Vim Tips Blog : Programmer Productivity Tips

Useful VIM Abbreviations for debugging Perl

2010-03-06T05:02:00.000-08:00

iab perlb print "<p>debug ::: $_ :: $' :: $` line ".__LINE__."\n";exit;
iab perlbb print "<p>debug ::: <C-R>a line ".__LINE__."\n";exit;
iab perlbd do{print "<p>debug :: <C-R>a line ".__LINE__."\n";exit} if $_ =~ /\w\w/i;
iab perld use Data::Dumper;$Data::Dumper::Pad="<br>";print Dumper @product_array;exit;

the <C-R>a automatically inserts whatever variable you had previously stored in register a
Dumper allows you to display arrays and hashes, you really should be using it.

Perl can be debugged using the Perl debugger eg > perl -d test.pl

or with the tk gui

perl -d:ptkdb test.pl

VIM Folding Away Unwanted Text/code

2010-02-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

I've only just started using folding but how did I live without it before and it's so EASY! You make sections of the code you are uninterested in "disappear" with a fold or several folds. Of course many editors have folding but VIM combines folding with the power of its motion commands, you can even use regex!

" folding : hide sections to allow easier comparisons
zf} : fold paragraph using motion
v}zf : fold paragraph using visual
zf'a : fold to mark
zo : open fold
zc : re-close fold
:help folding

the folds I used
a) move to beginning of code I wish to work on and everything before
zf1G : fold all lines from current line to beginning of the file

a) move to end of code I wish to work on and everything after
zfG

Matching html/xml/script tags with matchit.vim

2010-02-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

It is incredibly useful to be able to match tags in tangled PHP,Javascript and HTML files this is possible with the plugin matchit.vim. You will already know that Vim matches or jumps to a matching parenthesis ({{ , with matchit.vim you can jump to a matching tag.

Recently I need to configure it so that it would match tags in html files with the arbitrary extension index.raa

I achieved this by adding *.raa to the following line
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.html,*.htm,*.shtml,*.stm,*.raa call s:FThtml()in filetype.vim

but that's not upgrade safe so instead create
a subdirectory ftdetect in your vim folder
and create a file (in my case)
raa.vim containing just one line
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.raa set filetype=raa

Automatically Enable VIM Syntax Highlighting for a non-standard file extension

2010-01-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

:syntax on

"enable perl syntax highlighting for a file with a non-standard extension
:autocmd BufReadPost *.plx set syntax=perl

" some odd useful abbreviations
:cab synh set syntax=html
:cab synp set syntax=php

Reading MS Word Documents with VIM

2010-01-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Put this in your .vimrc
autocmd BufReadPost *.doc %!antiword "%"

install antiword on your PC, comes with Cygwin and as a win32 executable.

then vou can do

gvim cv.doc

Remember this is READY ONLY you cannot Modify a Word Document but nevertheless very useful for fishing out the text you need from a Microsoft Word document or alternatively reading a Word document with all the advantages of Vims powerful search options

" set up vim to read MS Word documents read only
autocmd BufReadPre *.doc set ro
autocmd BufReadPre *.doc set hlsearch!
autocmd BufReadPost *.doc %!antiword "%"

Number Each Line of Current File

2009-12-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

to merely display numbers
:set number

following will actually insert numbers but relies on external Linux utility nl
:new | r!nl # (where hash is alternate file name)

Vim Way
:%s/^/\=line('.'). ' '

Replace a line with the contents of a file

2009-12-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

Replace a marker line (contaning just the word mark) with the contents of an
external file doc.txt

" replace string with contents of a file, -d deletes the "mark"
:g/^MARK$/r doc.txt | -d

Integrating Vim and Cygwin

2009-12-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

I use and love Cygwin but mostly use the standard Windows gVim (Gui Vim) rather than that supplied by Cygwin.

in my .vimrc I have

if has('win32')
source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
behave mswin
set shell=c:\\cygwin\\bin\\zsh.exe shellcmdflag=-c shellxquote=\"
else
set ff=unix
endif

You will probably prefer bash.exe rather than zsh.exe

I can then run zsh/bash scripts from the command line e.g.
:!grep blah blah

How to Get the Latest Patched Version of VIM

2009-12-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

The Cream project maintains the latest version of VIM you can download it here . On the download page you can get latest version of VIM with or without Cream.

Cream is a free, easy-to-use configuration of the famous Vim text editor for Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD. It uses common menus, standard keyboard shortcuts, and has extensive editing functions for the beginner and expert alike.

The current version for win32 is gvim-7-2-303.exe they call this a one-click install

The Power of Control R

2009-12-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

The Control-R mechanism is very useful:-
:h i_CTRL-R

Usually used for inserting the contents of a register 0-9a-z
but can also insert the following special registers etc

'"' the unnamed register, containing the text of the last delete or
yank
'%' the current file name
'#' the alternate file name
'*' the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
'+' the clipboard contents
'/' the last search pattern
':' the last command-line
'.' the last inserted text
'-' the last small (less than a line) delete
=5*5 insert 25 into text (mini-calculator)

Deleting all but first two fields in each line of a CSV File

2009-11-16T04:16:00.000-08:00

In a csv file full of lines such
16 Prop_Description Property description, String 1000
(note that this is actually a space separated csv)

:%s#$\d\+ \w\+$.*#\1#g

filters out all but the field number and name eg

16 Prop_Description

a regexp for normal comma separated csv would be

fred,joe,sid
"fred joe","sue","good boy

:%s/$[^,]\+$,$[^,]\+$.*/\1,\2/

VIM working with Paste Commands

2009-11-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

The paste buffer is usually the easiest way to transfer text between VIM and another application.

" Redirection & Paste register *
:redir @* : redirect commands to paste buffer
:redir END : end redirect
:redir >> out.txt : redirect to a file
" Working with Paste buffer
"*yy : yank current line to paste
"+y} : yank to end of paragraph
"+yi{ : yank current paragraph
"*p : insert from paste buffer
" yank to paste buffer (ex mode)
:'a,'by* : Yank range into paste
:%y* : Yank whole buffer into paste
:.y* : Yank Current line to paster
" filter non-printable characters from the paste buffer
" useful when pasting from some gui application
:nmap p :let @* = substitute(@*,'[^[:print:]]','','g')"*pr

Command Line Window q: or q/

2009-11-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

One of original great improvements of VIM over Classic Vi was the ability to reuse/edit/correct commands laboriously typed in, you had only simple line edit commands available to do this, normally perfectly sufficient of course. However you can also open a command line window to gain full vim command line editing commands:-

Note these are normal-mode commands!
q:
Creates a small window of your most recent commands

q/
Creates a small window of your most recent searches

hitting "return" will execute whatever line you are editing

to close/leave the command window without executing the current line use :quit

Using CVS with VIM

2009-11-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

I'm now using the CVS that comes with Cygwin and the CVS plugin for VIM

and the plugin
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=58

I used to save backups to a directory with a timestamp appended to the filename.

Now I'll have a proper system with version control, difference between version etc

Editing the File name you Save or Write to (2)

2009-10-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Remember you can recall the file name with Control-R %
You can then edit the file name freely

Vim supports wild cards as long as only ONE file matches eg

:r ../*/ref.c

:e long*file*name.h

Write/Save a File to a Changed Name

2009-10-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

:sav main.php : Save current file as main.php and "move" to main.php
:sav! %<.bak : Save Current file to alternative extension (old way)
:sav! %:r.cfm : Save Current file to alternative extension
:w %:r.cfm : write Current file to alternative extension
:sav %:s/fred/joe/ : do a substitute on file name
:sav %:s/fred/joe/:r.bak2 : do a substitute on file name & ext.
:!mv % %:r.bak : rename current file (DOS use Rename or DEL)

Join Pairs of Lines

2009-10-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Compress every other line

Bob
Jones
Mary
Quite-contrary

:g//,//j

Bob Jones
Mary Quite-contrary

Now if there are empty lines eg
Bob

Jones
Mary
Quite-contrary

use
:g/./,/./j
or slightly tighter
:g/\w/,/\w/j

and to limit it to a range of lines (between markers a and b)
:'a,'bg/\w/,/\w/j

Tip from James Church

Generating lines of Repetitive Code Rapidly

2009-09-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

A very common editing problem when writing repetitive lines of code.

list($jan,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);
list($feb,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);
list($mar,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);
.... etc etc
list($nov,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);
list($dec,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);

The first line (jan) has been hand written and then the other 11 generated with yy11p

Then the first mention of the month has been hand-edited, now you want to make the
month the same throughout the line

list($jan,$jan_color)=fn_display_month($record['jan']);
list($feb,$feb_color)=fn_display_month($record['feb']);
list($mar,$mar_color)=fn_display_month($record['mar']);
....
list($nov,$nov_color)=fn_display_month($record['nov']);
list($dec,$dec_color)=fn_display_month($record['dec']);

Do this with a recording:- with contents
0f$l"ayiw:s/jan/\=@a/gj

explanation
Start recording @q
0f$ find first dollar
store month into register a
substitute jan with contents of register a
descend a line

Substitute Text in Last Visual Area

2009-09-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

Got this from VIM Wiki

:%s/\%Vold/new/g # Substitute Text in Last Visual Area
# Now imagine you'd selected a visual block with (Control V, or Control Q (Windows)) you could do a column based substitute!

gv # revisualise last visual area

Useful ZSH Commands for Vim

2009-08-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

(When I used bash, I wrote small scripts to achieve the following)

We frequently re-edit the most recent files, I have aliases/scripts for many of following as they are a bit clunky to type.

vi *(.om[1]) # vi newest file
vi -p *(.om[1,3]) # open 3 newest files in tabs (gvim)
vi *(m0) # re-edit all files changed today!
ls *(^m0) # files NOT modified today
ls -l *(m4) # list files modified exactly 4 days ago
vi **/main.php # where ever it is in hierarchy
ls (x*~x[3-5]) # list files x* except x3 to x5
vi !$ # vi last parameter
vi !-2:2 # second parameter of second but last command
vi !$:r.php # vi last parameter but change extension to .php
^mian^main # modify previous command (good for correcting typos)
^php^cfm # modify previous command replace php by cfm

more zsh tips and tricks here

Clean up a Mucky Text File with a VIM function

2009-08-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

We are often required to clean up a text file usually from kind of export to text from a database , Word file etc. These text files can be full of superfluous white space, non-asciis, control-M etc

Insert the following function into your .vimrc or load directly into the file you editing. Adapt it as necessary .
Execute with

: call Clean()

function! Clean()
" Clean up a text file
" delete pesky (MSDOS) control-M 's
exe ':%s/\r//ge'
" delete pesky non-asciis
exe ':%s/[\x00-\x1f\x80-\xff]/ /eg '
" compress multiple spaces
exe ':%s/\s\s\+/ /eg'
" delete end of line spaces
exe ':%s/\s\+$//e'
" compress multiple blank lines
exe ':silent! v/./,/./-j'
endfunction

VIM : Register Tricks

2009-07-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

When you use the useful ct" (change till " character) (:help t - motion command) it can be annoying that you cannot . repeat it if the limiting character is not a "

Well not to worry the last text you inserted is still in the . register and can thus be retrieved with a <C-R>.

ie ct'<C-R>.

Don't forget it's brother the small delete register -

Or the other special registers which you can display with the following command

:reg "/-.:%*

Nor forget how to dump your numeric registers

"1p....... (normal mode)

VIM: Creating Your Own Commands with a Map or a Recording

2009-07-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

Customizing your own commands using a map or recording.

A Map is generally used for stored commands.

A Recording is used for one off jobs.

Recordings are more intuitive ie you simply record a sequence of commands.

Maps require a little more knowledge of map special characters <CR><ESC> etc

While it is possible to "save" a recording for future use it's a little tricky

:let @w="<C-R>q" ie read recording q (same as register q) and store in register w, which if put in your .vimrc will be preserved for future use

With experience you should find yourself preferring to create disposable recordings and relying less and less on maps; one well known Vimmer (Peppe) has a practically empty .vimrc.

Vim: Including a register's contents in a substitute

2009-06-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

"sub "fred" with contents of register "a" (Control R)
:s/fred/<c-r>a/g

or from the paste buffer

s/fred/<c-r>*/g

Here you actually do a Control-R.

It is often preferable to do use the following

:s/fred/\=@a/g : better alternative as register not displayed

unfortunately the \=@a must be at the beginning of replacement string

zzapper

vim dat cat with yat or dat

2009-06-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been using the following HEAVILY recently as I've been working on some spaghetti html pages with mysql,php,Javascript and HTML sprinkled sometimes on the same line. The following help me to precisely "grab" the code I need to alter. I've been favoring VISUAL MODE as this confirms or otherwise that I've selected just what I intend.

Note how the "a" and "i" inner variants differ the 'i' grabs less than
the outer 'a'

vat,dat,yat,cat (visualize,delete,yank,change) a tag

ie dat will delete a whole table if cursor anywhere over < table>

ie yat will yank a whole table row if cursor over < tr>

vit,dit,yit,cit will empty a tag pair

da< just deletes a single tag

di< empties a tag

:help text-objects

seems to work with XML as well

Also quote based text objects (single line only though for some odd reason)

va"
da"
va'
da'
vi"
di"
vi'
di'
di<
and don't forget
di(
da{
etc

zzapper