After reading Vim regex replace with n characters, I've known how to replace tabs by spaces:
:%s/^\v(\t)*/\=repeat(repeat(' ',4),strlen(submatch(0)))/g
The command above allows me to replace n tabs at the beginning of each line with n four-spaces.
Now I want to inverse it: replace n four-spaces with n tabs at the beginning of each line, I think the command should be :%s/^\v( )*/\=repeat("\t",strlen(submatch(0)))/g, but it doesn't work: if there is one four-space, it will be replaced by four tabs (but I want to make it only one tab) after executing the command.
Besides, is it possible to get the length of tab of vim so that I can make the command as below?
:%s/^\v(\t)*/\=repeat(repeat(' ',getSizeOfTab()),strlen(submatch(0)))/g
You can get the value of an option in Vimscript by prepending &. So, the size of tab is &tabstop, or &ts. There's also &softtabstop (&sts), pick which one you actually care about.
Whereas you needed to multiply the number of spaces with size of tab, you need to divide the number of tabs. Then there's the remainder to take care of. So, first set your tabstop:
:set ts=4
Then you can convert from tabs to spaces and from spaces to tabs like this:
:%s/^\v(\t)*/\=repeat(repeat(' ',&ts),strlen(submatch(0)))/g
:%s#^\v( )*#\=repeat("\t",strlen(submatch(0))/&ts).repeat(' ',strlen(submatch(0))%&ts)#g
(changed the separator from / to # because I needed / for division :P )
However... it seems you're reinventing the wheel here. :help :retab! and :help 'expandtab'. First set tabstop as above, then:
:set et | ret!
:set noet | ret!
The first one will change tabs to spaces; the second one, spaces to tabs, according to tabstop.
Related
When editing Clojure code in Vim/GVim, I frequently use the w word-motion command (and its cousin b for backwards word-motion). However, in the default Clojure configuration Vim/GVim ignores common word separator chars such as hyphen, slash, and period. The following Clojure symbol shows all three:
clojure.core/select-keys
In this case, we want the w and b word-motion commands to stop at any of the non-alphabetic characters.
How can I modify the default Vim configuration to recognize these word boundaries in Clojure?
The answer is to use the Vim feature autocmd to modify the iskeyword setting for Clojure files. Specifically, add these lines to your ~/.vimrc file:
" Remove the period `.`, hyphen, `-`, and slash `/` as keyword chars so "word" movement will stop
" on these chars (i.e. in a namespace like `proj.some.long.ns.name` or a symbol like `my-clojure-sym`)
" Must do one at a time for 'string lists'
autocmd BufWinEnter,BufNewFile,BufRead *.clj* set iskeyword-=.
autocmd BufWinEnter,BufNewFile,BufRead *.clj* set iskeyword-=-
autocmd BufWinEnter,BufNewFile,BufRead *.clj* set iskeyword-=/
When loading a file with the suffix .clj*, we remove the three characters period, hypthen, and slash from the iskeyword string list, so they are no longer recognized as part of a "keyword". That is, they become word-separator characters. Then, the w and b word-motion commands will stop there, as we were seeking.
I add an answer for ideavim users since, this is the first google result.
Add this line to your .ideavimrc file:
set iskeyword=#,48-57,_,192-255,?,-,*,!,+,/,=,<,>,.,:,$
I sometimes need to write the whole alphabet abcd…z and I hate typing it letter by letter in Vim's insert mode. Does there exist any method to do this more efficiently?
I know about the ga command which gives me the ascii code of the character where the cursor is … but don't know anything about how to mix it with my standard solution to type numbers from 1 to (for example) 5000: a1ESCqqyyp^Aq4998#q …
Using set nrformats+=alpha:
ia<Esc>qqylp<C-a>q24#q
Step by step:
ia<Esc> " Start with 'a'
qqylp<C-a>q " #q will duplicate the last character and increment it
24#q " Append c..z
If your shell does brace expansion this is a pretty elegant solution:
:r !printf '\%s' {a..z}
:read! reads the output of an external command into the current buffer. In this case, it reads the output of the shell's printf applied to {a..z} after it's been expanded by the shell.
How about this command:
:put =join(map(range(char2nr('a'),char2nr('z')),'nr2char(v:val)'),'')
Collect the ASCII values of the characters in the range from a to z, then map them over the nr2char() function and insert the result into the current buffer with :put =.
When you leave out the enclosing join( … ,'') you get the characters on a separate line each.
See
:h nr2char(),
:h char2nr(),
:h :put,
and look up range(), map(), join() and friends in the list-functions table.
First, set nrformats+=alpha.
Then:
ia<ESC>Y25p<CTRL-V>}g<CTRL-A>k26gJ
Which means:
ia insert the initial a
Y25p yank the a and duplicate it on 25 lines
<CTRL-V> go into visual block mode
} go to the last character at the end of the current paragraph
g<CTRL-A> incrementally increase each alphabetic character (see help v_g_CTRL-A)
k go up one line
26gJ join 26 lines without inserting or removing any spaces
Which leads to:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
I have found a shorter solution (you don't need to change nrformats beforehand) while solving http://www.vimgolf.com/challenges/5ebe8a63d8085e000c2f5bd5
iabcdefghijklm<Esc>yiwg??P
which means:
iabcdefghijklm<Esc> insert first half of the alphabet
yiw copy it
g?? ROT13 encode (shift by 13 letters) to get the second half
P paste the first half
You might try using Vim abbreviations or a full-fledged snippet manager plugin like UltiSnips. It might take a few moments to set up, and you'd have to type that alphabet one more time to define it as an abbreviation or snippet, but after that you'd be able to insert the alphabet or any other common chunk of text much more easily.
Is there an easy way using a macro or ~10 line function (no plugin!) to center some text between the first and last word (=sequence of non-blank characters) on a line? E.g. to turn
>>> No user serviceable parts below. <<<
into
>>> No user serviceable parts below. <<<
by balancing the spaces +/-1? You can assume no tabs and the result should not contain tabs, but note that the first word may not start in column 1. (EDIT: ... in fact, both delimiter words as well as the start and end of the text to center may be on arbitrary columns.)
source this function:
fun! CenterInSpaces()
let l = getline('.')
let lre = '\v^\s*\S+\zs\s*\ze'
let rre = '\v\zs\s*\ze\S+\s*$'
let sp = matchstr(l,lre)
let sp = sp.matchstr(l,rre)
let ln = len(sp)
let l = substitute(l,lre,sp[:ln/2-1],'')
let l = substitute(l,rre,sp[ln/2:],'')
call setline('.',l)
endf
note
this function might NOT work in all cases. I just wrote it quick for usual case. this is not a plugin after all
the codes lines could be reduced by combining function calls. but i think it is clear in this way, so I just leave it like this.
if it worked for you, you could create a map
it works like this: (last two lines I typed #: to repeat cmd call)
You can use the :s command with the \= aka sub-replace-expression.
:s#\v^\s*\S+\zs(\s+)(.{-})(\s+)\ze\S+\s*$#\=substitute(submatch(1).submatch(3),'\v^(\s*)(\1\s=)$','\1'.escape(submatch(2),'~&\').'\2','')#
Overview
Capture the text (including white-space) between the >>> and <<< marks. Divide up the white-space on both sides of the text in half and substitute in the non-white-space text in between. This white-space balancing act is done via the regex engine's backtracking because math is hard. Lets go shopping!
Notes:
using \v or very magic mode to reduce escaping as this command is long enough
already
use # as an alternative separator instead of the usual / for :s/pat/sub/ in hopes to make it slightly more readable
Matching Pattern
:s#\v^\s*\S+\zs(\s+)(.{-})(\s+)\ze\S+\s*$#...
:s with no range supplied only do the substitution on the current line.
^\s*\S+ match the starting white-space followed by non-white-space. >>> in this case.
(\s+)(.{-})(\s+) match white-space followed by the "text" followed by white-space
3 capture groups: 1) leading white-space, 2) the "text", and 3) trailing white-space. These will be later referenced by submatch(1), submatch(2), and submatch(3) respectively
.{-} is vim-speak for non-greedy matching or .*? in perl-speak
without the non-greedy matching the second capture group would include too much white-space at its end
\S+\s*$ match the non-white-space (i.e. <<<) and any trailing white-space
Use \zs and ze to designate the start and end of the match to be replaced
Replacement
\=substitute(submatch(1).submatch(3),'\v^(\s*)(\1\s=)$','\1'.escape(submatch(2),'~&\').'\2','')
\= tells vim that replacement will be a vim expression. Also allows the use of submatch() functions
substitute({str}, {pat}, {sub}, {flags}) Our expression will be a nested substitution
substitute(submatch(1).submatch(3), ...) do a substitute over the concatenation of leading and trailing white-spacing captured in submatch(1) and submatch(3)
The {pat} is ^(\s*)(\1\s=)$. Match some white-space followed by white-space of the same length as the first or 1 character longer. Capture both halves.
escape(submatch(2),'~&\') escape submatch(2) for any special characters. e.g. ~,&,\1, ...
The {sub} is '\1'.escape(submatch(2),'~&\').'\2'. Replace with the the escaped submatch(2) (i.e. the "text" we want to center) in between the halves of white-space, \1 and \2 from the {pat}
No {flag}'s are needed so ''
Usage
If you use this often I would suggest creating a command and putting it in ~/.vimrc.
command! -range -bar -nargs=0 CenterBetween <line1>,<line2>s#\v^\s*\S+\zs(\s+)(.{-})(\s+)\ze\S+\s*$#\=substitute(submatch(1).submatch(3),'\v^(\s*)(\1\s=)$','\1'.submatch(2).'\2','')#`
Otherwise use this once and then repeat the last substitution via & on each needed line.
For more help see
:h :s/
:h :s/\=
:h sub-replace-\=
:h submatch(
:h substitute(
:h escape(
:h /\v
:h /\S
:h /\{-
:h /\zs
:h &
EDIT by Kent
Don't be jealous, your answer has it too. ^_^
I didn't change the command, just cp/paste to my vim. only add |noh at the end to disable highlighting.
If execute this command, it looks like:
I don't know of any good way. I usually do it in a semi-automatic way, by using :center on a line of text that only contains the parts that are to be centered and then move the result into the line containing the surrounding parts.
If nobody else has a better answer, perhaps boxes can help if you need to do this kind of thing a lot.
I would like to use tabs in a code that doesn’t use them. What I did until now to implement tabs was pretty handcrafty:
:%s/^ /\t/g
:%s/^\t /\t\t/g
. . .
Question: Is there a way to replace two spaces ( ) by tab (\t) the number of times it was found at the beginning of a line?
There are (at least) three substitution techniques relevant to this case.
1. The first one takes advantage of the preceding-atom matching
syntax to naturally define a step of indentation. According to the
question statement, an indent step is a pair of adjacent space
characters preceded with nothing but spaces from the beginning
of line. Following this definition, one can construct the actual
substitution pattern, right to left:
:%s/\%(^ *\)\#<= /\t/g
Indeed, the pattern designates an occurrence of two literal space
characters, but only when they are preceded by a zero-width match
of the atom just before \#<=, which is the pattern ^ * wrapped in
grouping parentheses \%(, \). These non-capturing parentheses are
used instead of the usual capturing ones, \(, \), since there is no
need in further referring to the matched string of leading spaces. Due
to the g flag, the above :substitute command runs through the
leading spaces pair by pair, and replaces each of them by single tab
character.
2. The second technique takes a different approach. Instead of
matching separate indent levels, one can break each of the lines
starting with space characters down into two lines: one containing
the indenting spaces of the original line, and another holding the
rest of it. After that, it is straightforward to replace all of the pairs
of spaces on the first line, and concatenate the lines back together:
:g/^ /s/^ \+/&\r/|-s/ /\t/g|j!
3. The third idea is to process leading spaces by means of Vim
scripting language. A convenient way of doing that is to use the
substitute with an expression feature of the :substitute command
(see :help sub-replace-\=). When started with \=, the substitute
string of the command enables to substitute the matches of a pattern
with results of evaluation of the expression specified after \=:
:%s#^ \+#\=repeat("\t",len(submatch(0))/2)
If you specifically want to convert spaces into tabs (or vice-versa) at the start of a line, there's the useful :retab command which takes care of that. For example:
:retab! 2 will convert spaces in groups of two to tabs
:set expandtab and then :retab! 2 will convert tabstops (of width 2) back to spaces
See :h :retab (and :h 'ts') for the details.
This is not a general solution for the original problem, but I think it covers the most common use case.
There is no general way of doing this using :s regex's. You can't make the /g modifier look backwards otherwise it'd be unusable, and you can't reliably check that you're at the beginning of the line without looking backwards.
The only way of doing it generally is to loop, like so:
:for i in range(100)
: %s/^\t*\zs /\t/e
:endfor
Which is ugly, slow and highly unrecommended. Use :retab
In vim, vip selects "inner paragraph" :help v_ip,
however it is of limited use.
vim paragraph boundary is hard coded, a
paragraph is separated by 2 or more blank lines.
:help paragraph
Some archaic marcos like .IP, also seem to be supported as
paragraph separators, but it is all hard coded.
I want to specify my own paragraph separators to easily
select paragraphs of text in vim.
Like perl in paragraph mode using an regexp splitter.
I tried setting paragraphs to be delimited by blank lines or braces:
:set paragraph+={ cpoptions+={
but does NOT work as documented,
braces are ignored by 'vip' selection command.
The solution I want should work for all paragraphs commands
like vip, vap, dip, dap, {,}.
Note how you can map operators, so you won't have to remap vip or vap (you could map aH to your movement operation - and all of the following work magically using your selections:
daH
vaHy
d2aH
etc
I don't know if it's an option for you, but you can change paragraph delimiting in certain way by including the 'w' flag in 'formatoptions'. Check out help for 'fo-table' to read more. Basically it makes it so that lines ending in a space are like 'soft returns' and lines ending in a non-space character mark the end of paragraphs. Empty lines are not markers at all in this case. The 'w' formation flag does work with all vip, vap, etc., if I recall.
If that isn't going to do the trick for you, then I suggest remapping the vip, vap, etc. sequences to a custom function of your own. That way you can set it up to select things exactly as you want.
See :help paragraphs.
'paragraphs' 'para' string (default "IPLPPPQPP TPHPLIPpLpItpplpipbp")
global
Specifies the nroff macros that separate paragraphs. These are pairs
of two letters (see object-motions).