Open split window at far left

Question

I use :vs to open a window. If I want this window to be the leftmost window, no matter what the currently active window is, how can I do it?

You cannot really change the behavior of :vs to do what you want. I myself just do <C-w>v<C-w>H. But more single-minded way would be :vert topleft split — 3N4N, Aug 24 '19 at 11:32
@klaus This is an answer, please turn it into one. You can use :topleft :vsplit, no need to switch to :vert. Also <C-w>H on its own after :vs, no need to switch to <C-w>v for that to work either. But it's still an answer, please post it as such. — filbranden, Aug 24 '19 at 15:44
@filbranden, thanks. I posted an answer, including your suggestions. I actually didn't know :topleft was a {cmd} modifier, maybe cause it is only and specifically useful for splitting windows; and I personally do that with keybindings, not commands. That's why I suggested <C-w>v instead of :vs: it wasn't an answer and I was talking about my personal workflow. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, and please, if you have time, check if the answer is correct. — 3N4N, Aug 24 '19 at 16:26
@klaus Yes it was good. I edited it to remove the references to :vert (that's not really relevant here), rephrased it a little bit and added links to the help pages. Let me know if you disagree with any of the edits. Thanks for answering! — filbranden, Aug 24 '19 at 16:53

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 24 '19 at 16:51

You can use a couple of methods to achieve the same end result as your request.

You can just open a vertical split and then move it to leftmost position using Controlw + ShiftH (note that the "h" is uppercase.) See :help CTRL-W_H for more information.
You can use :topleft to modify your :vs command to open the window in the leftmost position. You can use the following command for that:
```
:topleft vs
```

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '23 at 22:44

This is for the far right, but same idea.

function! CloseVspIfNeed()
    "let x = tabpagebuflist()
    "if len(x)==1
    "vsp
    "endif
    for k in getwininfo()
        if k['winrow']<=2 && k['wincol']>1
            "look no further
            let id=k['winid']
            call win_gotoid(id)
            :close
        endif
    endfor
endfunction

You might want to do :

set splitright
call CloseVspIfNeed()
vnew

to replace the window at the far right with new one.

Open split window at far left

2 Answers2