Questions tagged [tab-characters]
Question about how to handle white spaces tab characters with vim, insert them, remove them, convert them to space characters, etc...
62
questions
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
How can i get visualize line indent every time i use tab or go to new line
I set
set listchars=tab:\│\
set list
to my vimrc and it shows like below
But when I go to another file it doesn't have a vertical line indent. It just affected 1 file, I have no idea about this. ...
- 73
0
votes
1
answer
90
views
Can't enter a tab character when previous character is not a tab or space in insert mode
When pressing tab in any language in edit mode, nothing happens if the character before the cursor is not a space or a tab.
Doing ctrl-v tab works, but I don't want to have to do that every time and ...
- 111
0
votes
2
answers
204
views
How to convert spaces on a line to tabs?
I know there's a way because it happened by accident. I was frenetically moving in a short region of text and at some point, with some wrong keystroke, the leading spaces on the line became a tab (and ...
- 1,572
1
vote
1
answer
104
views
Stop vim from deleting expanded tab as a block of spaces
I am on CentOS 8.1 and using vim 8.0.1763. When I open a python file, e.g. vim tmp.py, I type tab and it inserts 4 spaces (see .vimrc below). When I type delete, it deletes all 4 spaces. I want it ...
0
votes
1
answer
20
views
Why can't save file without tab key?
Configuration in my .vimrc:
set tabstop=4
set expandtab
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
I have edit a file which contain tab,saved and reopen to have a look at it with set list,the tab key saved,...
- 820
1
vote
2
answers
196
views
Shouldn't `softtabstop` be set, when using option 2 in `:h tabstop` to configure Vim to use spaces for `<Tab>`s?
I want to configure Vim to use spaces for <Tab>s everywhere. Therefore, I've had a look at :h tabstop to figure out how to perform the configuration.
Looking at the help text, option 2. seems ...
- 995
0
votes
1
answer
237
views
Neovim keeps reverting shiftwidth size after `after/ftplugin`
I like to code with 4 spaces as a tab.
I added this to after/ftplugin/sass.vim:
echom "before sass file settings"
set shiftwidth=4 " <---- Problem setting, keeps changing back to 2 ...
- 777
1
vote
1
answer
5k
views
Fixing tab and space inconsistency
I used < in visual model to do a shift+tab reverse for a code inside loop after I removed the try/except phrase. Now, I get an error:
$ python clean_captions.py
File "clean_captions.py"...
- 113
0
votes
1
answer
27
views
vim plugin changes rust files to use a ts of 4 rather than 2
Let's say I have a simple file,
echo -n "\tTABBED ONCE" > foo.rs
And then I have in my .vimrc the following,
set ts=2
call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')
call plug#end()
How come I open that file ...
- 718
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
Printed <tab> on pressing the tab key
It's not easy to articulate the question, as I touched something I don't understand. I am using a vim extension of VS-CODE.
I pressed something, that turned my next pressed key, into a literal, ...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
335
views
Tabs and only tabs for any file type
I would like vim to only ever insert a space character when I touch the space bar. Instead vim decides that sometimes tabs should be 4 spaces. How do I force vim to always and forever use tabs ...
2
votes
1
answer
165
views
escape, ctrl-w through citrix lite in browser
I need to be able to run vi on a machine that I access through Citrix lite in the browser. However I've come across a number of problems because of conflicts around esc and ctrl+w.
Specifically, ...
- 121
1
vote
2
answers
923
views
Pressing Enter removes indentation
If I have a file a.js like this:
let a1 = [
];
and I press Enter at the end of the first line, a Tab is inserted. I do not want this, so I added a setting:
filetype indent off
but then if I have ...
- 746
0
votes
1
answer
226
views
How to check if the character under the cursor is a tab?
I am using the code getline(".")[col(".")-1] to get the character under the cursor. How can I check if the character under the cursor is a tab ?
- 125
2
votes
1
answer
218
views
Why can't I use a literal Tab as the {commands} for :normal?
I'd like to write the following code:
function Normal(command)
execute "normal!" a:command
endfunction
call Normal("\<C-O>")
call Normal("\<C-I>")
The first call to Normal succeeds, ...
- 27.4k
1
vote
1
answer
504
views
tabs after pastetoggle instead of spaces
Using following .vimrc
" Just to see tab/spaces/endline clearly:
set encoding=utf-8
set list
set listchars=tab:▸\ ,eol:¬
nnoremap <F5> :set list!<cr>
" Tab to spaces settings
set tabstop=...
- 111
2
votes
1
answer
331
views
How to view tabs as conventional whitespace, not as control character ^I (caret I) in VIm?
I've somehow managed to have all tabs show up as the control character ^I in VIm, specifically gvim 8.1.1 on Windows 10.
All I have related to tabs in vimrc is this:
set tabstop=2
I do also have ...
- 123
0
votes
1
answer
149
views
Expandtab converts spaces to newline character?
When I enabled expandtab in vim by putting these in .vimrc:
set tw=4
set expandtab
Vim comverted every space typed by me to a newline character.
Like with the above settings whenever I type a new ...
- 103
1
vote
1
answer
621
views
How to show 2 spaces as tabs in listchar?
I like to see my indentation level with listchars=tab:\|\
But one project uses two spaces instead. Is there any way to show indentation level lines then?
This question seems to the opposite of Show ...
- 13
2
votes
1
answer
40
views
On the length of tabs after an initial character
Length of tabs after initial char
Start gvim with the --clean option, to get a clean slate, and then do:
:set noet ts=5 sts=3 sw=2
Then enter the following
1234567890
and on the next line, press ...
- 123
1
vote
0
answers
267
views
The tab adds 8 spaces even though `set tabstop?` returns 4
For some reasons when I'm editing my ~/.config/nvim/init.vim, it adds 8 spaces even though I set set tabstop=4 on the file. Actually, :verbose set tabstop returns 4, so it should be 4 spaces.
I ...
- 447
1
vote
1
answer
156
views
Tab multiple lines [duplicate]
I have my tab set to 4 spaces with :set tabstop=4.
Now I want to highlight multiple lines and tab them, or indent all them 4 spaces. If I highlight the lines and do >, it seems to indent them more ...
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
515
views
How to change the size of the indent that's created using ">" (forward arrow)?
If I want to change the tab size, I can do that with set tabstop=<number>. I have that in my .vimrc to make it 4 instead of 8.
However, when I indent/deindent text by highlighting it then using ...
- 103
1
vote
0
answers
434
views
Set tab width according to file [duplicate]
I have the following in my .vimrc:
set expandtab "Use soft tabs (spaces)
set shiftwidth=2 "Set tab width = 2
set softtabstop=2 "Set tab width = 2
set autoindent "Set indent of previous line
Now if I ...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
871
views
Auto-indent with spaces, but insert TAB when I press the TAB key
I like to indent my shell scripts with two spaces instead of a TAB. So, I set setlocal shiftwidth=2 in ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/sh.vim. It works, but I noticed that when the indentation level gets ...
- 113
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
how to make vim indentation file type specific? [duplicate]
I usually work on js files and php files. My js files require 2 spaces tab, whereas my php requires 4. How can I make vim dynamically change that depending on the file type I'm working on?
- 539
0
votes
1
answer
399
views
Search for 2 but not for 3 tab characters
I want to search in Vi for two tabs but not for three or more tabs. I tried several things like this:
/\t\t\(\t\)@!
But nothing works. Any idea?
- 143
3
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Getting Shift-Tab to work in VIM Insert mode
I've been trying to get Shift+Tab or <S-Tab> to work in VIM and I can't figure it out.
I read this document, but the remap solution only works for normal mode (because if I press Shift+Tab, VIM ...
- 1,247
7
votes
1
answer
80
views
Why are tabs adjacent to concealed tabs displayed wider than a single tabstop?
I just wrote the following code in an answer to another question:
syntax match HideTwoIndents /\v^\t(\t)?/ conceal
set conceallevel=2
This works great if 'list' is set and if 'listchars' does not ...
- 27.4k
1
vote
1
answer
384
views
Tab size fixed to 8 in spite of polyglot.
I am using Vim 8. Since I installed vim-polyglot to handle syntax highlighting and indentation of different languages without going crazy, whatever file I open has a tab size of 8 automatically. I ...
- 123
1
vote
0
answers
116
views
Files with tabs are length 8 even with set tabstop=4 in vimrc [duplicate]
I have most of the usual tab commands in ~/.vimrc:
set tabstop=4 set softtabstop=4 set shiftwidth=4 set expandtab
set breakindent set autoindent set smartindent.
There are no problems when I open a ...
- 285
53
votes
1
answer
106k
views
Setting TAB to 2 spaces
I've looked through various answers which imply that setting the following in .vimrc would be appropriate to force tab insertions to become spaces.
filetype plugin indent on
" On pressing tab, ...
- 633
5
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Expand <TAB> into 2 spaces when and only when editing HTML
My current configuration makes vim automatically expand TAB to 4 spaces for me:
" Define tab as 4 spaces
" Taken from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1878974/redefine-tab-as-4-spaces
set tabstop=4 ...
- 195
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
Have backspace delete whole tabs
Under regular conditions, the tab key will insert a tab character and backspacing that tab deletes the whole tab character.
I have set up expandtab and softtabstop=4 so that when I hit tab it will ...
- 113
1
vote
0
answers
978
views
expandtab / noexpandtab toggles by itself in Neovim
I have this issue where noexpandtab turns itself on after a while. Tried to describe it here and in the Github Issue because I am not 100% sure this is a legit bug.
For a long time, I have ...
- 2,212
0
votes
1
answer
2k
views
<Tab> in insert mode brings up completion
Today when I open my computer and enter vi, strange things happened: backspace not working(solved), and Tab brings up keyword completion in insert mode, which is what I'm worrying about. Before, I can ...
- 267
-1
votes
2
answers
2k
views
bypassing TAB auto-complete
Sometimes I need to press TAB, but instead of getting actual the tab key, a suggestion pops up and TAB cycles through the suggestions.
How can I insert TAB without invoking the auto-completion ?
The ...
- 879
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Show leading whitespaces, but not including tabs
I am a tabs kind of guy, I do not like when my code contains leading whitespaces instead of leading tabs. I often exchange codes with colleagues and I first have to convert the leading whitespaces to ...
- 343
10
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Shift left or right (with `noet`) without converting existing spaces to tabs
Foreword
I'm using the "indent with tabs, align with spaces" ideology for indentation. This means that each line in a file can be prefixed with an arbitrary amount of tabs and spaces (as opposed to "...
- 295
1
vote
2
answers
292
views
How can I highlight misuse of tabs and spaces according to current configuration?
I'm looking for a way that will highlight lines (or part of lines) that don't adhere to current tabs settings.
Say for instance, I have the following configuration in my .vimrc
tabstop=8
...
- 879
4
votes
2
answers
3k
views
softtabstop == tabstop VS softtabstop=0
Are this:
set noexpandtab
set shiftwidth=4
set tabstop=4
set softtabstop=0
..and this:
set noexpandtab
set shiftwidth=4
set tabstop=4
set softtabstop=4
..exactly the same? I thought that if ...
- 885
1
vote
1
answer
52
views
Make pipe behave like `col('.')`
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, ...
- 1,804
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Transforming a long table into multiple columns
Suppose I have the following table:
E 12.02
T 9.10
A 8.12
O 7.68
I 7.31
N 6.95
S 6.28
R 6.02
H 5.92
D 4.32
L 3.98
U 2.88
C 2.71
M 2.61
F 2.30
Y 2.11
W 2.09
G 2.03
...
user2598
9
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Vim doesn't use the correct indentation in Python files
I have encountered something that I have never seen before in Vim. While I was tentatively modifying some of the source code for software I've been planning to work on, I noticed vim was displaying ...
- 193
5
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Delete indenting spaces one at a time
I want to be able to delete indenting spaces one at a time.
If I set shiftwidth to 4, it deletes 4 spaces at a time if vim counts them as indentation. Setting shiftwidth to 1 fixes the problem, but ...
- 61
6
votes
1
answer
706
views
vimrc tab behavior when noexpandtab and softtabstop is less than tabstop
Questions
In the following example:
Why in the first line, a \t is inserted but only 4-col blank is displayed? Shouldn't it be 8 according to tabstop?
Why the two <TAB> hits in the first line ...
- 163
1
vote
1
answer
101
views
How to write literal for Tab key to use for motion?
I've the following dummy file created via:
echo -e "a a\tb b\tc c" > file
Is there any literal for space which I can use for motion argument?
For example this works (which removes the 1st a a ...
- 16.5k
4
votes
1
answer
524
views
How can I set expandtab but only for git commit messages?
Most of the time I'd like noexpandtab on because our corporate formatting uses tabs instead of spaces, so in my .vimrc I have this:
" Set tab width stuff
set tabstop=4 softtabstop=0 noexpandtab ...
- 465
4
votes
3
answers
810
views
Avoid spaces getting converted to tabs automatically during shift(>>)
I use 2 spaces as indentation. So I set shiftwidth using :set sw=2.
However when I do the shift operator(>>) on a line twice, the indentation converts the 4 spaces automatically to a tab. So to ...
- 143
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment
I am trying to make vim auto indent with tabs, and align with whitespaces, but actually, vim indent with tabs and fill the alignment with tabs + white spaces.
Vim does it :
(each block is a tab)
{
&...
- 533