For example, if I'm coding jQuery in vim, and I have this in insert mode ("|" is the current cursor position):

$('#something').click(function(){|})

...and I hit enter, I would like to get this:

$('#something').click(function(){
    |
})

...while currently, I'm getting this:

$('#something').click(function(){
|})

The same thing happens with function definitions in PHP. Is there a way to automatically insert the extra new line and indent the cursor position when hitting enter inside braces like that?

(Apologies if this has been asked before - it seems like a common request but I searched for awhile and couldn't find it.)

For example, if I'm coding jQuery in vim, and I have this in insert mode ("|" is the current cursor position):

$('#something').click(function(){|})

...and I hit enter, I would like to get this:

$('#something').click(function(){
    |
})

...while currently, I'm getting this:

$('#something').click(function(){
|})

The same thing happens with function definitions in PHP. Is there a way to automatically insert the extra new line and indent the cursor position when hitting enter inside braces like that?

(Apologies if this has been asked before - it seems like a common request but I searched for awhile and couldn't find it.)

• javascript
• vim
• indentation

4 Answers 4

I ended up just hardcoding this into .vimrc, as follows

" Make it so that a curly brace automatically inserts an indented line
inoremap {<CR> {<CR>}<Esc>O<BS><Tab>

It would seem like the <BS><Tab> parts aren't necessary, but for some reason it wasn't indenting correctly like the O command usually does, so I had to add it.

Just install auto-pairs plugin and be happy.

I use javascript.vim which (almost) does what you want for JavaScript code.

There's also a php.vim, but I didn't test it.

My version is similar but uses <C-o> instead of <Esc> since it would trigger validation by JavaScriptLint.vim.

Also, I don't really want every {} to be on multiple lines so it's mapped to ctrl + ↩.

inoremap <C-Return> <CR><CR><C-o>k<Tab>