Replace tabs with spaces in vim

Question

I would like to convert tab to spaces in gVim  I added the following line to my  vimrc   set tabstop 2   It works to stop at two spaces but it still looks like one tab key is inserted  I tried to use the h key to count spaces afterwards    I m not sure what should I do to make gVim convert tabs to spaces

User · Answer

first search for tabs in your file     I  set expandtab  retab  will work

User · Answer

Try  set expandtab   for soft tabs   To fix pre-existing tabs     s  t    g   I used two spaces since you already set your tabstop to 2 spaces

User · Answer

first search for tabs in your file     I  set expandtab  retab  will work

User · Answer

expand is a unix utility to convert tabs to spaces  If you do not want to set anything in vim  you can use a shell command from vim       expand -t8

User · Answer

Add following lines to your  vimrc  set expandtab set tabstop 4 set shiftwidth 4 map  lt F2 gt   retab  lt CR gt   wq   lt CR gt    Open a file in vim and press F2 The tabs will be converted to 4 spaces and file will be saved automatically

User · Answer

gg G will reindent the entire file and removes most if not all the tabs I get in files from co-workers

User · Answer

gg G will reindent the entire file and removes most if not all the tabs I get in files from co-workers

User · Answer

This worked for me   you can see tabs with first doing this    set list   then to make it possible to replace tabs then do this    set expandtab   then    retab   now all tabs have been replaced with spaces  you can then go back to normal viewing like this     set nolist

User · Answer

IIRC  something like  set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab  should do the trick  If you already have tabs  then follow it up with a nice global RE to replace them with double spaces  If you already have tabs you want to replace   retab

User · Answer

IIRC  something like  set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab  should do the trick  If you already have tabs  then follow it up with a nice global RE to replace them with double spaces  If you already have tabs you want to replace   retab

User · Answer

If you want to keep your  t equal to 8 spaces then consider setting      set softtabstop 2 tabstop 8 shiftwidth 2   This will give you two spaces per  lt TAB gt  press  but actual  t in your code will still be viewed as 8 characters

User · Answer

Once you ve got expandtab on as per the other answers  the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is    retab   It will work on the current buffer

User · Answer

Try  set expandtab   for soft tabs   To fix pre-existing tabs     s  t    g   I used two spaces since you already set your tabstop to 2 spaces

User · Answer

This got it working for me    set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab   retab

User · Answer

Try  set expandtab   for soft tabs   To fix pre-existing tabs     s  t    g   I used two spaces since you already set your tabstop to 2 spaces

User · Answer

This article has an excellent vimrc script for handling tabs spaces  and converting in between them   These commands are provided  Space2Tab  Convert spaces to tabs  only in indents  Tab2Space  Convert tabs to spaces  only in indents  RetabIndent    Execute Space2Tab  if  expandtab  is set   or Tab2Space  otherwise   Each command accepts an argument that specifies the number of spaces in a tab column  By default  the  tabstop  setting is used   Source  http   vim wikia com wiki Super retab Script  quot  Return indent  all whitespace at start of a line   converted from  quot  tabs to spaces if what   1  or from spaces to tabs otherwise   quot  When converting to tabs  result has no redundant spaces  function  Indenting indent  what  cols    let spccol   repeat      a cols    let result   substitute a indent  spccol    t    g     let result   substitute result       ze t        g     if a what    1     let result   substitute result    t   spccol   g     endif   return result endfunction   quot  Convert whitespace used for indenting  before first non-whitespace    quot  what   0  convert spaces to tabs   or 1  convert tabs to spaces    quot  cols   string with number of columns per tab  or empty to use  tabstop    quot  The cursor position is restored  but the cursor will be in a different  quot  column when the number of characters in the indent of the line is changed  function  IndentConvert line1  line2  what  cols    let savepos   getpos        let cols   empty a cols     amp tabstop   a cols   execute a line1         a line2    s   s     Indenting submatch 0   a what  cols  e    call histdel  search   -1    call setpos      savepos  endfunction  command  -nargs   -range   Space2Tab call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt  0  lt q-args gt   command  -nargs   -range   Tab2Space call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt  1  lt q-args gt   command  -nargs   -range   RetabIndent call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt   amp et  lt q-args gt    This helped me a bit more than the answers here did when I first went searching for a solution

User · Answer

Once you ve got expandtab on as per the other answers  the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is    retab   It will work on the current buffer

User · Answer

This article has an excellent vimrc script for handling tabs spaces  and converting in between them   These commands are provided  Space2Tab  Convert spaces to tabs  only in indents  Tab2Space  Convert tabs to spaces  only in indents  RetabIndent    Execute Space2Tab  if  expandtab  is set   or Tab2Space  otherwise   Each command accepts an argument that specifies the number of spaces in a tab column  By default  the  tabstop  setting is used   Source  http   vim wikia com wiki Super retab Script  quot  Return indent  all whitespace at start of a line   converted from  quot  tabs to spaces if what   1  or from spaces to tabs otherwise   quot  When converting to tabs  result has no redundant spaces  function  Indenting indent  what  cols    let spccol   repeat      a cols    let result   substitute a indent  spccol    t    g     let result   substitute result       ze t        g     if a what    1     let result   substitute result    t   spccol   g     endif   return result endfunction   quot  Convert whitespace used for indenting  before first non-whitespace    quot  what   0  convert spaces to tabs   or 1  convert tabs to spaces    quot  cols   string with number of columns per tab  or empty to use  tabstop    quot  The cursor position is restored  but the cursor will be in a different  quot  column when the number of characters in the indent of the line is changed  function  IndentConvert line1  line2  what  cols    let savepos   getpos        let cols   empty a cols     amp tabstop   a cols   execute a line1         a line2    s   s     Indenting submatch 0   a what  cols  e    call histdel  search   -1    call setpos      savepos  endfunction  command  -nargs   -range   Space2Tab call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt  0  lt q-args gt   command  -nargs   -range   Tab2Space call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt  1  lt q-args gt   command  -nargs   -range   RetabIndent call IndentConvert  lt line1 gt   lt line2 gt   amp et  lt q-args gt    This helped me a bit more than the answers here did when I first went searching for a solution

User · Answer

This got it working for me    set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab   retab

User · Answer

IIRC  something like  set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab  should do the trick  If you already have tabs  then follow it up with a nice global RE to replace them with double spaces  If you already have tabs you want to replace   retab

User · Answer

IIRC  something like  set tabstop 2 shiftwidth 2 expandtab  should do the trick  If you already have tabs  then follow it up with a nice global RE to replace them with double spaces  If you already have tabs you want to replace   retab

User · Answer

expand is a unix utility to convert tabs to spaces  If you do not want to set anything in vim  you can use a shell command from vim       expand -t8

User · Answer

Add following lines to your  vimrc  set expandtab set tabstop 4 set shiftwidth 4 map  lt F2 gt   retab  lt CR gt   wq   lt CR gt    Open a file in vim and press F2 The tabs will be converted to 4 spaces and file will be saved automatically

User · Answer

Try  set expandtab   for soft tabs   To fix pre-existing tabs     s  t    g   I used two spaces since you already set your tabstop to 2 spaces

User · Answer

Once you ve got expandtab on as per the other answers  the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is    retab   It will work on the current buffer

User · Answer

If you want to keep your  t equal to 8 spaces then consider setting      set softtabstop 2 tabstop 8 shiftwidth 2   This will give you two spaces per  lt TAB gt  press  but actual  t in your code will still be viewed as 8 characters

User · Answer

Once you ve got expandtab on as per the other answers  the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is    retab   It will work on the current buffer

User · Answer

This worked for me   you can see tabs with first doing this    set list   then to make it possible to replace tabs then do this    set expandtab   then    retab   now all tabs have been replaced with spaces  you can then go back to normal viewing like this     set nolist

[vim] Replace tabs with spaces in vim

Examples related to vim

Examples related to vi