How to swap files between windows in VIM? [closed] - vim

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When I work with VIM, I always have multiple windows visible. Sometimes I would like to have an easy way, to swap those windows in places. Is there any Plugin, Macro, etc to make this more easy? BTW, I use MiniBufExplorer.

Answer 1

There are a few useful commands built in which give you a certain amount of control, but it's not comprehensive. The main ones are:
Ctrl-W, r (i.e. hold CTRL, press W, release CTRL, press r) - which rotates the windows (The first window becomes the second one, the second one becomes the third one, etc.)
Ctrl-W, x - swap the current window with the next one
Ctrl-W, Shift-H - move this window to the far left
Ctrl-W, Shift-K - move this window to the top
(and similarly for Ctrl-W, Shift-J and Ctrl-W, Shift-L). See:
:help window-moving
for more information.

Answer 2

I wrote and have been using the following code snippet in my vimrc for
copy-pasting my Vim windows.
This defines for example the following shortcuts:
<c-w>y: "Yanks the window", i.e. stores the number of the buffer in the
current window in a global variable.
<c-w>pp: "Puts the window in Place of the current window", i.e. it reads the
buffer number stored previously and opens that buffer in the current window.
It also stores the number of the buffer that used to be in the current
window.
If by "swapping those windows in places", you mean "opening the buffer in
window A in window B, and vice versa, without changing the position of the
windows", you can use the following keyboard sequence to swap the windows:
Select window A (either with mouse or with keyboard commands)
Press <c-w>y (yanking the buffer number)
Select window B
Press <c-w>pp (pasting the buffer)
Select window A
Press <c-w>pp (pasting the buffer again)
It works only in Vim >= 7.0.
if version >= 700
function! HOpen(dir,what_to_open)
let [type,name] = a:what_to_open
if a:dir=='left' || a:dir=='right'
vsplit
elseif a:dir=='up' || a:dir=='down'
split
end
if a:dir=='down' || a:dir=='right'
exec "normal! \<c-w>\<c-w>"
end
if type=='buffer'
exec 'buffer '.name
else
exec 'edit '.name
end
endfunction
function! HYankWindow()
let g:window = winnr()
let g:buffer = bufnr('%')
let g:bufhidden = &bufhidden
endfunction
function! HDeleteWindow()
call HYankWindow()
set bufhidden=hide
close
endfunction
function! HPasteWindow(direction)
let old_buffer = bufnr('%')
call HOpen(a:direction,['buffer',g:buffer])
let g:buffer = old_buffer
let &bufhidden = g:bufhidden
endfunction
noremap <c-w>d :call HDeleteWindow()<cr>
noremap <c-w>y :call HYankWindow()<cr>
noremap <c-w>p<up> :call HPasteWindow('up')<cr>
noremap <c-w>p<down> :call HPasteWindow('down')<cr>
noremap <c-w>p<left> :call HPasteWindow('left')<cr>
noremap <c-w>p<right> :call HPasteWindow('right')<cr>
noremap <c-w>pk :call HPasteWindow('up')<cr>
noremap <c-w>pj :call HPasteWindow('down')<cr>
noremap <c-w>ph :call HPasteWindow('left')<cr>
noremap <c-w>pl :call HPasteWindow('right')<cr>
noremap <c-w>pp :call HPasteWindow('here')<cr>
noremap <c-w>P :call HPasteWindow('here')<cr>
endif

Answer 3

In my opinion, http://vimcasts.org/episodes/working-with-windows/ has the perfect answer for this question. In brief:
ctrl-w w cycle between the open windows
ctrl-w h focus the window to the left
ctrl-w j focus the window to the down
ctrl-w k focus the window to the up
ctrl-w l focus the window to the right
ctrl-w r rotate all windows
ctrl-w x exchange current window with its neighbour
ctrl-w H move current window to far left
ctrl-w J move current window to bottom
ctrl-w K move current window to top
ctrl-w L move current window to far right

Answer 4

I asked a similar question around the same time: I wanted a way to swap windows specifically without altering an arbitrarily complicated layout. I ended up making a vim plugin out of one of the solutions that was suggested. It's called WindowSwap.vim; install it with your preferred vim plugin manager and give it a whirl.
With WindowSwap.vim, you'd simply
<Leader>yw to yank a window.
Move your cursor to another window.
<Leader>pw to paste that window, swapping it with the position of
the first one.
The key combinations are of course configurable to your preferences.

Answer 5

As <c-w>r or <c-w>x has a restriction that you can't rotate or exchange windows When vertical and horizontal window splits are mixed. And <c-w>H may make the window layout change beyond your expectation especially when you have many windows.
So you may do some work to satisfy your particular needs of window/buffer switching. Here is am example to switching the current window with the top left window(typically I make it vertically maximized):
function! SwitchMainWindow()
let l:current_buf = winbufnr(0)
exe "buffer" . winbufnr(1)
1wincmd w
exe "buffer" . l:current_buf
endfunction
nnoremap <c-w><c-e> :call SwitchMainWindow()<cr>