How to close several windows with one mapping?

Question

I use CTRL-W c to close current window. I expected that 5 CTRL-W c close 5 windows in row, but it's not. Now I just type CTRL-W c 5 times.

What is correct way to do it and why it don't work as I expected?

Answer 1

First, giving a count to the command doesn't work as you expected because the doc (:h CTRL-W_c) says:

Without {count}: Close the current window.  If {count} is
given close the {count} window.

Now if you want to create a mapping calling <C-w>c N times you could add this to your vimrc:

nnoremap <F1> :<C-u>for i in range(v:count1) \| close \| endfor<CR>

Replace <F1> by the key you want to use in your mapping. What is line does is the following:

:                           Go to command line mode
<C-u>                       Remove the range automatically added to the command line
for i in range(v:count1)    Create a loop from 0 to the count you gave to the mapping (or 1 if you didn't gave a count)
close                       Close the current window
endfor                      End of the loop
<CR>                        Validate the command

Now you can press <F1> to close the current window and 4<F1> to close the current window and the 3 next current windows.

You can read the following related help topics:

• :h c_CTRL-U
• :h range()
• :h v:count1
• :h :close