How to Indent Multiple Lines in Python

To indent multiple lines in Python, select the lines in your editor and press Tab (or Ctrl+] in VS Code and IDLE). Shift+Tab or Ctrl+[ moves them back out. For a multi-line string inside your code, textwrap.indent() does the same job:

import textwrap
print(textwrap.indent("line one\nline two", "    "))

Every run below happened on Windows 11 with Python 3.12.5, and the editor screenshots are from the real IDLE that ships with it.

We’ll go through the shortcuts for each editor, fixing an IndentationError by indenting a block, and indenting or dedenting strings with the textwrap module.

Keyboard shortcuts to indent multiple lines in each editor

Python groups statements by indentation, so every popular editor lets you shift a whole block: select first, then press the key.

Editor	Indent selected lines	Dedent selected lines
VS Code	Tab or Ctrl+] (Cmd+] on Mac)	Shift+Tab or Ctrl+[ (Cmd+[)
PyCharm	Tab	Shift+Tab
IDLE	Ctrl+] or Format > Indent Region	Ctrl+[ or Format > Dedent Region
Jupyter Notebook / Lab	Ctrl+]	Ctrl+[

In PyCharm, Ctrl+Alt+I re-indents the selected lines to match the code around them. If you’re picking an editor, I compared both in PyCharm vs VS Code for Python.

The select-then-shortcut habit also covers comments. That’s a separate job with its own keys, explained in how to comment out multiple lines in Python.

Fix an IndentationError by indenting a block in IDLE

Here’s the most common real case. I pasted two lines under a for statement and forgot to indent them, so Python refuses to run the file:

orders = [19.99, 5.25, 102.00]
total = 0
for price in orders:
total += price
print(f"Running total: ${total:,.2f}")

print(f"Final total: ${total:,.2f}")

Output:

  File "C:\pyguides\running_total.py", line 4
    total += price
    ^
IndentationError: expected an indented block after 'for' statement on line 3

To fix it in IDLE, follow these steps:

1. Open the file with File > Open.
2. Drag across lines 4 and 5 to select them.
3. Press Ctrl+], or choose Format > Indent Region from the menu bar.
4. Save with Ctrl+S and press F5 to run the module.

Now the file runs. The unindented last print() sits outside the loop; see Python for loops for how loop blocks work:

orders = [19.99, 5.25, 102.00]
total = 0
for price in orders:
    total += price
    print(f"Running total: ${total:,.2f}")

print(f"Final total: ${total:,.2f}")

Output:

Running total: $19.99
Running total: $25.24
Running total: $127.24
Final total: $127.24

What causes an IndentationError in Python?

I compiled the four usual mistakes so you can match your own error message:

snippets = {
    "missing indent": "for x in [1, 2]:\nprint(x)",
    "unexpected indent": "total = 0\n    total += 5",
    "uneven dedent": "if True:\n        a = 1\n    b = 2",
    "tabs and spaces": "if True:\n\ta = 1\n        b = 2",
}
for name, src in snippets.items():
    try:
        compile(src, "demo.py", "exec")
    except (IndentationError, TabError) as err:
        print(f"{name:18} {type(err).__name__}: {err.msg}")

Output:

missing indent     IndentationError: expected an indented block after 'for' statement on line 1
unexpected indent  IndentationError: unexpected indent
uneven dedent      IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level
tabs and spaces    TabError: inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation

Python’s style guide asks for four spaces per level and no tabs. Most editors insert spaces when you press Tab, but code pasted from the web can carry real tab characters. The same block rules apply to if-else statements in Python.

In VS Code, the status bar shows Spaces: 4 or Tab Size; click it and choose Convert Indentation to Spaces to clean up a whole file.

Indent a multi-line string with textwrap.indent()

Sometimes the lines are data, not code, like a receipt or an email body. textwrap.indent(text, prefix) adds the prefix to the start of each line:

import textwrap

receipt = "Coffee    $4.50\nBagel     $3.25\n\nTotal     $7.75"

print(textwrap.indent(receipt, "    "))       # four spaces on every line
print("---")
print(textwrap.indent(receipt, "> "))         # any prefix works
print("---")
print(textwrap.indent(receipt, "+ ", lambda line: True))   # blank lines too

Output:

    Coffee    $4.50
    Bagel     $3.25

    Total     $7.75
---
> Coffee    $4.50
> Bagel     $3.25

> Total     $7.75
---
+ Coffee    $4.50
+ Bagel     $3.25
+ 
+ Total     $7.75

Any prefix works, so email-style quoting is easy. If your text isn’t split into lines yet, see creating a string with newlines in Python.

Remove extra indentation with textwrap.dedent()

Triple-quoted strings inside a function pick up the function’s indentation. textwrap.dedent() removes the whitespace that every line shares and keeps the relative indents:

import textwrap

def shipping_note(city, total):
    note = f"""
        Order shipped to {city}
          Items: 3
        Total: ${total:,.2f}
    """
    return textwrap.dedent(note).strip()

print(shipping_note("Austin, TX", 58.4))
print(repr(textwrap.dedent("    a\n      b")))

Output:

Order shipped to Austin, TX
  Items: 3
Total: $58.40
'a\n  b'

The Items line keeps its extra two spaces because only the common margin is removed. For breaking long lines instead, read splitting a long string into multiple lines in Python.

Once your blocks line up, these guides are good next steps:

• Run a Python script
• Break and continue in Python
• Comment out a block of code in Python
• Single and double quotes in Python

Frequently asked questions