Vim templates, get filename and use it

Question

I am writing a rudimentary Vim template for Java files that creates a bare skeleton class when I create a new file with the .java extension.

Example:

vim Banana.java

Vim creates a file including code like this:

public class TODO {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
    // ...

My objective is to change my default class name, TODO, to the name of the file without the extension so that:

vim Coconut.java

creates:

public class Coconut {

rather than:

public class TODO {

How can I achieve that, please? I have searched the site and there are scripts that extract the name in a variable and perform :substitute in the right place, but I don't know how to locate the right place and position the filename there.

I read my template files by extension from my .vimrc:

autocmd BufNewFile * silent! 0r $HOME/vimfiles/templates/%:e.vim_template

or:

autocmd BufNewFile * silent! 0r $HOME/.vim/templates/%:e.vim_template

Thanks!

Wolph · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-02T01:56:13.177

4

I believe that this might help? http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Insert_current_filename

With this you can get the current filename:

expand("%:t:r")

Specifically, you are probably looking for this:

%s/TODO/\=expand("%:t:r")/g

A full example:

function! NewFile()
    silent! 0r $HOME/vimfiles/templates/%:e.vim_template
    s/FILENAME/\=expand("%:t:r")
endfunction

autocmd BufNewFile * call NewFile()

You could also give something like tSkeleton a try, I've never tried myself but it seems to solve this problem for you.

edited Sep 02 '12 at 01:56

answered Sep 02 '12 at 00:18

Wolph

78,177
11
137
148

Thanks! Where would I put all of this into my .vimrc file? Could you package it in a way that I could just use it "as is"? Should it be an :au straight after the templates one? – Robottinosino Sep 02 '12 at 00:23

Kris Jenkins · Answer 2 · 2012-09-02T17:17:43.160

I'd take a look at snipmate (vim.org, github). It's a generic extension for boilerplate code, comes with a number of built-in recipes for Java (which you can browse here to get a feel for it), and is ideal for this kind of stuff.

With it, you can type in a keyword, hit tab, and have the keyword expanded into your boilerplate code. So you could type stdclass-> and get what you're asking for.

The snippet can have vim expressions embedded (like Filename()); you can tab through important points in the expanded code, and it's useful for smaller snippets too (like getters & setters, try/catch/finally, toString, etc.)

It's easy to use, easy to customize, and in a boilerplate-heavy language like Java, it's a godsend.

Vim templates, get filename and use it

2 Answers2