enforce a maximum line length (max-len)

Very long lines of code in any language can be difficult to read. In order to aid in readability and maintainability many coders have developed a convention to limit lines of code to X number of characters (traditionally 80 characters).

var foo = { "bar": "This is a bar.", "baz": { "qux": "This is a qux" }, "difficult": "to read" }; // very long

Rule Details

This rule enforces a maximum line length to increase code readability and maintainability.

Note: This rule calculates the length of a line via code points, not characters. That means if you use a double-byte character in your code, it will count as 2 code points instead of 1, and 2 will be used to calculate line length. This is a technical limitation of JavaScript that is made easier with ES2015, and we will look to update this when ES2015 is available in Node.js.

Options

This rule has a number or object option:

"code" (default 80) enforces a maximum line length
"tabWidth" (default 4) specifies the character width for tab characters
"comments" enforces a maximum line length for comments; defaults to value of code
"ignorePattern" ignores lines matching a regular expression; can only match a single line and need to be double escaped when written in YAML or JSON
"ignoreComments": true ignores all trailing comments and comments on their own line
"ignoreTrailingComments": true ignores only trailing comments
"ignoreUrls": true ignores lines that contain a URL

code

Examples of incorrect code for this rule with the default { "code": 80 } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", 80]*/

var foo = { "bar": "This is a bar.", "baz": { "qux": "This is a qux" }, "difficult": "to read" };

Examples of correct code for this rule with the default { "code": 80 } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", 80]*/

var foo = {
  "bar": "This is a bar.",
  "baz": { "qux": "This is a qux" },
  "easier": "to read"
};

tabWidth

Examples of incorrect code for this rule with the default { "tabWidth": 4 } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", 80, 4]*/

\t  \t  var foo = { "bar": "This is a bar.", "baz": { "qux": "This is a qux" } };

Examples of correct code for this rule with the default { "tabWidth": 4 } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", 80, 4]*/

\t  \t  var foo = {
\t  \t  \t  \t  "bar": "This is a bar.",
\t  \t  \t  \t  "baz": { "qux": "This is a qux" }
\t  \t  };

comments

Examples of incorrect code for this rule with the { "comments": 65 } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", { "comments": 65 }]*/

/**
 * This is a comment that violates the maximum line length we have specified
**/

ignoreComments

Examples of correct code for this rule with the { "ignoreComments": true } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", { "ignoreComments": true }]*/

/**
 * This is a really really really really really really really really really long comment
**/

ignoreTrailingComments

Examples of correct code for this rule with the { "ignoreTrailingComments": true } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", { "ignoreTrailingComments": true }]*/

var foo = 'bar'; // This is a really really really really really really really long comment

ignoreUrls

Examples of correct code for this rule with the { "ignoreUrls": true } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", { "ignoreUrls": true }]*/

var url = 'https://www.example.com/really/really/really/really/really/really/really/long';

ignorePattern

Examples of correct code for this rule with the { "ignorePattern": true } option:

/*eslint max-len: ["error", { "ignorePattern": "^\\s*var\\s.+=\\s*require\\s*\\(/" }]*/

var dep = require('really/really/really/really/really/really/really/really/long/module');

Version

This rule was introduced in ESLint 0.0.9.