How to indent lines automatically?

Question

Quick newbie question. Let's say I have the following code in Vim:

void main()

{

    int i = i + 1;

    return i;
}

I have the cursor on the empty line between the two lines of code. When I press i (or a) to enter text I want to cursor to indent to the right position (i.e. below the i in "int i..."). Any ideas how it can be done?

Answer 1

Like @chaos mentioned, cindent is probably what you're looking for.

There's also autoindent, smartindent, and indentexpr, which are all quite configurable and documented at the Vim documentation on indent.

Here's a snippet of how configurable they can be:

{N    Place opening braces N characters from the prevailing indent.
              This applies only for opening braces that are inside other
              braces.  (default 0).

                cino=               cino={.5s           cino={1s
                  if (cond)           if (cond)           if (cond)
                  {                     {                     {
                      foo;                foo;                foo;

Answer 2

:set cindent