Count whitespaces between cursor and preceding non space character

Question

In case I have the following line

// Component: <Component name here>                          |

where | is the cursor marker. How can I count, using vimscript, the total number of white spaces before the cursor until the first non space character (> in this case) ?

The aim is to delete all preceding whitespace before cursor, until non first space character (excluding it).

Answer 1

If you want to count the number of white spaces character you could do:

let l = getline('.')
let n = len(l) - match(l, '\s*$')

If you want to count the number of white spaces you could do:

let bnr = bufnr('%')
let winid = bufwind(bnr)

let r = line('.')
let l = getline(r)
let c0 = match(l, '\s*$') - 1
let c1 = len(l) + 1
let n0 = screenpos(winid, r, c0)
let n1 = screenpos(winid, r, c1)
let n = n1 - n0

Answer 2

My solution to the question:

inoremap <silent> <expr> <nowait> <C-Del> getline('.')[col('.')-1] == ' ' ? "<C-o>dw" : getline('.')[col('.')-1:] =~ '\w' ? "<C-o>diw" : "<Del>"
inoremap <silent> <expr> <nowait> <C-Backspace> col('.') == 1 ? "<Backspace>" : getline('.')[col('.') - 2] == ' ' ? "<C-o>ge<Right><C-o>dw" : getline('.') == '\s\+' ? "<C-o>g0<C-o>dw" : "<C-o>db"