CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Sander Marechal
Sander Marechal

Reputation: 23216

Vim: How to write a function that searches the current buffer?

I am trying to write a function in Vim that searches the current buffer for a certain pattern and returns it. But, I'm failing horribly. Basically, what I want is a function that returns the (PHP) namespace of the file I am working in. The namespace is defined in the file itself:

namespace Foo\Bar;

What I would like is a function that returns the Foo\Bar part as a string. I.e. something that searches like /namespace\s\([^;]\+\) and returns the first submatch.

Edit: Here's the function I build thanks to the help I got:

func! PhpNamespace()
    let l:lnr = 0
    while l:lnr < line('$')
        let l:str = matchstr(getline(l:lnr), '^\s*namespace\s\+[^;]\+')
        if len(l:str)
            return substitute(l:str, '^\s*namespace\s\+', '', '')
        endif
        let l:lnr = l:lnr + 1
    endwhile

    return ''
endfunc

Upvotes: 1

Views: 786

Answers (1)

Ingo Karkat
Ingo Karkat

Reputation: 172768

One option is to use searchpos(), which gets you the start position; you then need to extract the text yourself. This is fast and easy, especially if you need to search forward / backward from the cursor position. With the 'n' flag, the cursor position will not change. Otherwise, you have to save and restore the cursor position (getpos('.'), setpos('.', saved_cursor)).

For your problem, it looks like the namespace declaration is likely at the beginning of the file, and is limited to a single line. Then, you could also get individual lines with getline(lnum) in a loop and extract the text with matchstr(), and break out of the loop once you have it.

Upvotes: 4

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