Vim syntax coloring: How do I highlight long lines only?

Question

I would like vim to color "long" lines for me. Using 80 columns as an example, I would like to highlight lines that exceed that length. Here is roughly what I think the .vimrc file should contain, although it (1) doesn't work, and (2) uses Perl's regex syntax to illustrate my point, because I don't know Vim's well enough:

...
highlight Excess ctermbg=0
au Syntax * syn match Excess /.{80,}$/
...

This (in my mind at least) should mark lines that exceed 80 columns. What I would ideally like is the ability to color only the part of the line that exceeds 80 columns, so if a line is 85 columns, then the 81st through the 85th columns would be highlighted.

I'm sure Vim can do this, just not with me at the helm.

Solution 1

I needed the autocomand to work for me:

augroup vimrc_autocmds
  autocmd BufEnter * highlight OverLength ctermbg=darkgrey guibg=#111111
  autocmd BufEnter * match OverLength /\%75v.*/
augroup END

Also like the idea of using 75 if you are aiming at 80 columns in average.

Taken from:

http://blog.ezyang.com/2010/03/vim-textwidth/

Possible reason why it fails without BufEnter: highlight + match can only be used once. Multiple usage means that old ones are overridden. How to add multiple highlights

Solution 2

I have this in my vimrc.
I found it here: Vim 80 column layout concerns

highlight OverLength ctermbg=darkred ctermfg=white guibg=#FFD9D9
match OverLength /\%81v.*/

You might want to adjust the colors to your preferences.

Solution 3

Since I do not like the Vim 7.3 column marker, I just use the highlight text after column 80... at least that is what I want 95% of the time.

For the other 5% of the time, I wrote this small extension to also have a quick way to disable the highlight:

https://gist.github.com/fgarcia/9704429#file-long_lines-vim

Solution 4

I use the following method:

hi gitError ctermbg=Red
match gitError /^.*\s$/
2match gitError /^.\{120\}.*$/

(These match some git pre-commit hooks)

The second line should be of interrest to you.

Solution 5

This uses an autocommand to adjust the OverLength value to match your file type.

" highlight lines longer than `textwidth` size for each filetype
autocmd FileType *
    \ if &textwidth |
    \    exec 'match OverLength /\%' . string(&textwidth+2) . 'v.*/' |
    \ endif

View more solutions

Comments

[PEZ]

+1. Great question! Now, I have no clue about the answer, but I'll stay tuned.

[Martin Ueding]

Maybe colorcolumn might be something for you.

[Paul Beckingham]

Thank you. This (/^.\{120\}.*$/) highlights the whole line - any idea about just highlighting from characters 121 onwards?

[terminus]

Sorry, no idea. The problem is that it may not be doable with regexps. You know, it would propably require a stack machine.

[PEZ]

You can highlight only the 80 first chars. I know, not exactly what you want, but you'll see the excess quite clearly anyway.

[PEZ]

+1.Now, if someone could explain why that works that would help me a lot because I don't get it.

[gravitation]

This only works for the first file you open in any given buffer

[Eric Hu]

@BrandonThomson is there a way around that? Or an alternative way?

[Mu Mind]

@EricHu yep, that's what ciro's answer does.

[Yep_It's_Me]

I was just looking for a quick way to toggle that. Your plugin is awesome.

[Yep_It's_Me]

Though I would like it if switching tabs didn't re-enable the highlighting if I had it turned off.

[SystematicFrank]

I think that should be solved by using BufRead (maybe BufAdd??) instead the BufEnter in the first lines. Let me know if that works for you

[Yep_It's_Me]

Thanks. BufRead fixed it.

[Wex]

To avoid highlighting the end of line character, you should change the regex to: /\%>74v.\+/ stackoverflow.com/questions/235439/…

[hakunin]

This is working somewhat better but if I do a :vsplit the old buffer no longer has the highlight, any ideas?

[hakunin]

I fixed the split issue by adding WinEnter.

[Gustavo Adolfo Mejía]

I'm using this Overlength for specific filetypes like this autocmd Filetype c,python highlight... autocmd Filetype c,python match... but I had problem when i open another file with :e or :find or :NERDTree My solution was setting a default match with this autocmd Filetype * match OverLength // between the two lines

[Lohmar ASHAR]

This works, I have it in my .vimrc. My question is ... how can I temporarily turn it off ?! I hate it when I'm editing minimized js files.

[ngovanmao]

This is exactly what I'm looking for. The way you set a variable per window is also a good trick to learn. Thank you!