{"id":20422,"library":"prettier-plugin-sort-imports-desc","title":"Prettier Plugin: Sort Imports (by length or alphabetically)","description":"A Prettier plugin that automatically sorts import statements by line length or alphabetically. V1.7.0 active, released for Prettier 2.x+ (Node.js 12+). Differentiators: supports sorting by import line length (unique feature), flexible import type ordering (NPM packages vs local values vs local types), newline stripping between groups, and ignore comments. Competitors like @trivago/prettier-plugin-sort-imports focus on alphabetical/group-based sorting and do not offer length-based sorting.","status":"active","version":"1.0.0","language":"javascript","source_language":"en","source_url":null,"tags":["javascript"],"install":[{"cmd":"npm install prettier-plugin-sort-imports-desc","lang":"bash","label":"npm"},{"cmd":"yarn add prettier-plugin-sort-imports-desc","lang":"bash","label":"yarn"},{"cmd":"pnpm add prettier-plugin-sort-imports-desc","lang":"bash","label":"pnpm"}],"dependencies":[{"reason":"runtime peer dependency for plugin loading and formatting","package":"prettier","optional":false}],"imports":[{"note":"No import needed in code; just install and configure via Prettier config.","wrong":"N/A","symbol":"none (plugin autoloads)","correct":"// Add to .prettierrc:\n{\n  \"plugins\": [\"prettier-plugin-sort-imports\"]\n}"}],"quickstart":{"code":"npm install --save-dev prettier-plugin-sort-imports\n# Create .prettierrc with:\n{\n  \"plugins\": [\"prettier-plugin-sort-imports\"],\n  \"sortingMethod\": \"lineLength\",\n  \"stripNewlines\": true,\n  \"importTypeOrder\": [\"NPMPackages\", \"localImports\"],\n  \"newlineBetweenTypes\": true\n}","lang":"javascript","description":"Install plugin and configure Prettier to sort imports by length, strip newlines, and group NPM packages before local imports with a blank line between groups."},"warnings":[{"fix":"Use `'lineLength'` sorting method if you want a different order.","message":"Alphabetical sorting sorts by the entire import path, so `../` imports may rank lower than expected.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":">=1.0.0"},{"fix":"Use `['NPMPackages', 'localImportsValue', 'localImportsType']` instead of `['NPMPackages', 'localImports']`.","message":"The option `localImports` in `importTypeOrder` is deprecated in favor of using both `localImportsValue` and `localImportsType`.","severity":"deprecated","affected_versions":">=1.7.0"},{"fix":"Upgrade Prettier to 2.0.0 or later.","message":"Plugin no longer works with Prettier <2.0.0.","severity":"breaking","affected_versions":">=1.0.0"},{"fix":"Only define `packageJSONFiles` if you are using `NPMPackages` in `importTypeOrder`.","message":"The `packageJSONFiles` option is only used when `importTypeOrder` includes `'NPMPackages'`. Setting it with `['all']` has no effect.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":">=1.0.0"},{"fix":"Use `// sort-imports-begin-ignore` and `// sort-imports-end-ignore` to preserve comments in a block.","message":"Comments between imports may be moved if `stripNewlines` is true. The comment sticks to the import above it initially.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":">=1.0.0"}],"env_vars":null,"last_verified":"2026-04-25T00:00:00.000Z","next_check":"2026-07-24T00:00:00.000Z","problems":[{"fix":"Run `npm install --save-dev prettier-plugin-sort-imports` to install the plugin.","cause":"Plugin not installed or not in node_modules.","error":"Cannot find module 'prettier-plugin-sort-imports'"},{"fix":"Upgrade Prettier to 2.0.0+ or use a .prettierrc.js file with `plugins: [require.resolve('prettier-plugin-sort-imports')]`.","cause":"Prettier version <2.0.0 does not support plugin options properly.","error":"Unknown option: sortingMethod"},{"fix":"Check the spelling: use `\"sortingMethod\": \"alphabetical\"` (correct spelling: alphabetical).","cause":"Typo in option value (e.g., 'alphabetical' instead of 'alphabetical').","error":"Invalid sorting method: 'alphabetical' is not a valid option"},{"fix":"Use one of: `['all']`, `['NPMPackages', 'localImports']`, or `['NPMPackages', 'localImportsValue', 'localImportsType']`.","cause":"Invalid combination of import types in `importTypeOrder`.","error":"Error: importTypeOrder must contain either 'all' or a combination of 'NPMPackages', 'localImportsValue', 'localImportsType'."}],"ecosystem":"npm","meta_description":null,"install_score":null,"install_tag":null,"quickstart_score":null,"quickstart_tag":null}