How to auto-remove trailing whitespace in Eclipse?
Solution 1:
I assume your questions is with regards to Java code. If that's the case, you don't actually need any extra plugins to accomplish 1). You can just go to Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Save Actions and configure it to remove trailing whitespace.
By the sounds of it you also want to make this a team-wide setting, right? To make life easier and avoid having to remember setting it up every time you have a new workspace you can set the save action as a project specific preference that gets stored into your SCM along with the code.
In order to do that right-click on your project and go to Properties -> Java Editor -> Save Actions. From there you can enable project specific settings and configure it to remove trailing whitespace (among other useful things).
NB: This option has been removed in Eclipse Kepler (4.3) and following releases.
NB #2: The option seems to be back in Eclipse Luna - Luna Service Release 1a (4.4.1)
Solution 2:
- Removing whitespace from the entire file being edited:
Preferences -> Java -> Editors -> Save Actions -> check Perform the selected actions on save -> check Additional actions -> click Configure.. -> go to Code organizing tab -> check Remove trailing whitespace -> select All lines.
- Removing whitespace only from the lines I changed:
Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Save Actions -> check "Perform the selected actions on save -> check Format source code -> select Format edited lines.
Note it is not necessary to click Configure the formatter settings on the Formatter page - all the code styles automatically include removing trailing whitespace. At least I couldn't find a setting for this in Formatter configuration, and it worked out of the box for built-in Java Conventions, Eclipse, Eclipse 2.1 styles, as well as GoogleStyle.
When using this set-up, you obviously need to also turn off the solution to part 1 of the question.
Eclipse version checked: 4.5.2, 4.11
Solution 3:
You don't need any plugin to do so. For instance, if you code JAVA, you can erase trailing whitespaces configuring save actions:
Eclipse 3.6
Preferences -> Java -> Editors -> Save Actions -> Check Perform the selected actions on save -> Check Additional actions -> Click the Configure.. button.
In the Code organizing tab, check Remove trailing whitespace