How can I change the indent size?

Question

I just discovered I could indent and un-indent easily in Vi with : << and >>

By default it adds a tab character. Now I'm wondering, could this be to a number of spaces via a configuration in my .vimrc? And how should I do it?

score 72 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '16 at 09:17

Several settings controls the behavior:

First set expandtab allows to replace the tabs by white spaces characters :h 'expandtab'.

Then set shiftwidth=4 makes the tabulations be 4 white spaces :h 'shiftwidth'.

You could also be interested by by :h 'tabstop' which defines the number of spaces that a tab character in the file counts for.

As a bonus see :h 'smartindent' and :h 'autoindent' which are pretty useful.

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 11 '23 at 12:35

26

In fact, aside from other answers, it is also possible to use autoindent (to automatically indent newlines) and smartindent (which works with C-like braces languages less strictly than cindent). Then the shiftwidth I wanted was 2.

I modified my $HOME/.vimrc like this:

:set shiftwidth=2
:set autoindent
:set smartindent

edited Apr 11 '23 at 12:35

D. Ben Knoble

26,070
3
29
65

answered May 27 '16 at 09:40

J. Chomel

1,106
1
11
20

8

also :set tabstop=2 – Straff Nov 02 '18 at 20:11
1

I think it would be really helpful to add more explanations as to what the different lines do – Vic Seedoubleyew Apr 09 '20 at 15:23
@J.Chomel https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/300837/what-comment-should-i-add-to-code-only-answers – Vic Seedoubleyew Apr 12 '20 at 12:05
1

@J.Chomel actually none of the other answers here explain what autoindent or smartindent do. I think that even if that was the case, either your answer is a comment, in which case it can exempt itself from explanation, or it's a full blown answer, in which case it should not be code only if it's not self-explanatory – Vic Seedoubleyew Apr 12 '20 at 12:06
@VicSeedoubleyew, I guess you know more... Bravo – J. Chomel Apr 14 '20 at 05:10
1

@J.Chomel I am just trying to make it easier for everyone to learn. Good job on editing your answer, I think it is way more helpful now – Vic Seedoubleyew Apr 15 '20 at 09:01

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 10 '16 at 17:44

6

Yes.

You can set shiftwidth to any number of spaces. This works both in vi and vim.

:set shiftwidth=2

Now, the width shifted for each >> and << will be 2.

edited Jun 10 '16 at 17:44

nobe4

16,033
4
48
81

answered May 27 '16 at 09:12

SibiCoder

3,372
5
20
40

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 10 '21 at 13:45

3

press esc then v to get into visual mode
select the lines which you want to modify the indents
and then press =

edited Feb 10 '21 at 13:45

D. Ben Knoble

26,070
3
29
65

answered Feb 10 '21 at 11:28

Shiqi Lyu

31
1

4

Welcome to [vi.se]! This doesn't affect tabs vs spaces; it simply re-indents the lines. And visual mode is not strictly necessary, given that = is an operator. – D. Ben Knoble Feb 10 '21 at 13:46
1

+1 doing that changed the indent size of my existing code and that is what the title asks, so thanks. @D.BenKnoble the = worked as it should in visual mode, and in non visual mode is ignored in place of the + which adds a line above. Not sure what you mean. – geedoubleya Feb 25 '21 at 17:59

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 21 '19 at 19:41

1

touch ~/.vimrc
echo "set ts=4 sw=4" >> ~/.vimrc

Shorthand for J.Chomel's answer.
touch will create the file .vimrc in your home directory if it doesn't exists yet
Next, append tabstop and shiftwidth with your preferences to the .vimrc file.

answered Aug 21 '19 at 19:41

aerijman

161
4

8

Note that it is considered a best practice to use options long name in your vimrc (i.e. tabstop and shiftwidth) it is usually more readable and since your don't need to type them that often in your config file there is not much gain to use short names. – statox Aug 22 '19 at 07:18

How can I change the indent size?

5 Answers5

Linked

Related