Vim User Manual: Inserting Quickly

============================================================================== *24.2* Showing matches When you type a ) it would be nice to see with which ( it matches. To make Vim do that use this command: > :set showmatch When you now type a text like "(example)", as soon as you type the ) Vim will briefly move the cursor to the matching (, keep it there for half a second, and move back to where you were typing. In case there is no matching (, Vim will beep. Then you know that you might have forgotten the ( somewhere, or typed a ) too many. The match will also be shown for [] and {} pairs. You don't have to wait with typing the next character, as soon as Vim sees it the cursor will move back and inserting continues as before. You can change the time Vim waits with the 'matchtime' option. For example, to make Vim wait one and a half second: > :set matchtime=15 The time is specified in tenths of a second. ============================================================================== *24.3* Completion Vim can automatically complete words on insertion. You type the first part of a word, press CTRL-P, and Vim guesses the rest. Suppose, for example, that you are creating a C program and want to type in the following: total = ch_array[0] + ch_array[1] + ch_array[2]; ~ You start by entering the following: total = ch_array[0] + ch_ ~ At this point, you tell Vim to complete the word using the command CTRL-P. Vim searches for a word that starts with what's in front of the cursor. In this case, it is "ch_", which matches with the word ch_array. So typing CTRL-P gives you the following: total = ch_array[0] + ch_array ~ After a little more typing, you get this (ending in a space): total = ch_array[0] + ch_array[1] + ~ If you now type CTRL-P Vim will search again for a word that completes the word before the cursor. Since there is nothing in front of the cursor, it finds the first word backwards, which is "ch_array". Typing CTRL-P again gives you the next word that matches, in this case "total". A third CTRL-P searches further back. If there is nothing else, it causes the editor to run out of words, so it returns to the original text, which is nothing. A fourth CTRL-P causes the editor to start over again with "ch_array". To search forward, use CTRL-N. Since the search wraps around the end of the file, CTRL-N and CTRL-P will find the same matches, but in a different sequence. Hint: CTRL-N is Next-match and CTRL-P is Previous-match. The Vim editor goes through a lot of effort to find words to complete. By default, it searches the following places: 1. Current file 2. Files in other windows 3. Other loaded files (hidden buffers) 4. Files which are not loaded (inactive buffers) 5. Tag files 6. All files #included by the current file OPTIONS You can customize the search order with the 'complete' option. The 'ignorecase' option is used. When it is set, case differences are ignored when searching for matches. A special option for completion is 'infercase'. This is useful to find matches while ignoring case ('ignorecase' must be set) but still using the case of the word typed so far. Thus if you type "For" and Vim finds a match "fortunately", it will result in "Fortunately". COMPLETING SPECIFIC ITEMS If you know what you are looking for, you can use these commands to complete with a certain type of item: CTRL-X CTRL-F file names CTRL-X CTRL-L whole lines CTRL-X CTRL-D macro definitions (also in included files) CTRL-X CTRL-I current and included files CTRL-X CTRL-K words from a dictionary CTRL-X CTRL-R contents from registers CTRL-X CTRL-T words from a thesaurus CTRL-X CTRL-] tags CTRL-X CTRL-V Vim command line After each of them CTRL-N can be used to find the next match, CTRL-P to find the previous match. More information for each of these commands here: |ins-completion|. COMPLETING FILE NAMES Let's take CTRL-X CTRL-F as an example. This will find file

This section describes Vim's auto-completion feature using CTRL-P (previous match) and CTRL-N (next match) to complete words found in various locations including the current file, other windows, loaded/unloaded files, tag files, and included files. It also covers customizing the search order with the 'complete' option and using 'infercase' to match case while ignoring it initially. Finally, it lists various CTRL-X commands for completing specific items like filenames, lines, macro definitions, dictionary words, registers, thesaurus words, tags, and Vim command lines.