Changes: Whitespace hungry backspace/delete

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Tip 1046 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2005 · complexity basic · author brailsmt · version 6.0

I think I figured out a good whitespace hungry delete.

imap <BS> <Esc>d?\S?e1<CR>i

It deletes from the cursor position backwards in the file until it finds the first non-whitespace character, and then changes the match end offset to avoid deleting that non-whitespace char.

Comments[]

Can you make one that will delete (or backspace) in tab-space chunks?

I use soft-tabs so it would be nice to be able to backspace over 4 whitespaces at a time (if they exist).

Unfortunately that doesn't faithfully reproduce <BS> under all circumstances. Try something like this (still not perfect).

function! HungryBackspaceWrapper()
  let column = col('.')
  if column == 1
    return "\<Esc>kJxi"
  elseif column >= 2 && getline('.')[column - 2] =~ '\S'
    return "\<BS>"
  else
    return "\<Esc>d?\\S?e1\<CR>i"
  endif
endfunction
inoremap <silent> <BS> <c-r>=HungryBackSpaceWrapper()<CR>

Are you sure you don't want to set backspace=indent,eol,start

Yeah, that seems to only work if the indentations have been automatically inserted. Example, I can type 8 spaces at the beginning of a line and hit backspace, it will only delete one space.

Also, this will not work for removing "tabs" in the middle or end of lines.

Why not use

vgeld

v - visual,
ge - backward to the end of the Nth word
l - move right
d - delete.

It doesn't span blank lines.

set softtabstop=4 helps. Not sure whether set smarttab is also necessary to make bs delete 4 Spaces

It seems like it is.

Was looking for something like this, because whenever I paste code with the middle mouse button, the tab's get converted to 8x space's. Figured out a regex switch that works for me

 :%s/\s\{8\}/\t/g

Change "%" to "." to work only on the current line, may remove "g" if all your 8x spaces are at line beginnings.

It would be better to use the :retab command. See Super retab. JohnBeckett 07:56, June 22, 2011 (UTC)

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 |previous=1045
 |next=1048
-|created=November 15, 2005
+|created=2005
 |complexity=basic
 |author=brailsmt
-|version=5.7
+|version=6.0
 |rating=1/9
 |category1=
@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 I think I figured out a good whitespace hungry delete.
 <pre>
-imap &lt;bs&gt; &lt;esc&gt;d?\S?e1&lt;cr&gt;i
+imap <BS> <Esc>d?\S?e1<CR>i
 </pre>
@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 ----
-Unfortunately that doesn't faithfully reproduce &lt;bs&gt; under all circumstances. Try something like this (still not perfect).
+Unfortunately that doesn't faithfully reproduce <BS> under all circumstances. Try something like this (still not perfect).
 <pre>
 function! HungryBackspaceWrapper()
   let column = col('.')
   if column == 1
-    return "\&lt;esc&gt;kJxi"
+    return "\<Esc>kJxi"
-  elseif column &gt;= 2 &amp;&amp; getline('.')[column - 2] =~ '\S'
+  elseif column >= 2 && getline('.')[column - 2] =~ '\S'
-    return "\&lt;bs&gt;"
+    return "\<BS>"
   else
-    return "\&lt;Esc&gt;d?\\S?e1\&lt;CR&gt;i"
+    return "\<Esc>d?\\S?e1\<CR>i"
   endif
 endfunction
-inoremap &lt;silent&gt; &lt;bs&gt; &lt;c-r&gt;=HungryBackSpaceWrapper()&lt;cr&gt;
+inoremap <silent> <BS> <c-r>=HungryBackSpaceWrapper()<CR>
 </pre>
 ----
-Are you sure you don't want to <tt>set backspace=indent,eol,start</tt>
+Are you sure you don't want to <code>set backspace=indent,eol,start</code>
 ----
@@ Line 66: / Line 65: @@
 ----
-set softtabstop=4 helps. Not sure whether set smarttab is also nessessary to make bs delete 4 Spaces
+set softtabstop=4 helps. Not sure whether set smarttab is also necessary to make bs delete 4 Spaces
+----
+It seems like it is.
+----
+Was looking for something like this, because whenever I paste code with the middle mouse button, the tab's get converted to 8x space's. Figured out a regex switch that works for me
+<pre> :%s/\s\{8\}/\t/g </pre>
+Change "%" to "." to work only on the current line, may remove "g" if all your 8x spaces are at line beginnings.
+:It would be better to use the <code>:retab</code> command. See [[Super retab]]. [[User:JohnBeckett|JohnBeckett]] 07:56, June 22, 2011 (UTC)