Properly cut & pasting in Vim

Message

tecknojunky · Post by **tecknojunky** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 10:30 pm

I always wondered why when I pasted text into vim, each line, as you go further down the text, is more and more endented.

I just discovered it might have to do with the auto-identation feature of Vim. It would seem that it interprets each pasted newline as if Enter was pressed and idents the nect line to whatever algorithm was program to position the cursor.

I'd put my hand in the fire that there's a more convenient, better, proper way to do this.

CybDev · Post by **CybDev** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:21 pm

:help paste

jftuga · Post by **jftuga** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:30 pm

I have noticed this stair-stepping effect as well. I have put these lines into my .vimrc file:

Code: Select all

:map #1 0vwhxi<tab><esc>j
:map #2 0vwhxi<tab><tab><esc>j
:map #3 0vwhxi<tab><tab><tab><esc>j
:map #4 0vwhxi<tab><tab><tab><tab><esc>j

These map the F1-F4 keys and remove all whitespace between the beginning of each line until right before the 1st character of the line and replace it with a tab when I hit F1, replace it with 2 tabs when I hit F2, etc. etc.

This is good for me when cutting and pasting code as it might need to be indented at different widths.

-John

myuser · Post by **myuser** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:25 am

:set noautoindent

That will solve your problem.

Then when pasted turn it back on:

:set autoindent

It happens because you have a space(s) before the text on a line.

So, if you have 1 space it will indent the following line by 1 space, which if that has 1 space infront of the text will generate 2 spaces and so on.

That is why you get that diagonal affect.

tecknojunky · Post by **tecknojunky** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 1:53 am

myuser wrote::set noautoindent

That will solve your problem.

Then when pasted turn it back on:

:set autoindent

It happens because you have a space(s) before the text on a line.

So, if you have 1 space it will indent the following line by 1 space, which if that has 1 space infront of the text will generate 2 spaces and so on.

That is why you get that diagonal affect.

Aaaah! I knew it there was a way.

I know just the bare minimal stuff on vi because it is on just about every *nix and they all (more || less) work the same.

Gimme, oh say, may 10 or 15 more years and I guess I'll get to know a few more commands... if i can just get use to that command/edit mode lambada.

grover · Post by **grover** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:18 am

If you're lazy like me you can shorten the above commands to
:set noai
:set ai

mhodak · Post by **mhodak** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:07 am

I have this in my ~/.vimrc:

Code: Select all

set pastetoggle=<F11>

What it does is that pressing F11 (or whatever key you want) toggles between modes when indentation is added and when it is not.

jftuga · Post by **jftuga** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 2:14 pm

mhodak wrote:I have this in my ~/.vimrc:
Code: Select all
set pastetoggle=<F11>
What it does is that pressing F11 (or whatever key you want) toggles between modes when indentation is added and when it is not.

Good idea, I think I will add this one myself. I have one similar to this, but for toggling on/off the display of line numbers, using the F7 key:

Code: Select all

"Toggle line numbers
:map #7 :set invnu<cr>

-John