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If I format some code by indenting it using four spaces, the code is not formatted. How do I format some code specifically for the language used? Or how do I prevent it from being formatted? Which languages are supported?

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Add the line <!-- language: <language_string> --> (where <language_string> is the string identifying the language) before the start of the code, and make sure that the code itself has an empty line before it:

<!-- language: <language_string> -->

    <line 1>
    <line 2>
    <line 3>

*<language_string> = string identifying the language

As suggested by muru, if you want to prevent the code from being formatted instead, you can add the line <!-- language: none -->:

<!-- language: none -->

    echo This snippet will not be nicely formatted when copy-pasted inside a post

bash example:

<!-- language: lang-bash -->

    echo This snippet will be nicely formatted when copy-pasted inside a post

The exact same can be accomplished when formatting by wrapping the code in triple backticks, by putting <language_string> after the first set of backticks:

```lang-bash
echo This snippet will be nicely formatted when copy-pasted inside a post
```

Here's the list of the currently supported languages along with their identifying string (updated on 2024-10-14; for an always up-to-date list, check out the original MSE post):

Language name lang-code                          Custom Stack Exchange
aliases		 Other Highlight.js
aliases
Plain text
(explicitly disables syntax highlighting)		 lang-plaintext lang-none lang-text
lang-txt
Bash and other shell scripts lang-bash lang-bsh
lang-csh
lang-sh		 -
C and C-likes lang-c lang-cyc
lang-m
lang-c-like		 lang-h
Clojure lang-clojure lang-clj lang-edn
CoffeeScript lang-coffeescript lang-coffee lang-cson
lang-iced
C++ lang-cpp lang-cc
lang-cxx		 lang-c++
lang-h++
lang-hpp
lang-hh
lang-hxx
C# lang-csharp lang-cs lang-c#
CSS lang-css - -
Dart lang-dart - -
Delphi, Pascal lang-delphi - lang-dpr
lang-dfm
lang-pas
lang-pascal
Erlang lang-erlang lang-erl -
Go lang-go - lang-golang
Haskell lang-haskell lang-hs -
HTTP request/​response lang-http - lang-https
INI, TOML lang-ini - lang-toml
Java lang-java - lang-jsp
JavaScript lang-javascript lang-js lang-jsx
lang-mjs
lang-cjs
JSON lang-json - -
Julia lang-julia - -
Kotlin lang-kotlin - lang-kt
lang-kts
LaTeX, TeX lang-latex lang-tex -
Less lang-less - -
Lisp lang-lisp lang-cl
lang-el
lang-lsp		 -
Lua lang-lua - -
Makefile lang-makefile - lang-mk
lang-mak
lang-make
Markdown lang-markdown - lang-md
lang-mkdown
lang-mkd
Mathematica / Wolfram Language
(Mathematica SE only)		 lang-mathematica lang-mma lang-wl
MATLAB lang-matlab - -
Objective-C lang-objectivec - lang-mm
lang-objc
lang-obj-c
lang-obj-c++
lang-objective-c++
OCaml, F#, SML and other ML-family languages lang-ocaml lang-fs
lang-ml		 -
Perl lang-perl lang-pl lang-pm
PHP lang-php - -
PHP template HTML+PHP lang-php-template - -
Protocol Buffers lang-protobuf - lang-proto
Python lang-python lang-py
lang-cv		 lang-gyp
lang-ipython
R, S lang-r lang-s -
Ruby lang-ruby lang-rb lang-gemspec
lang-podspec
lang-thor
lang-irb
Rust lang-rust lang-rc
lang-rs		 -
Scala lang-scala - -
Scheme, Racket lang-scheme lang-scm
lang-ss
lang-rkt		 -
SCSS lang-scss - -
Shell session lang-shell - lang-console
lang-shellsession
SQL lang-sql - -
Swift lang-swift - -
TypeScript lang-typescript - lang-ts
lang-tsx
lang-mts
lang-cts
Visual Basic .NET, VBScript lang-vbnet lang-vb
lang-vbs		 -
VHDL lang-vhdl lang-vhd -
XML, HTML and their derivatives lang-xml lang-html
lang-xsl		 lang-xhtml
lang-rss
lang-atom
lang-xjb
lang-xsd
lang-plist
lang-wsf
lang-svg
YAML lang-yaml - lang-yml

As explained by @Braiam, the lang- prefix is needed for those languages that are not "hinted at" by any tag (e.g., lang-bash on Ask Ubuntu, being hinted at by , could be written simply as bash).

Finally, if the question is tagged with a tag that "hints" at a language (e.g. again ), the snippet will automatically formatted.

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  • 1
    It turns out that lang-bash also works, despite only lang-bsh being listed.
    – terdon
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 12:01
  • 1
    Why is there no BASIC in there? @terdon
    – Rinzwind
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 12:49
  • 1
    For plenty of languages, you don't need the lang- at all.
    – muru
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 13:14
  • 1
    @muru I think the lang- is optional for all of them.
    – terdon
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 13:35
  • @Rinzwind no idea. Also notice the conspicuous and unexplainable absence of lang-whitespace!
    – terdon
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 13:35
  • 1
    @terdon Unless it's a bug, not for lang-sql
    – kos
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 13:36
  • 1
    @kos yeah, some do work without it but not all.
    – terdon
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 13:52
  • @terdon Also no Brainfuck support. Believe it or not, people writes PHP interpreters with it
    – kos
    Commented Apr 22, 2015 at 14:39
  • There is a question over on MetaSE that has a answer on how to use syntax highlighting features: meta.stackexchange.com/q/184108 . Google's prettify is used, for which the README is currently here (it may move to here). BASIC is apparently available by extensions, which SE may be able to add :)
    – Wilf
    Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 0:05
  • 2
    @terdon the lang- prefix is required unless there's a tag associated with the language, ie. you can type either python or lang-python for python would work, but only pip would work as the tag is associated (at least on SO) with the lang-python formating. If a tag, like scala doesn't have associated a formating at the end of the tag info then neither adding the tag, nor just "scala" would work, you will have to type lang-scala.
    – Braiam
    Commented May 3, 2015 at 21:00

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