Make pipe behave like `col('.')`

Question

So when I go to the first character in a line, the first character in that line is a tab character, and I execute echo col('.'), I will get 1.

However when I type 2| I won't go to the next character, but I will stay in the current position, which is because the tab character fills 8 display spaces.

So how can I make | behave like col('.') and use characters instead of display spaces?

Answer 1

This is just barely tested. So it might still have some bugs:

func! Go(char)
    let ret = '/^.\{'. a:char. '}\%'. line('.'). "l/e\<cr>"
    return ret
endfunc
nnoremap <silent><expr> <leader><Bar>  Go(v:count1)

The idea is to search for the given number of chars in the current line. Use the \| mapping to go where you want.