*textfilter.txt* Several textfilters June 04 2009
textfilter *textfilter*
Plugin version 1.16
for Vim version 6.0 and above
Fritz Mehner <mehner.fritz@web.de>
Several text filters (mainly based on some GNU core utilities).
1. Usage |textfilter-usage-gvim|
1.1 Sort lines |textfilter-sort-lines|
1.2 Number lines |textfilter-number-lines|
1.3 Columnate list |textfilter-columnate-list|
1.4 Sequence of numbers |textfilter-seq-of-numbers|
1.5 Tabs to spaces |textfilter-tabs-to-spaces|
1.6 Spaces to tabs |textfilter-spaces-to-tabs|
1.7 Compress empty lines |textfilter-compress-lines|
1.8 Fill lines |textfilter-fill-lines|
1.9 Trim lines |textfilter-trim-lines|
1.10 Left justify |textfilter-left-justify|
1.11 Right justify |textfilter-right-justify|
1.12 Save buffer with time stamp |textfilter-add-time-stamp|
1.13 Find longest line |textfilter-find-longest-line|
1.14 Highlight text after given column |textfilter-highlight-col|
1.15 Split lines |textfilter-split-lines|
1.16 Date and time |textfilter-date-time|
2. Files |textfilter-files|
3. Dependencies / GNU core utilities |textfilter-depend|
4. Customization |textfilter-custom|
5. Release Notes |textfilter-release-notes|
How to add this help file to Vim's help |add-local-help|
Everything in this plugin could be done with a pure Vim script. The core
utilities are used because of their speed. All core utilities have additional
options. The options offered here are the most frequently used (I suppose).
A few actions could not easily be done by core utilities. Sorting for example
can use a marked region of screen columns as sort keys.
1. USAGE *textfilter-usage-gvim*
This is a GUI-only plugin mainly designed for LINUX/UNIX platforms. Most
entries have at least 2 modes:
Normal mode, insert mode: The whole file will be processed (sorted, ... ) !
If the whole file does not fit into the current
window the operation has to be confirmed.
Visual mode: The marked area will be processed.
Block visual mode: The marked block will be processed or used (only
'left justify', 'right justify' and sort).
1.1 Menu entry "sort lines" *textfilter-sort-lines*
The whole file or a marked area will be sorted. The menu entries
forwards -> reverse
alpha -> numeric
not unique -> unique
can be used to change the sorting options. The option left of -> is active.
Blockwise Visual mode. In this mode only the content of the marked area will
be used as sort keys:
apple Code-033 885
banana Code-013 3333
orange Code-003 777
^^^
+----------------- marked area (3x3)
Sorting (numeric, forward) gives
orange Code-003 777
banana Code-013 3333
apple Code-033 885
The locale information specified by the environment affects sort order. The
environment variable $LANG is read and diplayed in one menu entry. You can
toggle between this locale and 'C' to get the traditional sort order that
uses native byte values. In this case sort runs as
!env LC_ALL=C sort ...
using the env(1) utility.
1.2 Menu entry "number lines" *textfilter-number-lines*
Add line numbers to a complete file or to a marked area. The lines aaaaaaaaaa bbbbbb ccccccccccccc will look like this after line numbering: 000001 aaaaaaaaaa 000002 bbbbbb 000003 000004 ccccccccccccc The utility nl(1) is used with the option --bodynumbering=a (number all lines). The entry - number width sets the number of columns for line numbers. If the value is 0 the number of columns will be calculated from the range of the selected lines. The entry - lead.zeros -> no lead.zeros toggles the generation of leading zeros (option --number-format=rz).
1.3 Menu entry "columnate list" *textfilter-columnate-list*
The utility column(1) formats its input into multiple columns. Rows are filled before columns. Empty lines are ignored. The separating columns consist of one blank. The following 6 lines vek3 createv ( double x, double y, double z ); vek3 sxv ( double s, vek3 v ); vek3 vaddv ( vek3 a, vek3 b ); vek3 vsubv ( vek3 a, vek3 b ); double length ( vek3 a ); will be transformed into 5 lines: vek3 createv ( double x, double y, double z ); vek3 sxv ( double s, vek3 v ); vek3 vaddv ( vek3 a, vek3 b ); vek3 vsubv ( vek3 a, vek3 b ); double length ( vek3 a ); The command used is 'column -t ' . SEPARATORS. The menu entry '- separator' asks for a list of separators. The default is the empty list. With the separators ':' the lines root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/bin/bash daemon:x:2:2:Daemon:/sbin:/bin/bash will be transformed to root x 0 0 root /root /bin/bash bin x 1 1 bin /bin /bin/bash daemon x 2 2 Daemon /sbin /bin/bash The command used is 'column -t -s":" ' . The characters '%' , '#' will be escaped by the plugin.
1.4 Menu entry "sequence of numbers" *textfilter-seq-of-numbers*
Generation of lists or tables of numbers, e.g.
0 2 10 "%02d\n"
^ ^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^
| | | +------- format string (as for C printf)
| | +----------- last value
| +-------------- increment
+----------------- first value
will generate the sequence
00
02
04
06
08
10
The first three numbers will be passed to the utility seq(1) . The sequence
generated by 'seq' is piped to the utility printf(1) . The two commands are
run in a modified environment with env(1) . This is needed to prevent 'seq'
from generating floating point numbers (see below) with a separator other than
'.' (e.g ',' in German) if you want to include them in a program. The complete
command internally used looks like this:
env LANG=C seq 0 2 10 | env LANG=C xargs printf "%02d\n"
The format string after printf controls the output as in C printf (see the
manual: man 3 printf ).
The above command example appears on the Vim command line and can be edited.
The final command will be remembered and used the next time as a template. To
clear it leave the command line with ESC.
REMARK. Platform dependent escaping. *textfilter-escaping*
Inside the format string some characters ( '%' , '#') have to be escaped to
avoid getting expanded by the Vim command-line processor. This is done by the
plugin itself. On a Linux system the escape sequence is '\\' (the default). On
DOS/Windows '%' must be used. The escape character(s) can be configured with a
global variable (see also |textfilter-custom|). If needed put the following
line into your .vimrc file :
let g:Filter_Escape = '%' " Dos/Windows
1.4.1 EXAMPLE : Floating point sequence
The command
1 0.1 2 " %3.1f Section: \n"
generates 10 lines as starting points for section headings:
1.0 Section:
1.1 Section:
1.2 Section:
1.3 Section:
1.4 Section:
1.5 Section:
1.6 Section:
1.7 Section:
1.8 Section:
1.9 Section:
Note that the value 2.0 will not be reached due to a tiny inaccuracy in the
binary representation of the increment value 0.1 and the incrementing used in
'seq' !
1.4.2 EXAMPLE : hex values The command 0 8 127 "0x%02X, 0x%02X, 0x%02X, 0x%02X, \n" generates 4 lines, which could be used to initialize a C array : 0x00, 0x08, 0x10, 0x18, 0x20, 0x28, 0x30, 0x38, 0x40, 0x48, 0x50, 0x58, 0x60, 0x68, 0x70, 0x78,
1.4.3 EXAMPLE : powers of 2 The command 0 1 10 "(1<<%2d), \n" generates 11 powers of 2 ( 1 ... 1024), e.g. for an array initialization (C): (1<< 0), (1<< 1), (1<< 2), (1<< 3), (1<< 4), (1<< 5), (1<< 6), (1<< 7), (1<< 8), (1<< 9), (1<<10),
1.5 Menu entry "tabs to spaces" *textfilter-tabs-to-spaces*
Tabs will be converted to spaces. The current value of 'tabstop' is used. The option 'expandtabs' remains untouched.
1.6 Menu entry "spaces to tabs" *textfilter-spaces-to-tabs*
Spaces will be converted to tabs. The current value of 'tabstop' is used. The option 'expandtabs' remains untouched.
1.7 Menu entry "compress empty lines" *textfilter-compress-lines*
Consecutive empty lines (zero or more whitespaces) will be compresse into one empty line.
1.8 Menu entry "fill lines (spaces)" *textfilter-fill-lines*
All lines from a marked area or from the whole file will be filled with spaces up to the length of the longest line. The line ends can now be processed with block commands,
1.9 Menu entry "trim trail. whitespace" *textfilter-trim-lines*
Remove trailing whitespaces (marked area or whole file).
1.10 Menu entry "left justify" *textfilter-left-justify*
All lines from a marked area or from the whole file will be left justified.
Leading whitespaces are removed.
BLOCKWISE VISUAL MODE - only the marked block will be left justified. The
block has to be rectangular, but empty lines are allowed.
char *s = "aaaaaaaaa"; /* */
char *t = "bb"; /* */
char *u = "ccccccc; /* */
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
marked block
gives
char *s = "aaaaaaaaa"; /* */
char *t = "bb"; /* */
char *u = "ccccccc; /* */
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
left justified
Ragged lines can be filled with spaces (see "fill lines") before applying
justification.
1.11 Menu entry "right justify" *textfilter-right-justify*
All lines from a marked area or from the whole file will be right justified.
The line width is the length the longest line.
BLOCKWISE VISUAL MODE - only the marked block will be left justified. The
block has to be rectangular, but empty lines are allowed.
int a = 2; /* */
int b = 23; /* */
int c = 99999; /* */
int x = a+b+c; /* */
^^^^^^^^^
marked block
gives
int a = 2; /* */
int b = 23; /* */
int c = 99999; /* */
int x = a+b+c; /* */
^^^^^^^^^
right justified
Ragged lines can be filled with spaces (see "fill lines") before applying
justification.
If some lines above the last line do not reach the last marked column because
they are to short they will be filled with spaces (line ends marked with $):
int a = 2;$
int b = 23;$
int c = 99999;$
int x = a+b+c; /* build the sum */$
^^^^^^^^^
marked block
gives
int a = 2;$
int b = 23;$
int c = 99999;$
int x = a+b+c; /* build the sum */$
^^^^^^^^^
right justified
1.12 Save buffer with time stamp *textfilter-add-time-stamp*
Save the current buffer with a timestamp added to its name. The default time format is '%y%m%d.%H%M%S' (see the manual page of the C function strftime() for the format). To change this put a different format into the file ~/vimrc , e.g. let g:Filter_TimestampFormat= '%H%M%S.%d%m%y'
1.13 Menu entry "find longest line" *textfilter-find-longest-line*
Searches for the longest line between the cursor position and the end of the
buffer or inside a marked region. The result is shown in a message like this:
range 309-370 : longest line has number 314, length 78
(13 line(s) of equal length below)
1.14 Highlight text after given column *textfilter-highlight-col*
Asks for a column number and highlights the text after this column. This can be used to format a source file so that a given column is not exceeded (e.g. according to a style guide). All marked texts are also search patterns. Use 'n' or 'N' to jump to the next/ previous occurrence. The default column is 80. To change this specify a different value in the file ~/vimrc , e.g. let g:Filter_HighlightAfterCol = '88'
1.15 Split lines *textfilter-split-lines*
Split current line or marked lines into separate lines according to a regular expression. The default is '\s\+' , that is one or more whitespaces. The regular expression can be changed to another value with the menu entry '- split separator'.
1.16 Date and time *textfilter-date-time*
The default format for date and time are as follows
date '%x' (locale's date representation, e.g., 12/31/99)
time '%X' (locale's time representation, e.g., 23:13:48)
See the manual page of the C function strftime() for the format. The accepted
format depends on your system, thus this is not portable! The maximum length
of the result is 80 characters.
User defined formats can be set using the following global variables in
~/.vimrc , e.g.
let g:Filter_FormatDate = '%D'
let g:Filter_FormatTime = '%H:%M'
Insert mode
Date and/or time will be inserted at cursor postion. Visual mode
The marked text will be replaced by date and/or time. Normal mode
The current line will be searched for a date, time, or date+time representation corresponding to the formats used (default or user defined). If there is a match the date/time string will be replaced by the current value.
2. FILES *textfilter-files*
README.textfilter Installation hints and release notes.
doc/textfilter.txt The help file for the local online help (this file).
plugin/textfilter.vim The textfilter plugin for gVim.
3. Dependencies / GNU core utilities *textfilter-depend*
The following core utilities are used: column - columnate lists env - run a program in a modified environment (LANG=C) nl - number lines of files printf - format and print data seq - print a sequence of numbers sort - sort lines of text files xargs - build and execute command lines from standard input All of them have additional options. See the manuals for further information.
4. Customization *textfilter-custom*
A few global variables are checked by the script. They can be used to customize it:
GLOBAL VARIABLE DEFAULT VALUE MEANING
-------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
g:Filter_Escape '\\' escape sequence for the seq command
(see |textfilter-escaping|)
g:Filter_FormatDate '%x' locale's date representation
(see |textfilter-date-time|)
g:Filter_FormatTime '%X' locale's time representation
(see |textfilter-date-time|)
g:Filter_HighlightAfterCol 80 see|textfilter-highlight-col|
g:Filter_RootMenu 'F&ilter.' name of the root menu (see below)
g:Filter_LoadMenus 'yes' load menus at startup ('yes','no')
g:Filter_TimestampFormat '%y%m%d.%H%M%S' time stamp format
(see |textfilter-add-time-stamp|)
The variable g:Filter_RootMenu, if set (in .vimrc or in .gvimrc), gives the
name of the single Vim root menu entry. The default is
'F&ilter.'
Note the terminating dot. The &-sign defines the following character as menu
hotkey. The name and the hotkey can be changed to avoid conflicts with other
menu names.
5. Release Notes *textfilter-release-notes*
See file README.textfilter .
vim:tw=78:noet:ts=2:ft=help:norl:
Generated by vim2html on Do 4. Jun 17:49:02 CEST 2009