Enter before indented Java line comment removes indentation

[nmatt]

Apache NetBeans version

Apache NetBeans 30

What happened

When pressing Enter immediately in front of an indented Java line comment, the indentation of the line comment is not maintained. This is inconsistent with the behavior of pressing Enter before other indented elements.

It is also inconsistent with pressing Enter on an earlier column before the start of the line column, which does maintain the comment's indentation.

It is furthermore inconsistent with the behavior of pressing Enter on front of a block comment (/* ... */), even for a single-line one.

Language / Project Type / NetBeans Component

Java, Editor

How to reproduce

Example:

class Example
{
    Example()
    {
        int x = 5;
        // some comment
        // second line
        int y = 7;
    }
}

With the input caret at the beginning of "//" (column 9), pressing Enter (to insert a line before the comment) results in the indentation of the line comment being removed:

class Example
{
    Example()
    {
        int x = 5;
        
// some comment
        // second line
        int y = 7;
    }
}

The same happens when pressing Enter before subsequent line comments:

class Example
{
    Example()
    {
        int x = 5;
        // some comment
        
// second line
        int y = 7;
    }
}

This is inconsistent with how indentation behaves for non-comment lines. For example, pressing Enter before int maintains the indentation of the statement.

When pressing Enter at an earlier column, for example on column 8, the indentation of the comment is maintained (however the indentation of the now-empty line before the caret is correspondingly shorter):

class Example
{
    Example()
    {
        int x = 5;
       ← empty line ends here
        // some comment
        // second line
        int y = 7;
    }
}

Compare also with the behavior for a block comment, which remains properely indented when pressing Enter in front of it:

class Example
{
    Example()
    {
        int x = 5;
        
        /* block comment */
        int y = 7;
    }
}

Did this work correctly in an earlier version?

No / Don't know

Operating System

Windows 11

JDK

JDK 21

Apache NetBeans packaging

Apache NetBeans binary zip

Anything else

No response

Are you willing to submit a pull request?

No