"Tabify" all files in Visual Studio solution?

Question

There's a "tabify" command in

Edit > Advanced > Tabify Selected Lines

(and the Power Tools 2010 also provide this functionality on a per-file basis) but is there a way to do this for all code files in a solution?

ReSharper has a Clean Up command but the only half-suitable option I found there is to run formatting on all files which does more than I want (I don't want to run a complete formatting, just tabifying).

Answer 1

The request contains links to IDE macros that can do the job:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kevinpilchbisson/archive/2004/05/17/133371.aspx
http://web.archive.org/web/20090217094033/http://chriseargle.com/post/Format-Solution.aspx

Here is sample code for a Visual Studio macro that automatically formats all *.cs, *.h, *.cpp, and *.hpp files in an open solution, which includes converting spaces to tabs (depending on your Tab settings in Tools > Options > Text Editor > specific language or "All Languages" > Tabs):

Imports System Imports EnvDTE Imports EnvDTE80 Imports System.Diagnostics  Public Module ConvertTabsToSpaces      Public Sub FormatSolution()         Dim sol As Solution = DTE.Solution         For i As Integer = 1 To sol.Projects.Count             FormatProject(sol.Projects.Item(i))         Next     End Sub      Private Sub FormatProject(ByVal proj As Project)         If Not proj.ProjectItems Is Nothing Then             For i As Integer = 1 To proj.ProjectItems.Count                 FormatProjectItem(proj.ProjectItems.Item(i))             Next         End If     End Sub      Private Sub FormatProjectItem(ByVal projectItem As ProjectItem)         If projectItem.Kind = Constants.vsProjectItemKindPhysicalFile Then             If projectItem.Name.LastIndexOf(".cs") = projectItem.Name.Length - 3 Then                 Dim window As Window = projectItem.Open(Constants.vsViewKindCode)                 window.Activate()                 projectItem.Document.DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.FormatDocument")                 window.Close(vsSaveChanges.vsSaveChangesYes)             ElseIf ((projectItem.Name.LastIndexOf(".cpp") = projectItem.Name.Length - 4) OrElse (projectItem.Name.LastIndexOf(".hpp") = projectItem.Name.Length - 4) OrElse (projectItem.Name.LastIndexOf(".h") = projectItem.Name.Length - 2)) Then                 Dim window As Window = projectItem.Open(Constants.vsViewKindCode)                 window.Activate()                 projectItem.Document.DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.SelectAll")                 projectItem.Document.DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.FormatSelection")                 window.Close(vsSaveChanges.vsSaveChangesYes)             End If         End If          'Be sure to format all of the ProjectItems.         If Not projectItem.ProjectItems Is Nothing Then             For i As Integer = 1 To projectItem.ProjectItems.Count                 FormatProjectItem(projectItem.ProjectItems.Item(i))             Next         End If          'Format the SubProject if it exists.         If Not projectItem.SubProject Is Nothing Then             FormatProject(projectItem.SubProject)         End If     End Sub  End Module 

Instructions (Visual Studio 2005, but similar for newer versions):

1. Launch Visual Studio
2. Tools > Macros > Macros IDE...
3. Right-click MyMacros > Add > Add New Item...
4. Select Module
5. Enter "ConvertSpacesToTabs" without quotes in the Name field
6. Click Add
7. Replace the contents of the new module with the code above
8. Click Save
9. Close the Macros IDE
10. Tools > Macros > Macro Explorer
11. Expand MyMacros > ConvertSpacesToTabs
12. Double-click on FormatSolution
13. Wait for the macro to finish

Edit
I updated the code to also support *.h, *.cpp, and *.hpp files using code from Siegmund Frenzel here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14766393/90287

Answer 2

If you have added the Microsoft Productivity Power tools extension (which if you haven't I would recommned) it adds an option to tabify files. This does not apply across all files in a solution, but it's prompted for when editing each file, on a per file basis. Not quite what you're after but a help.

Also you might try setting your IDE editor settings to use tabs, then do menu-edit-advanced-format document (CTRL+E,D). This will replace groups of tab length spaces with a tab, and that should be scriptable for all files in the solution via a macro.