Allow opting in to multiline arrays explicitly

[dkarlovi]

Since multiline arrays are fully supported, it seems weird to not allow a feature to enable them when printing except by adding a dummy comment in the array.

An attribute like multiline = true seems like it should be enough to check in maybeMultiline? This could then be set when parsing, preserving the intent.

[ondrejmirtes]

You can do this by yourself by extending the Standard printer, overriding the pCommaSeparated method and insert newlines between the items if the items are PhpParser\Node\ArrayItem.

[dkarlovi]

Why would I do this myself if it's already fully supported, the only issue is you can't opt-in sanely, which this issue is trying to remedy.

[ondrejmirtes]

Because it doesn't make sense to add options for everything. People might have different preferences for different code structures (many things can be formatted in multi-line fashion in PHP).

What about a single item array? Would you still want to have it formatted on multiple lines?

There are many unknowns and many people have different preferences.

That's why (IMHO) it's not worth it to burden the maintainer and all the users with additional complexity.

You can implement exactly what you need already today.

[dkarlovi]

People might have different preferences

Which is why it says "opting in" in the title of the issue.

What about a single item array? Would you still want to have it formatted on multiple lines?

Maybe. I should get a chance to do that since it's literally already supported, the hard part is done.

[pmjones]

@dkarlovi pmjones/php-styler may be useful to you here.

[dkarlovi]

@pmjones That looks like an external package so I'm not sure how it can help allowing to opt in into multiline arrays explicitly in this one?

[dkarlovi]

@ondrejmirtes just realized your argument

it doesn't make sense to add options for everything

doesn't make sense here because there's literally the kind attribute for Array_ which decides how the array stmt should get printed (short or long syntax).

This could in theory be an extension to that: long / short, single line / multiline, do a Cartesian product of those.