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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Code Review
  4. Code Review
  5. Prettier vs SonarLint

Prettier vs SonarLint

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Prettier
Prettier
Stacks13.2K
Followers1.3K
Votes7
GitHub Stars51.1K
Forks4.6K
SonarLint
SonarLint
Stacks175
Followers352
Votes16

Prettier vs SonarLint: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Prettier and SonarLint. Both Prettier and SonarLint are popular tools used in the software development process, but they serve different purposes and have different functionalities. Understanding their differences can help developers choose the right tool for their specific needs.

  1. Code Formatting: Prettier is primarily a code formatting tool, which means it focuses on automating the process of formatting code to make it consistent and visually appealing. It enforces a set of rules and conventions for code style, and automatically formats the code according to those rules. On the other hand, SonarLint is a code analysis tool that focuses on finding and fixing bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code smells in the codebase. It does not perform code formatting.

  2. Integrations: Prettier can be integrated into various text editors and IDEs (Integrated Development Environments), such as Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, and Atom, through plugins or extensions. It can also be used as a standalone command-line tool. On the contrary, SonarLint integrates with popular IDEs like Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio, providing real-time feedback and suggestions during the development process.

  3. Linting Rules: Prettier has a predefined set of rules for code formatting, and developers do not have much flexibility to configure or customize these rules. It follows a "batteries included" philosophy, where the goal is to provide a consistent code style with minimal configuration. SonarLint, on the other hand, provides a wide range of configurable rules for code analysis, allowing developers to customize the analysis based on their specific requirements and coding standard.

  4. Language Support: Prettier supports a variety of programming languages, including but not limited to JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, JSON, and Markdown. It aims to maintain consistent code style across different languages. SonarLint, on the other hand, supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Kotlin, and more. It focuses on analyzing the code for bugs, security vulnerabilities, and quality issues specific to each language.

  5. Continuous Integration: Prettier can be easily integrated into the development workflow using tools like ESLint, Git hooks, or pre-commit hooks. It can be set up to automatically format code during the development process or as part of a continuous integration (CI) pipeline. SonarLint also supports integration with CI systems, but its main focus is on providing insights and recommendations rather than performing automated formatting tasks.

  6. Real-time Feedback: While Prettier mainly focuses on bulk code formatting, SonarLint provides real-time feedback and suggestions while developers are writing or modifying code. It helps developers identify and fix issues early in the development process, reducing the overall effort required for code review and debugging.

In Summary, Prettier is a code formatting tool that enforces consistent code style, while SonarLint is a code analysis tool that helps identify and fix bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code smells. Prettier focuses on code formatting, while SonarLint provides configurable rules for code analysis and integrates with IDEs to provide real-time feedback.

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Advice on Prettier, SonarLint

Alex
Alex

Software Engineer

Aug 7, 2020

Review

you don't actually have to choose between these tools as they have vastly different purposes. i think its more a matter of understanding how to use them.

while eslint and stylelint are used to notify you about code quality issues, to guide you to write better code, prettier automatically handles code formatting (without notifying me). nothing else.

prettier and eslint both officially discourage using the eslint-plugin-prettier way, as these tools actually do very different things. autofixing with linters on watch isnt a great idea either. auto-fixing should only be done intentionally. you're not alone though, as a lot of devs set this up wrong.

i encourage you to think about what problem you're trying to solve and configure accordingly.

for my teams i set it up like this:

  • eslint, stylelint, prettier locally installed for cli use and ide support
  • eslint config prettier (code formatting rules are not eslints business, so dont warn me about it)
  • vscode workspace config: format on save
  • separate npm scripts for linting, and formatting
  • precommit hooks (husky)

so you can easily integrate with gulp. its just js after all ;)

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Prettier
Prettier
SonarLint
SonarLint

Prettier is an opinionated code formatter. It enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.

It is an IDE extension that helps you detect and fix quality issues as you write code. Like a spell checker, it squiggles flaws so that they can be fixed before committing code.

An opinionated code formatter; Supports many languages; Integrates with most editors; Has few options; You press save and code is formatted; No need to discuss style in code review; Saves you time and energy
Bug detection;Instant feedback;Know what to do;Learn from your mistakes;Uncover old issues
Statistics
GitHub Stars
51.1K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
4.6K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
13.2K
Stacks
175
Followers
1.3K
Followers
352
Votes
7
Votes
16
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 1
    Runs offline
  • 1
    Follows the Ruby Style Guide by default
  • 1
    Atom/VSCode package
  • 1
    Open Source
Pros
  • 13
    IDE Integration
  • 3
    Free
Cons
  • 3
    Not Very User Friendly
  • 3
    Non contextual warnings
Integrations
GraphQL
GraphQL
JavaScript
JavaScript
TypeScript
TypeScript
Flow
Flow
Vue.js
Vue.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
markdown
markdown
YAML
YAML
Less
Less
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code
Eclipse
Eclipse
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA

What are some alternatives to Prettier, SonarLint?

Code Climate

Code Climate

After each Git push, Code Climate analyzes your code for complexity, duplication, and common smells to determine changes in quality and surface technical debt hotspots.

Codacy

Codacy

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality on every commit and pull request on more than 40 programming languages reporting back the impact of every commit or PR, issues concerning code style, best practices and security.

Phabricator

Phabricator

Phabricator is a collection of open source web applications that help software companies build better software.

PullReview

PullReview

PullReview helps Ruby and Rails developers to develop new features cleanly, on-time, and with confidence by automatically reviewing their code.

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit is a self-hosted pre-commit code review tool. It serves as a Git hosting server with option to comment incoming changes. It is highly configurable and extensible with default guarding policies, webhooks, project access control and more.

SonarQube

SonarQube

SonarQube provides an overview of the overall health of your source code and even more importantly, it highlights issues found on new code. With a Quality Gate set on your project, you will simply fix the Leak and start mechanically improving.

RuboCop

RuboCop

RuboCop is a Ruby static code analyzer. Out of the box it will enforce many of the guidelines outlined in the community Ruby Style Guide.

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io automatically and continuously tracks code quality with every GitHub or BitBucket commit and pull request, helping software developers save time in code reviews and efficiently tackle technical debt.

ESLint

ESLint

A pluggable and configurable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript. Maintain your code quality with ease.

Amazon CodeGuru

Amazon CodeGuru

It is a machine learning service for automated code reviews and application performance recommendations. It helps you find the most expensive lines of code that hurt application performance and keep you up all night troubleshooting, then gives you specific recommendations to fix or improve your code.

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