Quick reference of current function

Duplicate tip

This tip is very similar to the following:

• VimTip945
• VimTip1267
• VimTip1296
• VimTip1454

These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.

Tip 1087 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2005 · complexity intermediate · author TonyLiu · version 6.0

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This tip is useful for a programmer who always wants to know what function they are in, and what parameters the current function has.

To avoid the "Hit ENTER or type command to continue" message, I suggest that you'd better set your command line height to 2 or more, because many function definitions have a long width.

Add this to your vimrc:

:set cmdheight=2
nmap _F :call CurrentFunc()<CR>
" side effect: register k and mark k will be changed

func! CurrentFunc()
  exec "normal mk"
  " c-type code have remarkable definitions from other OO code.
  let l:extension = expand("%:e")
  if l:extension == "c"
    exec "normal ][%b%b"
  else
    exec "?private\\|public\\|protected\\|procedure\\|function\\s\\+\.*("
  endif
  "TODO: maybe you need to open your closed fold at first
  exec "normal v$\"ky`k"
  exec "echo @k"
endfunc " CurrentFunc

Now, when you are editing a file, exit to normal mode, and type _F to see which is the current function.

If you want to know or add some parameters followed by the definition, just type CTRL-O (<C-O>) to jump to the definition, and type `k can jump back.

.cs, .pas, .c, .sql filetype is supported with this trick.

Related plugins

• Taglist not only highlights the current function in a sidebar, but allows you to jump to the various tags in this sidebar
• StlShowFunc: Showing Functions in the Status Line. Works with several languages, doesn't rely on tags.

Comments

There is an alternative method to jump to the function definition. See if you like this:

If your C/C++ code is coded in Kernighan Richie style of indenting, that is if the open brace '{' of the function is starting at the first column of the C file, you can traverse to all functions of that file by pressing {{ and }} keys.

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I suggest you add

  if l:extension == "c" || l:extension == "cpp"

because in Cpp code public/private is not used in function definition so standard C method of obtaining header should be used.

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Good idea. There are a couple of things to point out though:

1. The tip above does not work well with non-Kernighan Richie indenting
2. The tip will always display the function declaration even if the cursor is outside of the function

The function below remedies both of these problems.

"function declaration preview (double-backslash with default <Leader>)
nmap <Leader><Leader> :cal FuncPreview()<CR>
function FuncPreview()
  let opening = search("^\\S.*)\\s*\\\(\\n\\\)\\={","bn")
  let closing = search("^}","bn")
  if opening > closing
    echo getline(opening)
  else
    echo ""
  endif
endfunction

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You could try also my script#1429, which makes the same thing. I tested it with C.

It seems that (like mine) also your tips have problems with unmatched {} in comments.

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