What is a more efficient way to use buffers?

Question

Lately I've been drastically reducing the number of plugins I'm using so I'm looking for answers using only built-in Vim features.

I've been noticing a flaw in my workflow when I'm editing a lot of buffers: I am on a buffer and I want to switch to another one of which I don't remember the name and which isn't the alternative buffer. So using :b# is not possible and using the completion with the command :b isn't convenient neither.

To do that I was doing the following:

• First use :buffers to get the list of open buffers
• Remember the number of the buffer I want to use
• Press Enter to close the list of buffers
• Use :bX with X the number of the buffer to use.

This workflow seemed pretty heavy to me so I added the following lines to my .vimrc:

" Improve the navigation in the buffers 
nnoremap <Leader><S-b> :B<CR> 
command! B call Buffers() 

function! Buffers() 
    execute "buffers" 
    let buffer=input("Enter a buffer:") 
    execute "b" . buffer 
endfunction 

This give me a command :B (and a mapping) which calls the function :buffers wait for an input and finally calls :b followed by the input.

It works well but I'm surprised that I had to develop such a function: usually Vim has a pretty efficient default workflow so I'm wondering if there is a better way to switch to a buffer of which I don't know anything excepted that it as already been opened in my editing session.

Answer 1

I've been noticing a flaw in my workflow when I'm editing a lot of buffers: I am on a buffer and I want to switch to another one of which I don't remember the name and which isn't the alternative buffer. So using :b# is not possible and using the completion with the command :b isn't convenient neither.

On the contrary, I find tab-completion to be extremely convenient. Setting the right options to values that work for you may help a lot. These are the relevant lines from my vimrc (they work for me but they may not work for you so don't just copy them):

nnoremap ,b :buffer *
set wildmenu
set wildignore+=*.swp,*.bak
set wildignore+=*.pyc,*.class,*.sln,*.Master,*.csproj,*.csproj.user,*.cache,*.dll,*.pdb,*.min.*
set wildignore+=*/.git/**/*,*/.hg/**/*,*/.svn/**/*
set wildignore+=*/min/*,*/vendor/*,*/node_modules/*,*/bower_components/*
set wildignore+=tags,cscope.*
set wildignore+=*.tar.*
set wildignorecase
set wildmode=full

With that, the right buffer is rarely more than five or six keystrokes away:

---

This give me a command :B (and a mapping) which calls the function :buffers wait for an input and finally calls :b followed by the input.

Barry Arthur came up with a much simpler solution years ago that has become quite popular since then:

nnoremap <leader>b :ls<CR>:b<Space>

of which I proposed a slightly more versatile variant a couple years ago:

nnoremap gb :ls<CR>:b

---

Since we are talking vimscript, here is a nice little function I wrote that "auto-populates" the command-line with the right command stub after list-like commands like :ls or :ilist. The advantage of that function over the mappings above is that I don't have to remember specific mappings. It works just like Vim, but with a little twist.

" smooth listing
cnoremap <expr> <CR> <SID>CCR()

function! s:CCR()
    if getcmdtype() == ":"
        let cmdline = getcmdline()
            if cmdline =~ '\v\C^(dli|il)' | return "\<CR>:" . cmdline[0] . "jump  " . split(cmdline, " ")[1] . "\<S-Left>\<Left>"
        elseif cmdline =~ '\v\C^(cli|lli)' | return "\<CR>:silent " . repeat(cmdline[0], 2) . "\<Space>"
        elseif cmdline =~ '\C^changes' | set nomore | return "\<CR>:sil se more|norm! g;\<S-Left>"
        elseif cmdline =~ '\C^ju' | set nomore | return "\<CR>:sil se more|norm! \<C-o>\<S-Left>"
        elseif cmdline =~ '\C^ol' | set nomore | return "\<CR>:sil se more|e #<"
        elseif cmdline =~ '\C^undol' | return "\<CR>:u "
        elseif cmdline =~ '\C^ls' | return "\<CR>:b"
        elseif cmdline =~ '/#$' | return "\<CR>:"
        else | return "\<CR>" | endif
    else | return "\<CR>" | endif
endfunction

---

That said, I'm a big proponent of "symbol-based navigation" over "file-based navigation". When applicable, symbol-based navigation is much faster and much more economic than file-based navigation.

The last GIF shows one mean of symbol-based navigation, by the way. The example is silly but… oh well.

Answer 2

I encountered the same problem a while ago and I found a solution:

nnoremap <leader>b :buffers<CR>:buffer<space>

This will open the buffer list and without hiding it, give you the option to switch buffer.

I think that it makes sense that Vim does not have a "list and select" option here, these are two separate actions. But Vim is powerful enough to combine command together.

Think of it as the Unix philosophy: Do one thing and do it well.

:buffers lists the buffers and :buffer xxx allows you to select one.

Answer 3

For a while I used nobe4's technique like this:

nnoremap <Leader>b :set nomore<Bar>:ls<Bar>:set more<CR>:b<Space>

Then I started using Tab-completion with that (as romainl suggests)

But more recently I have found the fastest method with the fewest keystrokes is to use:

{count} CTRL-^

This is not so different from :b#<Enter> but as you say, you need to know the buffer number!

So for that I run the MiniBufExplorer plugin, which displays a list of filenames across the top (like almost every other editor). I'm sure there are numerous alternatives.

Finally, since Ctrl-^ is a bit of a stretch for my fingers, and this is a very common operation, I moved it over to Ctrl-E. The implementation for that is not too complex:

nnoremap <C-E> :<C-U>call SwitchToBuffer()<CR>

function! SwitchToBuffer()
  if v:count > 0
    exec v:count . "b"
    return
  endif

  " Whatever you want to do if you didn't provide a count
  " In this case, fall back to nobe4's technique:
  call feedkeys(":ls\n:b ")
endfunction

So my current buffer switching process goes something like this:

1. Look at MiniBufExplorer
2. Hit 3 Ctrl-E

Sadly MBE and the script above are not Vim builtins, as you requested. When I'm on a remote machine with no config, I just use :b [partial] and Tab-completion.