To leave completion untouched, try using
cnoreabbrev W w
It will replace W
in command line with w
, but only if it is neither followed nor preceded by word character, so :W<CR>
will be replaced with :w<CR>
, but :Write
won’t. (Note that this affects any commands that match, including ones that you might not expect. For example, the command :saveas W Z
will be replaced by :saveas w Z
, so be careful with this.)
Here is how I would write it now:
cnoreabbrev <expr> W ((getcmdtype() is# ':' && getcmdline() is# 'W')?('w'):('W'))
As a function:
fun! SetupCommandAlias(from, to)
exec 'cnoreabbrev <expr> '.a:from
\ .' ((getcmdtype() is# ":" && getcmdline() is# "'.a:from.'")'
\ .'? ("'.a:to.'") : ("'.a:from.'"))'
endfun
call SetupCommandAlias("W","w")
This checks that the command type is :
and the command is W
, so it’s safer than just cnoreabbrev W w
.
With supplementary searching, I've found that someone asked nearly the same question as I.
:command <AliasName> <string of command to be aliased>
will do the trick.
Please be aware that, as Richo points out, the user command must begin with a capital letter.
I find that mapping the ;
key to :
would be a better solution, and would make you more productive for typing other commands.
nnoremap ; :
vnoremap ; :
The best solution involves writing a custom function for handling abbreviations that only take place in the beginning of the command bar.
For this, add the following your vimrc file or anywhere else.
" cabs - less stupidity {{{
fu! Single_quote(str)
return "'" . substitute(copy(a:str), "'", "''", 'g') . "'"
endfu
fu! Cabbrev(key, value)
exe printf('cabbrev <expr> %s (getcmdtype() == ":" && getcmdpos() <= %d) ? %s : %s',
\ a:key, 1+len(a:key), Single_quote(a:value), Single_quote(a:key))
endfu
"}}}
" use this custom function for cabbrevations. This makes sure that they only
" apply in the beginning of a command. Else we might end up with stuff like
" :%s/\vfoo/\v/\vbar/
" if we happen to move backwards in the pattern.
" For example:
call Cabbrev('W', 'w')
A few useful abbreviations from the source material where I found this stuff:
call Cabbrev('/', '/\v')
call Cabbrev('?', '?\v')
call Cabbrev('s/', 's/\v')
call Cabbrev('%s/', '%s/\v')
call Cabbrev('s#', 's#\v')
call Cabbrev('%s#', '%s#\v')
call Cabbrev('s@', 's@\v')
call Cabbrev('%s@', '%s@\v')
call Cabbrev('s!', 's!\v')
call Cabbrev('%s!', '%s!\v')
call Cabbrev('s%', 's%\v')
call Cabbrev('%s%', '%s%\v')
call Cabbrev("'<,'>s/", "'<,'>s/\v")
call Cabbrev("'<,'>s#", "'<,'>s#\v")
call Cabbrev("'<,'>s@", "'<,'>s@\v")
call Cabbrev("'<,'>s!", "'<,'>s!\v")
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