# black

> Format Python code automatically.
> More information: <https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage_and_configuration/the_basics.html>.

- Auto-format a file or entire directory:

`black {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`

- Format the code passed in as a string:

`black {{[-c|--code]}} "{{code}}"`

- Show whether a file or a directory would have changes made to them if they were to be formatted:

`black --check {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`

- Show changes that would be made to a file or a directory without performing them (dry-run):

`black --diff {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`

- Auto-format a file or directory, emitting exclusively error messages to `stderr`:

`black {{[-q|--quiet]}} {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`

- Auto-format a file or directory without replacing single quotes with double quotes (adoption helper, avoid using this for new projects):

`black {{[-S|--skip-string-normalization]}} {{path/to/file_or_directory}}`