Why does PyCharm use 120 Character Lines even though PEP8 Specifies 79?

PyCharm is built on top of IntelliJ. IntelliJ has a default line length of 120 characters.

This is probably because you can't fit a common Java name like: @annotated public static MyObjectFactoryFactory enterpriseObjectFactoryFactoryBuilderPattern { in a mere 80 character line. (I'm poking fun, but Java names do tend to be longer by convention).

The pep8 checker is configurable, so you can specify a better max line length - like 79 characters.

The error is misleading because the pep8 checker formats the text with something like "PEP8: line too long(... > %s characters)" % max_line_setting. So it's using the pep8 checker, with a specific configuration, not claiming that pep8 specifies a 120 character line.


If you want to remove the limit warning altogether you can take the following steps:

  1. In PyCharm, click File > Settings
  2. In the project settings section, click Editor > Inspections
  3. In the list that appears, expand Python
  4. Under Python, scroll down and click "PEP8 coding style violation"
  5. Click the + button next to "Ignore errors" in the bottom right
  6. Type out E501 and click Apply and/or OK

Sources:

  • http://iambigblind.blogspot.com/2013/02/configuring-pep8py-support-in-pycharm-27.html

  • https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/205816889-Disable-individual-PEP8-style-checking-line-length-