Easy to use
- Comes with a predefined set of alignment rules
- Provides a fast and intuitive interface
Extensible
- You can define your own rules
- Supports arbitrary regular expressions
Optimized for code editing
- Takes advantage of syntax highlighting feature to avoid unwanted alignments

"I already have a similar one. Should I switch?"

Maybe. See related work section.

Installation

Either download zip file and extract in ~/.vim or use your favorite plugin manager.

With Vundle

Add the following line to your .vimrc,

Bundle 'junegunn/vim-easy-align'

then execute :BundleInstall command.

Usage

vim-easy-align defines :EasyAlign command (and the right-align variant :EasyAlign!) in the visual mode.

Mode	Command
Interactive mode	`:EasyAlign[!] [OPTIONS]`
Using predefined rules	`:EasyAlign[!] [FIELD#] DELIMITER_KEY [OPTIONS]`
Using regular expressions	`:EasyAlign[!] [FIELD#] /REGEXP/ [OPTIONS]`

Concept of alignment rule

Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.

Alan Kay

Forget about writing regular expressions every time you do an alignment. You can do so (we'll see), but I don't believe that it should be the default way of doing things with this plugin.

An alignment rule is a predefined set of options for common alignment tasks, which is indexed by a single character, DELIMITER_KEY. By default, you have rules indexed by <space>, =, :, ., |, and ,, which should cover the most of the use cases. You can override these rules, and add your own rules.

Interactive mode

The command will go into the interactive mode when no argument is given. For convenience, it is advised that you define a mapping for triggering it in your .vimrc.

vnoremap <silent> <Enter> :EasyAlign<cr>

(Of course you can use any key combination as the trigger. e.g. <Leader>a)

With the mapping, you can align selected lines of text with only a few keystrokes.

<Enter> key to start interactive EasyAlign command
Optional Enter keys to select alignment mode (left, right, or center)
Optional field number (default: 1)
- 1 Around the 1st occurrences of delimiters
- 2 Around the 2nd occurrences of delimiters
- ...
- * Around all occurrences of delimiters
- ** Left-right alternating alignment around all delimiters
- - Around the last occurrences of delimiters (-1)
- -2 Around the second to last occurrences of delimiters
- ...
Delimiter key (a single keystroke; <space>, =, :, ., |, ,)

Alignment rules for the following delimiters have been defined to meet the most needs.

Delimiter key	Description/Use cases
`<space>`	General alignment around whitespaces
`=`	Operators containing equals sign (`=`, `==,` `!=`, `+=`, `&&=`, ...)
`:`	Suitable for formatting JSON or YAML
`.`	Multi-line method chaining
`,`	Multi-line method arguments
\|	Table markdown

You can override these default rules or define your own rules with g:easy_align_delimiters, which will be described in the later section.

Example command sequences

With visual map	Description	Equivalent command
`<Enter><space>`	Alignment around 1st whitespaces	`:'<,'>EasyAlign\`
`<Enter>2<space>`	Alignment around 2nd whitespaces	`:'<,'>EasyAlign2\`
`<Enter>-<space>`	Alignment around the last whitespaces	`:'<,'>EasyAlign-\`
`<Enter>:`	Alignment around 1st colon	`:'<,'>EasyAlign:`
`<Enter>=`	Alignment around 1st equals signs (and the likes)	`:'<,'>EasyAlign=`
`<Enter>2=`	Alignment around 2nd equals signs (and the likes)	`:'<,'>EasyAlign2=`
`<Enter>3=`	Alignment around 3rd equals signs (and the likes)	`:'<,'>EasyAlign3=`
`<Enter>*=`	Alignment around all equals signs (and the likes)	`:'<,'>EasyAlign*=`
`<Enter>**=`	Left-right alternating alignment around all equals signs	`:'<,'>EasyAlign**=`
`<Enter><Enter>=`	Right alignment around 1st equals signs	`:'<,'>EasyAlign!=`
`<Enter><Enter>**=`	Right-left alternating alignment around all equals signs	`:'<,'>EasyAlign!**=`
...	...

Using regular expressions

Instead of finishing the command with a predefined delimiter key, you can type in a regular expression after <CTRL-/> or <CTRL-X> key. For example, if you want to align text around all occurrences of numbers:

<Enter>
*
<CTRL-/> or <CTRL-X>
- [0-9]\+

(<CTRL-/> key will not work in GVim, then you have to use <CTRL-X> instead)

Alignment options in interactive mode

While in interactive mode, you can switch some of the alignment options using special shortcut keys listed below. The meanings of the options will be described in the following sections.

Key	Option	Values
`CTRL-I`	`indentation`	shallow, deep, none, keep
`CTRL-L`	`left_margin`	Input number or string
`CTRL-R`	`right_margin`	Input number or string
`CTRL-D`	`delimiter_align`	left, center, right
`CTRL-U`	`ignore_unmatched`	0, 1
`CTRL-G`	`ignore_groups`	[], ['String'], ['Comment'], ['String', 'Comment']
`CTRL-O`	`mode_sequence`	Input string of `/[lrc]+\*{0,2}/`
`<Left>`	`stick_to_left`	Set stick_to_left option
`<Right>`	`stick_to_left`	Unset stick_to_left option

Intermission

You can stop reading here. Trust me. All the fancy features described in the following sections are really powerful but you won't be needing them in most of the cases.

Go try out vim-easy-align right now, and come back later when you feel like it.

Non-interactive mode

Instead of going into the interactive mode, you can type in arguments to :EasyAlign command.

" Using predefined alignment rules
:EasyAlign[!] [FIELD#] DELIMITER_KEY [OPTIONS]

" Using arbitrary regular expressions
:EasyAlign[!] [FIELD#] /REGEXP/ [OPTIONS]

For example, when aligning the following lines around colons and semi-colons,

apple;:banana::cake
data;;exchange:;format

try these commands:

:EasyAlign /[:;]\+/
:EasyAlign 2/[:;]\+/
:EasyAlign */[:;]\+/
:EasyAlign **/[:;]\+/

Notice that you can't append \zs to your regular expression to put delimiters on the left. It can be done by providing additional options in Vim dictionary format.

:EasyAlign * /[:;]\+/ { 'stick_to_left': 1, 'left_margin': '' }

Then we get:

apple;: banana::   cake
data;;  exchange:; format

Option names are fuzzy-matched, so you can write as follows:

:EasyAlign * /[:;]\+/ { 'stl': 1, 'l': 0 }

You can even omit spaces between the arguments, so concisely (or cryptically):

:EasyAlign*/[:;]\+/{'s':1,'l':0}

Available options will be shown later in the document.

Partial alignment in blockwise-visual mode

In blockwise-visual mode (CTRL-V), EasyAlign command aligns only the selected text in the block, instead of the whole lines in the range.

Consider the following case where you want to align text around => operators.

my_hash = { :a => 1,
            :aa => 2,
            :aaa => 3 }

In non-blockwise visual mode (v / V), <Enter>= won't work since the assignment operator in the first line gets in the way. So we instead enter blockwise-visual mode (CTRL-V), and select the text around => operators, then press <Enter>=.

my_hash = { :a   => 1,
            :aa  => 2,
            :aaa => 3 }

However, in this case, we don't really need blockwise visual mode since the same can be easily done using the negative field number: <Enter>-=

Alignment options

Option values can be 1) specified as global variables, 2) set on each alignment rule in g:easy_align_delimiters, 3) or given to every :EasyAlign command.

Command-line options have the highest precedence, and global variables have the lowest precedence.

List of options

Option	Type	Default	Description
`left_margin`	number	0	Number of spaces to attach before delimiter
`left_margin`	string	`''`	String to attach before delimiter
`right_margin`	number	0	Number of spaces to attach after delimiter
`right_margin`	string	`''`	String to attach after delimiter
`stick_to_left`	boolean	0	Whether to position delimiter on the left-side
`ignore_groups`	list	['String', 'Comment']	Delimiters in these syntax highlight groups are ignored
`ignore_unmatched`	boolean	1	Whether to ignore lines without matching delimiter
`indentation`	string	`k`	Indentation method (keep, deep, shallow, none)
`delimiter_align`	string	`r`	Determines how to align delimiters of different lengths
`mode_sequence`	string		Alignment modes for multiple occurrences of delimiters

Some of the options can be specified using corresponding global variables.

Option	Global variable
`ignore_groups`	`g:easy_align_ignore_groups`
`ignore_unmatched`	`g:easy_align_ignore_unmatched`
`delimiter_align`	`g:easy_align_delimiter_align`
`indentation`	`g:easy_align_indentation`

Ignoring delimiters in comments or strings

EasyAlign can be configured to ignore delimiters in certain syntax highlight groups, such as code comments or strings. By default, delimiters that are highlighted as code comments or strings are ignored.

" Default:
"   If a delimiter is in a highlight group whose name matches
"   any of the followings, it will be ignored.
let g:easy_align_ignore_groups = ['Comment', 'String']

For example, the following paragraph

{
  # Quantity of apples: 1
  apple: 1,
  # Quantity of bananas: 2
  bananas: 2,
  # Quantity of grape:fruits: 3
  'grape:fruits': 3
}

becomes as follows on <Enter>: (or :EasyAlign:)

{
  # Quantity of apples: 1
  apple:          1,
  # Quantity of bananas: 2
  bananas:        2,
  # Quantity of grape:fruits: 3
  'grape:fruits': 3
}

Naturally, this feature only works when syntax highlighting is enabled.

You can change the default rule by using one of these 4 methods.

Press CTRL-G in interactive mode to switch groups
Define global g:easy_align_ignore_groups list
Define a custom rule in g:easy_align_delimiters with ignore_groups option
Provide ignore_groups option to :EasyAlign command. e.g. :EasyAlign:{'ig':[]}

For example if you set ignore_groups option to be an empty list, you get

{
  # Quantity of apples:  1
  apple:                 1,
  # Quantity of bananas: 2
  bananas:               2,
  # Quantity of grape:   fruits: 3
  'grape:                fruits': 3
}

Satisfied? 😆

Ignoring unmatched lines

Lines without any matching delimiter are ignored as well (except in right-align mode).

For example, when aligning the following code block around the colons,

{
  apple: proc {
    this_line_does_not_have_a_colon
  },
  bananas: 2,
  grapefruits: 3
}

this is usually what we want.

{
  apple:       proc {
    this_line_does_not_have_a_colon
  },
  bananas:     2,
  grapefruits: 3
}

However, this default behavior is also configurable by using one of these 4 methods.

Press CTRL-U in interactive mode to toggle ignore_unmatched option
Set the global g:easy_align_ignore_unmatched variable to 0
Define a custom alignment rule with ignore_unmatched option set to 0
Provide ignore_unmatched option to :EasyAlign command. e.g. :EasyAlign:{'iu':0}

Then we get,

{
  apple:                             proc {
    this_line_does_not_have_a_colon
  },
  bananas:                           2,
  grapefruits:                       3
}

Aligning delimiters of different lengths

Global g:easy_align_delimiter_align option and rule-wise/command-wise delimiter_align option determines how matched delimiters of different lengths are aligned.

apple = 1
banana += apple
cake ||= banana

By default, delimiters are right-aligned as follows.

apple    = 1
banana  += apple
cake   ||= banana

However, with :EasyAlign={'da':l}, delimiters are left-aligned.

apple  =   1
banana +=  apple
cake   ||= banana

And on :EasyAlign={'da':c}, center-aligned.

apple   =  1
banana +=  apple
cake   ||= banana

In interactive mode, you can change the option value with CTRL-D key.

Adjusting indentation

By default :EasyAlign command keeps the original indentation of the lines. But then again we have indentation option. See the following example.

# Lines with different indentation
  apple = 1
    banana = 2
      cake = 3
        daisy = 4
     eggplant = 5

# Default: _k_eep the original indentation
#   :EasyAlign=
  apple       = 1
    banana    = 2
      cake    = 3
        daisy = 4
     eggplant = 5

# Use the _s_hallowest indentation among the lines
#   :EasyAlign={'idt':s}
  apple    = 1
  banana   = 2
  cake     = 3
  daisy    = 4
  eggplant = 5

# Use the _d_eepest indentation among the lines
#   :EasyAlign={'idt':d}
        apple    = 1
        banana   = 2
        cake     = 3
        daisy    = 4
        eggplant = 5

# Indentation: _n_one
#   :EasyAlign={'idt':n}
apple    = 1
banana   = 2
cake     = 3
daisy    = 4
eggplant = 5

Notice that idt is fuzzy-matched to indentation.

In interactive mode, you can change the option value with CTRL-I key.

Left/right/center mode switch in interactive mode

In interactive mode, you can choose the alignment mode you want by pressing enter keys. The non-bang command, :EasyAlign starts in left-alignment mode and changes to right and center mode as you press enter keys, while the bang version first starts in right-alignment mode.

:EasyAlign
- Left, Right, Center
:EasyAlign!
- Right, Left, Center

If you do not prefer this default mode transition, you can define your own settings as follows.

let g:easy_align_interactive_modes = ['l', 'r']
let g:easy_align_bang_interactive_modes = ['c', 'r']

Alignments over multiple occurrences of delimiters

As stated above, "field number" is used to target specific occurrences of the delimiter when it appears multiple times in each line.

To recap:

" Left-alignment around the FIRST occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign =

" Left-alignment around the SECOND occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign 2=

" Left-alignment around the LAST occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign -=

" Left-alignment around ALL occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign *=

" Left-right ALTERNATING alignment around all occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign **=

" Right-left ALTERNATING alignment around all occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign! **=

In addition to these, you can fine-tune alignments over multiple occurrences of the delimiters with 'mode_sequence' option. (The option can also be set in interactive mode with the special key CTRL-O)

" Left alignment over the first two occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign = { 'mode_sequence': 'll' }

" Right, left, center alignment over the 1st to 3rd occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign = { 'm': 'rlc' }

" Right, left, center alignment over the 2nd to 4th occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign 2={ 'm': 'rlc' }

" (*) Repeating alignments (default: l, r, or c)
"   Right, left, center, center, center, center, ...
:EasyAlign *={ 'm': 'rlc' }

" (**) Alternating alignments (default: lr or rl)
"   Right, left, center, right, left, center, ...
:EasyAlign **={ 'm': 'rlc' }

" Right, left, center, center, center, ... repeating alignment
" over the 3rd to the last occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign 3={ 'm': 'rlc*' }

" Right, left, center, right, left, center, ... alternating alignment
" over the 3rd to the last occurrences of delimiters
:EasyAlign 3={ 'm': 'rlc**' }

Extending alignment rules

Although the default rules should cover the most of the use cases, you can extend the rules by setting a dictionary named g:easy_align_delimiters.

Example

let g:easy_align_delimiters = {
\ '>': { 'pattern': '>>\|=>\|>' },
\ '/': { 'pattern': '//\+\|/\*\|\*/', 'ignore_groups': ['String'] },
\ '#': { 'pattern': '#\+', 'ignore_groups': ['String'], 'delimiter_align': 'l' },
\ ']': {
\     'pattern':       '[[\]]',
\     'left_margin':   0,
\     'right_margin':  0,
\     'stick_to_left': 0
\   },
\ ')': {
\     'pattern':       '[()]',
\     'left_margin':   0,
\     'right_margin':  0,
\     'stick_to_left': 0
\   },
\ 'd': {
\     'pattern': ' \(\S\+\s*[;=]\)\@=',
\     'left_margin': 0,
\     'right_margin': 0
\   }
\ }

Advanced examples and use cases

See EXAMPLES.md for more examples.

There are two well-known plugins with the same goal as that of vim-easy-align.

DrChip's Alignment Tool for Vim (herein will be referred to as "Align")
Tabular

Both are great plugins with very large user bases. I actually had been a Tabular user for a couple of years before I finally made up my mind to roll out my own.

So why would someone choose vim-easy-align over those two?

Feature-by-feature comparison I believe is not quite useful, since a typical user will end up using only a small subset of the features. So I will mention just a few core benefits of vim-easy-align.

Ease of use

As the name implies, vim-easy-align is easier to use. Its interactive mode allows you to achieve what you want with just a few keystrokes. The key sequence is mnemonic, so it's easy to remember and execute. It even feels like a native Vim command!

Right-align: <Enter><Enter>
around the second occurrences: 2
of whitespaces: <space>

For the simplest cases, Tabular and Align are also easy to use. But sooner or later, you will find yourself scratching your head, trying to come up with some complex regular expressions.

"How am I going to align the third to the last word in each line to the right without affecting the ones before it?"

Clean

vim-easy-align doesn't clutter your workspace with mappings and global variables. All you would need is a single mapping to the interactive EasyAlign command, and even that is totally up to you.

Optimized for code editing

vim-easy-align by default performs syntax-aware alignment, which is invaluable when editing codes.

Try to come up with a regular expression to correctly format the following code snippet. With vim-easy-align under default configuration and a mapping, it can be done with just two keystrokes: <Enter>:

var jdbc = {
  // JDBC driver for MySQL database:
  driver: "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver",
  /* JDBC URL for the connection (jdbc:mysql://HOSTNAME/DATABASE) */
  url: 'jdbc:mysql://localhost/test',
  database: "test",
  "user:pass":"r00t:pa55"
};

(To be fair, Align also can be configured to consider syntax highlighting with g:AlignSkip function reference which should point to a custom function that looks up the syntax group of a character on a certain position)

Author

Junegunn Choi

License

MIT

README.md

vim-easy-align

Demo

Features