How to insert tab character when expandtab option is on in Vim

Question

When I m in insert mode and I have the expandtab option switched on  pressing Tab   results in inserting the configured number of spaces   But occasionally I want to insert an actual tab character   Do you know how to do this

User · Accepted Answer

You can use  lt CTRL-V gt  lt Tab gt  in  insert mode   In insert mode   lt CTRL-V gt  inserts a literal copy of your next character   If you need to do this often   Dee Kej suggested  in the comments  setting Shift Tab to insert a real tab with this mapping    inoremap  lt S-Tab gt   lt C-V gt  lt Tab gt    Also  as noted by  feedbackloop  on Windows you may need to press  lt CTRL-Q gt  rather than  lt CTRL-V gt

User · Answer

From the documentation on expandtab      To insert a real tab when expandtab is on  use CTRL-V lt Tab gt   See also  retab and ins-expandtab    This option is reset when the paste   option is set and restored when the paste option is reset    So if you have a mapping for toggling the paste option  e g   set pastetoggle  lt F2 gt    you could also do  lt F2 gt Tab lt F2 gt

User · Answer

You can disable expandtab option from within Vim as below    set expandtab    or   set noet   PS  And set it back when you are done with inserting tab  with  set expandtab  or  set et   PS  If you have tab set equivalent to 4 spaces in  vimrc  softtabstop   you may also like to set it to 8 spaces in order to be able to insert a tab by pressing tab key once instead of twice  set softtabstop 8

[vim] How to insert tab character when expandtab option is on in Vim

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