapping text.

VS Code + Prettier not using printWidth setting?

1 Answers1