Resize window when showing/hiding line numbers

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created September 20, 2005 · complexity basic · author Craig Emery · version 5.7

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When using

:set number

to show line numbers, your column alignment can be broken. However when you're in a window that supports it, the width of the window can be changed and as long as you've got enough screen real-estate to accommodate the extra columns your column alignment can be retained.

Add this to your vimrc file:

function! Toggle_num()
  if !exists("g:grow")
    let g:grow = 8
  endif
  set number!
  if &number
    exec "set columns+=" . g:grow
  else
    exec "set columns-=" . g:grow
  endif
endfunction
map <M-n> :call Toggle_num()<CR>

So each time you use META-n, line numbers will be toggled and the appropriate number of columns will be added or removed from your vim window.

Comments

As of Vim 7.0, it's possible to change the line number column width using the numberwidth option. Of course, it doesn't really make sense now to always grow/shrink by 8 if numberwidth is set to, say, 4. So, an easy fix would be to change the line:

let g:grow = 8

into:

let g:grow = &numberwidth

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