How to make VIM automatically insert closing delimiters and new lines like SUBLIME TEXT?

Question

While using Sublime Text, when I type the first parenthesis, bracket, or curly bracket, Sublime Text automatically does the second one for me.

if(){}

if()
{
    Code
}

And while making an if statement, for loop, or while loop, when I move both the braces (curly brackets) to the next line and press Enter while my cursor is in the middle of the two braces, Sublime Text automatically puts the second brace in the next line and "tabs" my cursor in the middle of the two braces.

How can I configure VIM to do this? :)

Answer 1

The linked question in the comments provides some options for what you're looking to achieve. In particular, without any plugins, one can use the solution from this answer

inoremap ( ()<Left>
inoremap [ []<Left>
inoremap { {}<Left>

This accomplishes the automatic closing of parenthesis and brackets when you type (,[,{, in insert mode.

For your second question, it can also be done without any plugins:

inoremap <expr> <CR> search('{\%#}', 'n') ? "\<CR>\<CR>\<Up>\<C-f>" : "\<CR>"

Here's the breakdown:

inoremap <expr> <CR>         --- map the <CR> key using an expression
   search('{\%#}', 'n') ?    --- is the cursor ('\%#') between '{'and '}' ?
   "\<CR>\<CR>\<Up>\<C-f>"   --- if so, press <CR> twice, go <Up> a line, and autoindent (<C-f>),
   :                         --- otherwise, 
   "\<CR>"                   --- press <CR>.

This checks if the cursor is between { and }, but does not check if the previous line starts with if, while, or for. You can do so by modifying the search(). That is, instead of search('{\%#}', 'n'), we can use search('\(if\|while\|for\)\s*(.*)\s*$\n^\s*{\%#}', 'n').

For more, see

• :h map-expr
• :h expr-quote
• :h pattern-overview