CSS Formatter Tool

Purpose & User Intent: The CSS Formatter Tool provides deterministic CSS code formatting to improve readability and consistency. Primary users include front-end developers, code reviewers, educators, and students who need clean, standardized CSS quickly. Use cases include preparing code for review, pairing CSS across a team, teaching formatting conventions, or transforming legacy/minified code into readable form. Example scenarios: converting compact CSS into expanded, properly indented styles, or applying a project-wide indentation and brace style.
Core Logic & Features: The tool parses input CSS text, applies a configurable set of formatting rules, and outputs a reformatted CSS string. Required features include: 1) formatting with selectable output style (expanded, compact, compressed), 2) configurable indentation (spaces or tabs) and size, 3) consistent brace and semicolon handling, 4) optional preservation of comments, and 5) error-tolerant fallback when parsing fails. Optional/advanced features include: custom rule sets per project, preservation of vendor-prefixed blocks, line-length guidance, and selective minification.
Inputs & Outputs: Inputs include css_text (string, required) containing raw CSS, output_style (enum: expanded|compact|compressed, default expanded), indent_style (enum: space|tab, default space), indent_size (integer, default 2 or 4), preserve_comments (boolean, default true). Outputs include formatted_css (string) and stats (object: line_count, char_count, block_count).
Algorithms & Calculations: The tool builds an abstract syntax representation of CSS, applies formatting rules in a deterministic pass, and reconstructs text with chosen spacing and line breaks. In compressed mode, whitespace is minimized while preserving semantic structure. Edge cases are handled by falling back to pass-through formatting when parsing fails, preserving input as much as possible. Industry/Region & Localization: Works with standard CSS syntax (including CSS4 modules) and UTF-8 encoding. No region-specific features; unit conventions remain CSS-based (px, em, rem, %, vh/vw). Localization is limited to input text; formatting rules are locale-agnostic. Assumptions & Exclusions: Assumes input is CSS or CSS-like syntax. It does not perform semantic optimization, prefixing, or vendor-specific linting. It does not execute code beyond formatting and does not modify semantics beyond whitespace and cosmetic structure.