How to get intelligent C++ auto-completion?

Question

Some editors (such as Visual Studio on windows) do C++ autocompletion which understand C++. For example, given:

#include <vector>

int main(void) {
  std::vector<int> v;
  v.i

In Visual Studio the auto-completion knows the only method on std::vector<int> that starts with an i is insert.

Is it possible to get this kind of autocompletion in vim?

Answer 1

I really like clang_complete for this. It does require clang, and you need to tell it where libclang resides in your system. After that, it works wonderfully.

People might suggest YouCompleteMe, but to be honest, that plugin is hugely bloated for what it says it does, and it requires way too many steps to install. I also had it segfault Vim on multiple occasions. I couldn't be happier with clang_complete.

This is what I get when I type v.:

Answer 2

One option (what I currently use)

I don't use YouCompleteMe anymore. coc-clangd is much better and simpler.

Today I use coc.nvim + coc-clangd instead.

Another option (what I used to use)

YouCompleteMe isn't that hard to install, and it has been quite stable for me, I've migrated from clang_complete to YouCompleteMe years ago. One thing I agree, it's indeed bloated with a huge commit history, many internal dependencies and support for many languages you may not care for but still will end up cloning its associated submodules. That, that's an issue with YouComplemeMe, still.... it does the work.

I've worked on a fork with special purpose to better support C++, you may check this gif showing it off:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1e2F0A123h331c1G0L0R/SadBart.gif

It leverages new parameter information that Clang is able to provide, you may learn more about this from this article of mine: http://nosubstance.me/articles/2015-01-29-better-completion-for-cpp/.

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Answer 3

YouCompleteMe (Link) plugin has been work great for me. It uses libclang to generate the autocomplete feature, providing accurate completion.

It has a lot of customization, specially when working with compilation flags. You can edit the "flag generator" editing a python script per project (Example). But, to me the main advantage is that it supports Clang Compilation Database (Link!). This means that you can compile your code normally and ask clang to spit all the flags its used for the compilation, and use those flags with YouCompleteMe. Very handy if you want your autocompletion tool to be aware of your macro definitions or the location of all the headers files in your system without any effort of typing it manually.