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Tip: #396 - Highlight unwanted spaces
Created: January 9, 2003 19:04 Complexity: basic Author: Dubhead Version: 6.0 Karma: 147/80 Imported from: Tip#396
Whitespace characters (tabs, spaces, etc) at end of line are rarely meant to be there; they are usually there by accident. If you don't want them, maybe it pays to highlight them with an alarming color. (After all, GNU Emacs has it (show-trailing-whitespace), so why not in vim :-) )
Put this in your ~/.vimrc to highlight the whitespace characters at end of line:
highlight WhitespaceEOL ctermbg=red guibg=red
match WhitespaceEOL /\s\+$/
Comments
- set list
<Look at trailing spaces and tabs>
- set nolist
< Now get rid of them>
- %s/\s*$//g
Anonymous
, January 9, 2003 22:13
You can also add this line to .vimrc:
let c_space_errors=1
This wil enable trailing whitespace errors in C/C++ files only.
xburgerhout at freeler dot nl , January 9, 2003 23:52
I prefer
set list listchars=tab:>-,trail:.,extends:>
mgedmin--AT--mail.lt , January 10, 2003 4:55
You can also use the Cream-based 'showinvisibles' script, which puts bullets for every whitespace at the end of a line
falcon611--AT--yahoo.com , January 11, 2003 3:57
I run into the problem where some of the files I use have spaces instead of tabs at the front of the line. I have this in my .vimrc now:
<pre> " Check for extra whitespace highlight WhitespaceEOL ctermbg=red guibg=red match WhitespaceEOL /\s\+$/ match WhitespaceEOL /^\ \+/ </pre>
vim--AT--linuxwebguy.com , April 4, 2003 11:02
Here is a revision. In addition to whitespaces at end-of-line, this also highlights spaces before a tab.
" Highlight redundant whitespaces. highlight RedundantSpaces ctermbg=red guibg=red match RedundantSpaces /\s\+$\| \+\ze\t/
Dubhead
, April 20, 2003 19:21
Hey...
The Highlight redundant whitespaces didn't work for me....
Following are the things I added to my rc file from this tip:
" Highlighting whitespaces at end of line highlight WhitespaceEOL ctermbg=red guibg=red match WhitespaceEOL /\s\+$/
" Check for extra spaces instead of tabs at the front of the line match WhitespaceEOL /^\ \+/
" Highlight redundant whitespaces. highlight RedundantSpaces ctermbg=red guibg=red match RedundantSpaces /\s\+$\| \+\ze\t/
suraj_amin--AT--yahoo.com
, May 2, 2003 0:07
Hey...
The Highlight redundant whitespaces didn't work for me....
Following are the things I added to my rc file from this tip:
" Highlighting whitespaces at end of line highlight WhitespaceEOL ctermbg=red guibg=red match WhitespaceEOL /\s\+$/
" Check for extra spaces instead of tabs at the front of the line match WhitespaceEOL /^\ \+/
" Highlight redundant whitespaces. highlight RedundantSpaces ctermbg=red guibg=red match RedundantSpaces /\s\+$\| \+\ze\t/
suraj_amin--AT--yahoo.com
, May 2, 2003 0:07
Sorry for the multiple post. Happened by mistake :(
suraj_amin--AT--yahoo.com , May 2, 2003 0:10
thanks mgedmin--AT--mail.lt
listchars was really what i was looking for whitespace lang since its better than syntax highlighting blocks
xpto_xpto--AT--sapo.pt , December 13, 2003 8:16
btw sounds the best for me set list listchars=tab:\|_,trail:.
xpto_xpto--AT--sapo.pt , December 13, 2003 8:23
Hi,
If you are using c_space_errors=1 to show the trailing spaces, be sure to use a color scheme that will display it.
I was using the Koehler color scheme and it couldn't display the trailing spaces.
- -)
Frodak
frodak17--AT--hotmail.com , October 2, 2004 9:00
To have it only match when the cursor isn't at the end of the line:
- hi WhiteSpaceEOL ctermbg=red
- match WhiteSpaceEOL /\s\+\%#\--AT--!$/
Then you don't get red appearing all the time as you type, only when your cursor moves from the line any trailing whitespaces are exposed.
n0dalus , September 13, 2005 0:57
The suggestion by n0dalus didn't seem to take effect for me; to have vim match only when the cursor isn't at the end of the line, I settled on:
match WhitespaceEOL /\s\+\%#\@<!$/
kate, September 7, 2007 14:08