Insert blank line above and bellow a certain line

Question

Without being in insert mode, from a certain line, I'd like to create a blank line above and below that line in staying on the same line. Could anyone have an idea how to do it?

To clarify what I'm looking for, if I have three glued lines and I'm on the second line, I want to insert a blank line between the first and second line and another blank line between the second and the third line. I want to do that in staying on the second line and in interactive mode (not insert mode).

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Use marks. For example put this into your .vimrc:

nnoremap <silent><A-j> :set paste<CR>m`o<Esc>``:set nopaste<CR>
nnoremap <silent><A-k> :set paste<CR>m`O<Esc>``:set nopaste<CR>

Alt+j and Alt+k inserts blank line above and below current line in normal mode respectively.

Here a nice addition for deleting a blank line below/above only if any exists (using regular expressions).

nnoremap <silent><A-S-j> m`:silent +g/\m^\s*$/d<CR>``:noh<CR>
nnoremap <silent><A-S-k> m`:silent -g/\m^\s*$/d<CR>``:noh<CR>

Shift+Alt+j deletes empty line below and Shift+Alt+k deletes empty line above.

I find these mappings intuitive and confortable. Enjoy :) *Sometimes there problems with alt/meta key, so use what works fine for you.

Read more (inter alia code explanation) in the source: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Quickly_adding_and_deleting_empty_lines

Answer 2

Your question looks like an almost duplicate of this question on SO: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3170348/insert-empty-lines-without-entering-insert-mode/3171023 and of this one on SU: https://superuser.com/questions/147715/vim-insert-empty-line-above-current-line-not-open-i-e-without-entering-inser

I though it was also answered here, but I cannot find any trace of it.

Any way, append() is the best way to insert line(s) without moving the cursor nor altering any thing but the current buffer. It's indeed cumbersome to use on the fly, but for scripting it's the right tool.

Which gives:

nnoremap µ :<c-u>call append('.', '')<cr>:call append(line('.')-1, '')<cr>

(Note that I don't see a solution that doesn't require to leave the NORMAL mode to enter the COMMAND mode. It respects the requirement of not entering the INSERT mode though)

Note that when there is no objective of writing a plugin with no side effect, and if the "no insert mode" is just a useless requirement imposed for no good reason, we usually sacrifice a mark (as in :h mark) ->

mxO<esc>`xo<esc>`x

We can, of course, put this in a mapping, but it will alter the x mark, which can be problematic if we use it to bookmark a position in the text/code we're editing. I use marks a lot when I'm editing texts, that's why I avoid them as much as possible in mappings. I don't want the mappings I use to mess with what I'm doing.

Answer 3

To create blank line below current one use o, for line above O.

Answer 4

I call it "isolate the line" - and this mapping does it:

nnoremap <leader>i O<c-o>j<c-o>o<c-o>k<esc>

It leaves the cursor in the current line. Ctrl-o means "switch to normal mode for one command"