Why TAB inside VIM moves one space after exactly three-long characters words?

Question

After one-character length word or more than three-length characters word there TAB moves exactly 4 spaces. My .vimrc configuration file is it as it follows.

syntax on

" number of spaces moved along by pressing >>, << or ==
set shiftwidth=4

" number of spaces moved along by pressing the <TAB> or <BS> key
set softtabstop=4

set expandtab

The tabstop configuration value is set to default, 8. I was expecting that TAB will move forward 4 spaces no matter what.

Also you do not show the value of `tabstop`. Is it set to the default (8)? — Dan Lowe, Jul 06 '17 at 14:02
It happens with me as well and my `tabstop` is set to default(8) — dlmeetei, Jul 06 '17 at 14:14

Gus Brocchini · Answer 1 · 2017-07-07T16:46:47.267

2

When indenting, vim inserts however many spaces it needs to get to the next multiple of shiftwidth.

In your case, shiftwidth=4, so vim inserts spaces until it gets to column 4: only one space.

If you want vim to instead blindly insert four spaces no matter what, try the following in your vimrc:

inoremap <TAB> <space><space><space><space>

That will make vim insert 4 spaces.

edited Jul 07 '17 at 16:46

answered Jul 07 '17 at 00:12

Gus Brocchini

67
5

2

Actually that will insert 7 spaces, because there are 3 spaces in between the `` references... – Dan Lowe Jul 07 '17 at 04:23

Why TAB inside VIM moves one space after exactly three-long characters words?

1 Answers1