CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
roqvist
roqvist

Reputation: 337

Check if a selection exists in vimscript

I want to write a function in that echoes the selected text or, if no text is selected, the entire buffer.

How can I distinguish between these two cases?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 716

Answers (3)

Hongbo Liu
Hongbo Liu

Reputation: 3064

Could use line("'<") > 0 to check whether the selection mark exists.

Upvotes: 0

kev
kev

Reputation: 161694

I write a function to get visually selected text. I hope it can help you.

function! GetSelected()

    " save reg
    let reg = '"'
    let reg_save = getreg(reg)
    let reg_type = getregtype(reg)

    " yank visually selected text
    silent exe 'norm! gv"'.reg.'y'
    let value = getreg(reg)

    " restore reg
    call setreg(reg,reg_save,reg_type)

    return value

endfun

" viusal map
vnoremap gs :<C-U>echo GetSelected()<CR>

" normal map
nnoremap gs :<C-U>echo join(getline(1, '$'), "\n")<CR>

Upvotes: 1

Ingo Karkat
Ingo Karkat

Reputation: 172590

Define two mappings, an :nmap using the entire buffer, and a :vmap for the selected text. Both can invoke the same function, passing an isVisual boolean flag or a mode argument.

Anything else (custom commands, direct function :call) would require an explicit hint, because in order to invoke them, visual mode as already been left (for command-line mode). You also cannot use the '<,'> marks for the detection, because they will keep the last selection even after it has been removed.

Upvotes: 4

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