pycharm convert tabs to spaces automatically

Question

I am using pycharm IDE for python development it works perfectly fine for django code so suspected that converting tabs to spaces is default behaviour, however in python IDE is giving errors everywhere because it can't convert tabs to spaces automatically is there a way to achieve this.

Solution 1

Change the code style to use spaces instead of tabs:

Then select a folder you want to convert in the Project View and use Code | Reformat Code.

Solution 2

This only converts the tabs without changing anything else:

Edit -> Convert Indents -> To Spaces

Solution 3

For selections, you can also convert the selection using the "To spaces" function. I usually just use it via the ctrl-shift-A then find "To Spaces" from there.

Solution 4

PyCharm 2019.1

If you want to change the general settings:

Open preferences, in macOS ⌘; or in Windows/Linux Ctrl + Alt + S.

Go to Editor -> Code Style -> Python, and if you want to follow PEP-8, choose Tab size: 4, Indent: 4, and Continuation indent: 8 as shown below:

Apply the changes, and click on OK.

If you want to apply the changes just to the current file

Option 1: You can choose in the navigation bar: Edit -> Convert Indent -> To Spaces. (see image below)

Option 2: You can execute "To Spaces" action by running the Find Action shortcut: ⌘⇧A on macOS or ctrl⇧A on Windows/Linux. Then type "To Spaces", and run the action as shown in the image below.

Solution 5

ctrl + shift + A => open pop window to select options, select to spaces to convert all tabs as space, or to tab to convert all spaces as tab.

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Comments

[Vaibhav Mishra]

this was my default setting however it seems like there was some bug in the IDE which was not working so what I did is Edit>Convert Indent>Spaces

[R891]

Python should have 4-space indentation.

[Stefan Monov]

This answer doesn't work for me. Not sure why it's accepted, seeing as it doesn't work for OP either. Follow up question: stackoverflow.com/questions/47102828/…

[Elliott Beach]

In my case I had to disable Editor Config under Editor -> Code Style -> Enable Editor Config Support, because I unknowingly had a ~/.editorconfig file overriding PyCharm's settings.

[CGFoX]

doesn't seem to work for multiple files at once. doing it for each file individually is kind of a hassle...

[Zim]

This sets the default. It does NOT alter tabs or spaces in an existing file. See the answer below from @LowKianSeong for a solution that addresses the question.

[swdev]

Hey, this should be the accepted. It works locally. E.g. useful for Makefile that need to have tab as indentation

[Jed]

to tabs didn't work to convert an existing block of code. This is the only solution that worked for me. Thanks!

[Juggernaut]

you sir, are a life savor

[David Kinghorn]

You can force it to use spaces even for existing files by unchecking "Detect and use existing file indents for editing" under the general "Code Style". After that, typing tab on an existing file will immediately insert spaces rather than tabs.

[Pierre Thibault]

I had to check and uncheck the checkbox to make it work.

[Bono]

This only works for indents, not general formatting