Automatically insert a matching brace in Vim

Question

I spend way too much time fumbling around because Vim doesn\'t handle closing braces like most IDEs do. Here\'s what I want to happen:

Type this:

Answer 1

Here is what I have in my vimrc:

let s:pairs={
            \'<': '>',
            \'{': '}',
            \'[': ']',
            \'(': ')',
            \'«': '»',
            \'„': '“',
            \'“': '”',
            \'‘': '’',
        \}
call map(copy(s:pairs), 'extend(s:pairs, {v:val : v:key}, "keep")')
function! InsertPair(left, ...)
    let rlist=reverse(map(split(a:left, '\zs'), 'get(s:pairs, v:val, v:val)'))
    let opts=get(a:000, 0, {})
    let start   = get(opts, 'start',   '')
    let lmiddle = get(opts, 'lmiddle', '')
    let rmiddle = get(opts, 'rmiddle', '')
    let end     = get(opts, 'end',     '')
    let prefix  = get(opts, 'prefix',  '')
    let start.=prefix
    let rmiddle.=prefix
    let left=start.a:left.lmiddle
    let right=rmiddle.join(rlist, '').end
    let moves=repeat("\<Left>", len(split(right, '\zs')))
    return left.right.moves
endfunction
 noremap! <expr> ,f   InsertPair('{')
 noremap! <expr> ,h   InsertPair('[')
 noremap! <expr> ,s   InsertPair('(')
 noremap! <expr> ,u   InsertPair('<')

And, for some filetypes:

inoremap {<CR> {<C-o>o}<C-o>O

// I know that InsertPair function is trivial, but it saves time because with it I can define both command and normal mode mappings with one command without having to write lots of <Left>s.

Answer 2

Vim patch 7.4.849 added a binding to allow for cursor movements without restarting the undo sequence. Once updated to >= 7.4.849 then something like this works great.

inoremap ( ()<C-G>U<Left>

Note that I grabbed that straight from the documentation included in the patch. Best simple solution for this feature yet.

• commit for patch 7.4.849: https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/8b5f65a527c353b9942e362e719687c3a7592309
• mailing list thread: http://vim.1045645.n5.nabble.com/Any-automatic-bracket-insertion-plugins-not-breaking-undo-td5723654.html

Answer 3

inoremap ( ()<ESC>i
inoremap " ""<ESC>i
inoremap ' ''<ESC>i
inoremap { {<Cr>}<Esc>O

Answer 4

Install and use Vim script AutoClose as recommended in the article titled Automatically append closing characters.

Answer 5

Just a note to @Bob.

Karl Guertin's AutoClose has a function named ``double brace'', that is, you can type curly brace twice, as below.

int func_name(void) {{ ==> Type `{' twice here.

would result in:

int func_name(void) {
| ==> Cursor here.
}

Then, you can type a single Tab, to get indented according to your `shiftwidth' setting, then type.

Answer 6

If you type {} and hit alti you will be in between the braces in INSERT mode (at least in a terminal). Then you can hit ENTER followed by altshifto to insert the line break. You could also just do {<CR>} and altshifto.

This may not be fully automatic, but I consider it semi-auto. It removes the need for more plugins, and is useful info to know for other use cases. For example, I use altshifto all the time to insert blank lines without having to explicitly leave INSERT mode, and alti for getting inside () etc.