Toggle between tabs and spaces

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Tip: #785 - Toggle between tabs and spaces

Created: September 9, 2004 11:01 Complexity: intermediate Author: Paul Braman Version: 6.0 Karma: 33/18 Imported from: Tip#785

I write code for a large company and often work with other developer's code. I personally don't choose to use all the language/formatting stuff in Vim, but I do like to quickly switch between using tabs and using spaces when I hit the <TAB> key (to integrate with the "current" file formatting).

Here is a snippit from my .vimrc which enables my default settings (using 4 spaces for every <TAB>) and a mapping to <F9> to toggle the settings:

" virtual tabstops using spaces 

set shiftwidth=4 

set softtabstop=4 

expandtab 

" allow toggling between local and default mode 

function TabToggle() 

if &expandtab 

set shiftwidth=8 

set softtabstop=0 

noexpandtab 

else 

set shiftwidth=4 

set softtabstop=4 

expandtab 

endif 

endfunction 

nmap <F9> mz:execute TabToggle()<CR>'z

Comments

I like this function for the same reasons as Paul, however, I encountered an error with the implementation of it which required me to make a few minor changes. The expandtab and noexpandtab were giving me errors on the Unix hosts, so I had to add the keyword "set" in front of them in three places, as shown below:

" virtual tabstops using spaces 
set shiftwidth=4 
set softtabstop=4 
set expandtab 

" allow toggling between local and default mode 
function TabToggle() 
if &expandtab 
set shiftwidth=8 
set softtabstop=0 
set noexpandtab 
else 
set shiftwidth=4 
set softtabstop=4 
set expandtab 
endif 
endfunction 
nmap <F9> mz:execute TabToggle()<CR>'z 

erymers--AT--comcast.net , September 13, 2004 7:03

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Grrr...that was just a mistake in my copying it into the Tip. My implementation has the "set" in front of them as well. Mea culpa!

Paul Braman

Anonymous , September 16, 2004 6:20

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The tip seems to me excellent !

Here is a small add_on that allows to easily change (once instead of 4 times) the local tab value. And function is changed to function! to allow local tests (:w + :so %) .

" virtual tabstops using spaces let my_tab=4 execute "set shiftwidth=".my_tab execute "set softtabstop=".my_tab set expandtab

" allow toggling between local and default mode function! TabToggle()

if &expandtab 
set shiftwidth=8 
set softtabstop=0 
set noexpandtab 
else 
execute "set shiftwidth=".my_tab 
execute "set softtabstop=".my_tab 
set expandtab 
endif 

endfunction nmap <F9> mz:execute TabToggle()<CR>'z

anonymous , October 20, 2004 9:25

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A small precision is necessary to make my "improved" version (dated 20 oct) working.

Inside the TabToggle function use two times g:my_tab (global variable) instead of my_tab.

(Sorry, I am not a specialist in vim language...). Alain Braun

Anonymous , October 21, 2004 6:20

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