Align Inline Comments in Code

Aligning Inline Comments

When multiple lines of code each have a trailing comment, aligning those comments at the same column makes the annotations far easier to scan. This is especially useful in configuration files, assembly language, and heavily-commented code blocks.

Before

port = 8080 # HTTP server port
host = "0.0.0.0" # Bind to all interfaces
workers = 4 # Number of worker processes
timeout = 30 # Request timeout in seconds
max_connections = 1000 # Maximum concurrent connections
debug = false # Enable debug mode

After

port            = 8080       # HTTP server port
host            = "0.0.0.0"  # Bind to all interfaces
workers         = 4          # Number of worker processes
timeout         = 30         # Request timeout in seconds
max_connections = 1000       # Maximum concurrent connections
debug           = false      # Enable debug mode

Two-Pass Approach

Aligning code with both assignments and comments requires splitting on the right delimiter. One effective approach:

1. First pass — Use the Equals = delimiter to align the keys and values.
2. Second pass — Use the Custom delimiter with # to align the comment markers.

Each pass aligns one set of columns, producing the clean result above.

Comment Styles

This technique works with any comment marker:

• # — Python, Ruby, Shell, YAML
• // — JavaScript, TypeScript, C, Go, Rust
• -- — SQL, Lua, Haskell
• ; — Assembly, INI files

Set the appropriate marker as the custom delimiter for each language.