Automatically indent code with broken indentation in vim - vim

I am working with a CMS where the code's indentation is a mess. Is it possible to fix it automatically with vim, running some command?

Generally you can use the = operation to indent.
See :help =
(You'll also need to have filetype indent on in your vimrc to enable different indentation rules for each type of file you'll edit)
gg=G will reindent a whole file. (gg move to beginning of the file, = will reindent every line under motion, G goes to the end of the file)
By default, Vim support well C and C like language. See :help C-indenting for options. You'll probably need to adjust these options before reformating your files. You'll have to define set cindent in your .vimrc if you want to use the "smart" indentations that is controlled by cinoptions.
See :help indent-expressionfor other languages.
In addition, you'll probably will have to fiddle withshiftwidth, expandtab and tabstop options if you want to use whitespaces or tab to indent.
For example, if you to replace all tab by 4 spaces, you 'll have to use:
set shiftwidth=4 " used by >>, << and tab.
set tabstop=4 " number of space characters used when displaying TAB
set expandtab " replace TAB by spaces

I usually do this with ggVG=. gg = go to file start, V = mark lines, G = go to file end, = = indent.
Maybe it is not the fewest keystrokes to do this, but I think it's easy to remember.

Related

Why does indentation done in vim look different in different editors?

I just used vim to edit a javascript file. My indentation in vim is set like so:
(source: take.ms)
When I edit a portion of the file, in vim it looks as though the indentation is correct:
(source: take.ms)
However, in SourceTree and in Sublime Text, the indentation is incorrect:
SourceTree:
(source: take.ms)
Sublime Text:
Can anyone explain to me why this is happening and how I might fix it? I'm also curious which, really, is the "true" representation of the file's state.
There are three related settings: tabstop, softtabstop, and shiftwidth. They are not the same.
tabstop sets the size of a tab character.
softtabstop sets the number of spaces inserted when the <Tab> key is pressed.
shiftwidth sets the number of spaces inserted when autoindentation is used (e.g. after typing if (foo) {<Cr>).
If expandtab isn't set, then spaces will be automatically replaced by a Tab character (0x09) as soon as the number of spaces is a multitude of tabstop. If expandtab is set, then spaces are never "expanded" to a tab character.
In your case, you only set the shiftwidth, which doesn't control the actual size of the tab characters. You either want to set tabstop to the same value as Sublime text, or you want to use space indentation by setting expandtab. If you use set list you can see if your file is using tab characters or spaces (use set nolist to disable this).
Bonus tip
In my personal opinion, you generally want to set all three settings to the same value. I use this command to quickly set all three with :TS 4:
command! -nargs=1 TS setlocal ts=<args> sts=<args> sw=<args>
The solution (thanks to #ceejayoz) was to set the expandtab option in my .vimrc settings, so this:
autocmd FileType javascript setlocal shiftwidth=2 tabstop=2 expandtab
autocmd FileType jsx setlocal shiftwidth=2 tabstop=2 expandtab
did the job.

How to do automatic code alignment for all the code or a block of code in vi/vim?

I want to know what's the quickest way to do automatic code alignment in vi/vim or a method to add something in ~/.vimrc and then press a shortcut in vi/vim for making the code aligned/neat? Like I am using :set cindent in a .c code but it doesn't indent the code.
To enable automatic indenting — particularly for a C file — you can use something like this in your ~/.vimrc:
set cindent
set autoindent
For more on those options, run :help cindent and :help autoindent.
To indent existing code in a file, you can use =, which will indent a selection (or indeed a whole file). One way to indent all the code in an entire file is to run
gg=G
or
1G=G
either of which will jump to the top of the file (gg, or 1G), and then indent the code (=) from there to the end of the file (G). If you’d like to indent a particular block of code, you can visually select it and then run =; for example, to indent eight particular lines (including the one that the cursor is on), you could run
V7j=
which would enter linewise visual mode (V), selecting the current line, move down seven lines (7j), selecting those too, and then indent the selection (=).

Pressing "Home" in Vim on an Indented Line

I have a bad habit of using the 'home' key to go back to the beginning of a line. As I recently started using vim I noticed that when I press the home key on a lined that is indented, it returns me to the very beginning of the line. In Notepad++ (the editor I used to use) it would return me to the beginning of the code on that line, right after the indent.
Is there some way to replicate this behavior in vim? Usually, when I'm pressing home it's in the Insert mode for me to (usually) stick a variable there.
I have set smartindent in my vimrc, with set noautoindent as a "tips" page told me to make sure to disable autoindent (although it didn't seem to be enabled in the first place - perhaps that option is extraneous.)
There are two usual ways to go to the "beginning" of a line in Vim:
0 (zero) go to the first column of text
^ go to the first non-whitespace on the line
I find that using 0w is usually the most convenient way for me to go to the first nonblank character on a line, it's the same number of keys as ^ and is easier to reach. (Of course, if there are no leading spaces on the line, don't press w.)
You could remap Home to be the same as ^ (the docs say Home's default function is equivalent to the movement command 1|):
:map <Home> ^
:imap <Home> <Esc>^i
Which should make the insert mode mapping be equivalent to escaping out of insert mode, pressing ^ and then returning to insert mode. I don't know about the best method of mapping a motion command for use inside insert mode, so this may break something, but it seems to work.
As to your indentation settings, they shouldn't have an effect on movement controls, but I also think you probably would prefer to have them set differently. autoindent just keeps your current indentation for new lines (so if you place 4 spaces at the beginning of a line, after you press return your new line will also have 4 spaces placed in front of it). I don't know why you wouldn't want that, since it's pretty useful in pretty much any programming language, or even just freeform text. smartindent on the other hand implements a couple of hard-coded lightly C-ish indentation rules, like indenting after an opening {, and deindenting after a closing }, but doesn't automatically carry over indentation from previous lines. The docs recommend keeping autoindent on if you use smartindent.
However, smartindent is useless for languages that don't meet its hard-coded rules, or even actively harmful (like when it automatically removes indentation from any line starting with a '#', which it thinks is a preprocessor directive but is wrong for python programmers trying to write an indented comment).
So vim also includes a more advanced indentation mode, filetype indentation, which allows flexible indentation rules on a per-language/filetype basis and is the preferred indentation mode for most people (even for C-like languages). If you do use filetype indentation, it's best to turn off smartindent (otherwise it can interfere with the filetype indentation, like moving all comment lines to column 0 in python files).
Personally, I always have autoindent on, use filetype when available, and never use smartindent. My .vimrc includes:
set autoindent " doesn't interfere with filetype indents, and is useful for text
if has("autocmd")
" Enable file type detection and indentation
filetype plugin indent on
set nosmartindent
endif
I imagine there's something you could do to have smartindent turned on only when filetype indenting doesn't exist for a filetype, if you're editing that many different C-like languages with no filetype indentation available.
Here’s what I have in my .vimrc. This maps Home to move to the beginning of the
text if you are anywhere in the line, and column 0 if you are at the beginning
of the text.
function ExtendedHome()
let column = col('.')
normal! ^
if column == col('.')
normal! 0
endif
endfunction
noremap <silent> <Home> :call ExtendedHome()<CR>
inoremap <silent> <Home> <C-O>:call ExtendedHome()<CR>
Note: I am using a keyboard layout that maps Home to Alt Gr+A, that why I’m using this. If you have to leave the letter field of your keyboard to reach Home, you should probably go to normal mode instead.
You could also use _ in Normal mode to go to the first non-whitespace character of the current line. You can also use a count with this motion.
_ <underscore> [count] - 1 lines downward,
on the first non-blank character linewise.
Try pressing 0 (also see :help 0)
also, this might help:
:imap <C-Home> <esc>0a

Why can't I stop vim from wrapping my code?

I can't stop vim from wrapping my Python code. If I enter :set nowrap like a champ, but it still wraps.
I can hit J to unite the split lines of code, so it seems like a real carriage return is being inserted. I just don't understand why or how to stop it.
'textwidth' 'tw' number (default 0)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Maximum width of text that is being inserted. A longer line will be
broken after white space to get this width. A zero value disables
this. 'textwidth' is set to 0 when the 'paste' option is set. When
'textwidth' is zero, 'wrapmargin' may be used. See also
'formatoptions' and |ins-textwidth|.
When 'formatexpr' is set it will be used to break the line.
NOTE: This option is set to 0 when 'compatible' is set.
'wrapmargin' 'wm' number (default 0)
local to buffer
Number of characters from the right window border where wrapping
starts. When typing text beyond this limit, an <EOL> will be inserted
and inserting continues on the next line.
Options that add a margin, such as 'number' and 'foldcolumn', cause
the text width to be further reduced. This is Vi compatible.
When 'textwidth' is non-zero, this option is not used.
See also 'formatoptions' and |ins-textwidth|. {Vi: works differently
and less usefully}
If you refer to auto wrapping of long lines sending them to the next one, try
:set textwidth=0
:set wrapmargin=0
None of the other answers worked for me (IDK why).
:set wrap! Did the trick for me (using GVim for Windows).
set formatoptions-=t should do the trick. set formatoptions+=t will turn auto-wrapping back on.
For more information on what you can do with formatoptions, see the docs.
For preventing vim from wrapping long lines I use these two lines in my .vimrc:
set nowrap " do not automatically wrap on load
set formatoptions-=t " do not automatically wrap text when typing
To disable line wrap, you can enter
:set wrap! or append this command to your ~/.vimrc.
Maybe it's the textwidth that's set, which automatically breaks lines when it reaches a certain length
Try
:set tw=0
If that fails play with e.g.
:set wrap linebreak textwidth=0
and
:set virtualedit=insert
Vim may have to be in vi-compatible mode.
Open vimrc_example.vim (Yes, this is the file in Vim74) and set textwidth=0.
On macbook pro I outcommented in .vimrc the line
autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=78
so it became
" autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=78
.
(I installed a version of vim via homebrew.)
This helped for all .txt files.

Tab key == 4 spaces and auto-indent after curly braces in Vim

How do I make vi-Vim never use tabs (converting spaces to tabs, bad!), makes the tab key == 4 spaces, and automatically indent code after curly brace blocks like Emacs does?
Also, how do I save these settings so I never have to input them again?
I've seen other questions related to this, but it always seems to be a little off from what I want.
As has been pointed out in a couple of other answers, the preferred method now is NOT to use smartindent, but instead use the following (in your .vimrc):
filetype plugin indent on
" show existing tab with 4 spaces width
set tabstop=4
" when indenting with '>', use 4 spaces width
set shiftwidth=4
" On pressing tab, insert 4 spaces
set expandtab
In your [.vimrc:][1] file:
set smartindent
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
The help files take a bit of time to get used to, but the more you read, the better Vim gets:
:help smartindent
Even better, you can embed these settings in your source for portability:
:help auto-setting
To see your current settings:
:set all
As graywh points out in the comments, smartindent has been replaced by cindent which "Works more cleverly", although still mainly for languages with C-like syntax:
:help C-indenting
Related, if you open a file that uses both tabs and spaces, assuming you've got
set expandtab ts=4 sw=4 ai
You can replace all the tabs with spaces in the entire file with
:%retab
The best way to get filetype-specific indentation is to use filetype plugin indent on in your vimrc. Then you can specify things like set sw=4 sts=4 et in .vim/ftplugin/c.vim, for example, without having to make those global for all files being edited and other non-C type syntaxes will get indented correctly, too (even lisps).
To have 4-space tabs in most files, real 8-wide tab char in Makefiles, and automatic indenting in various files including C/C++, put this in your ~/.vimrc file:
" Only do this part when compiled with support for autocommands.
if has("autocmd")
" Use filetype detection and file-based automatic indenting.
filetype plugin indent on
" Use actual tab chars in Makefiles.
autocmd FileType make set tabstop=8 shiftwidth=8 softtabstop=0 noexpandtab
endif
" For everything else, use a tab width of 4 space chars.
set tabstop=4 " The width of a TAB is set to 4.
" Still it is a \t. It is just that
" Vim will interpret it to be having
" a width of 4.
set shiftwidth=4 " Indents will have a width of 4.
set softtabstop=4 " Sets the number of columns for a TAB.
set expandtab " Expand TABs to spaces.
On many Linux systems, like Ubuntu, the .vimrc file doesn't exist by default, so it is recommended that you create it first.
Don't use the .viminfo file that exist in the home directory. It is used for a different purpose.
Step 1: Go to your home directory
cd ~
Step 2: Create the file
vim .vimrc
Step 3: Add the configuration stated above
filetype plugin indent on
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
Step 3: Save file, by pressing Shift + ZZ.
The recommended way is to use filetype based indentation and only use smartindent and cindent if that doesn't suffice.
Add the following to your .vimrc
set expandtab
set shiftwidth=2
set softtabstop=2
filetype plugin indent on
Hope it helps as being a different answer.
From the VIM wiki:
:set tabstop=4
:set shiftwidth=4
:set expandtab
edit your ~/.vimrc
$ vim ~/.vimrc
add following lines :
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
set expandtab
The auto-indent is based on the current syntax mode. I know that if you are editing Foo.java, then entering a { and hitting Enter indents the following line.
As for tabs, there are two settings. Within Vim, type a colon and then "set tabstop=4" which will set the tabs to display as four spaces. Hit colon again and type "set expandtab" which will insert spaces for tabs.
You can put these settings in a .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows) in your home directory, so you only have to type them once.
Firstly, do not use the Tab key in Vim for manual indentation. Vim has a pair of commands in insert mode for manually increasing or decreasing the indentation amount. Those commands are Ctrl-T and Ctrl-D. These commands observe the values of tabstop, shiftwidth and expandtab, and maintain the correct mixture of spaces and tabs (maximum number of tabs followed by any necessary number of spaces).
Secondly, these manual indenting keys don't have to be used very much anyway if you use automatic indentation.
If Ctrl-T instead of Tab bothers you, you can remap it:
:imap <Tab> ^T
You can also remap Shift-Tab to do the Ctrl-D deindent:
:imap <S-Tab> ^D
Here ^T and ^D are literal control characters that can be inserted as Ctrl-VCtrl-T.
With this mapping in place, you can still type literal Tab into the buffer using Ctrl-VTab. Note that if you do this, even if :set expandtab is on, you get an unexpanded tab character.
A similar effect to the <Tab> map is achieved using :set smarttab, which also causes backspace at the front of a line to behave smart.
In smarttab mode, when Tab is used not at the start of a line, it has no special meaning. That's different from my above mapping of Tab to Ctrl-T, because a Ctrl-T used anywhere in a line (in insert mode) will increase that line's indentation.
Other useful mappings may be:
:map <Tab> >
:map <S-Tab> <
Now we can do things like select some lines, and hit Tab to indent them over. Or hit Tab twice on a line (in command mode) to increase its indentation.
If you use the proper indentation management commands, then everything is controlled by the three parameters: shiftwidth, tabstop and expandtab.
The shiftwidth parameter controls your indentation size; if you want four space indents, use :set shiftwidth=4, or the abbreviation :set sw=4.
If only this is done, then indentation will be created using a mixture of spaces and tabs, because noexpandtab is the default. Use :set expandtab. This causes tab characters which you type into the buffer to expand into spaces, and for Vim-managed indentation to use only spaces.
When expandtab is on, and if you manage your indentation through all the proper Vim mechanisms, the value of tabstop becomes irrelevant. It controls how tabs appear if they happen to occur in the file. If you have set tabstop=8 expandtab and then sneak a hard tab into the file using Ctrl-VTab, it will produce an alignment to the next 8-column-based tab position, as usual.
Afterall, you could edit the .vimrc,then add the conf
set tabstop=4
Or exec the command
Simplest one will be n vim file
set tabstop=4

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