How do I indent a single line multiple times in vi or vim?

Question

I've found several answers on how to indent multiple lines in vim, I want to know how to take a single line and indent it more than once. In effect, I want a shorter version of the following command: ">>>>>>>>>>" (That is 10 right bracket "greater-than" signs.)

Pharyngology

well, you could use . to repeat the last command, shortening it to >>.... – Yield

You could also press <esc>:>>>>> – Yield

To be clear, 5>> will indent five lines, not the current line five times. Strange design choice, as >4<down>> does the same thing, and 3>4<down>> would be a handy way to indent five lines three times. – Smythe

Answer 1

Select what you want (typically with v or Shift+v) then type 5>.

If you need to fix or repeat the same selection, use gv.

Choanocyte

Thanks ! didn't know about the gv shortcut to re-select – Jenijenica

Answer 2

One of the answers to "How do I indent multiple lines quickly in vi" showed me a neat trick to remap > in visual mode to reselect visual mode. In your .vimrc...

vnoremap < <gv
vnoremap > >gv

Then I just select the line (or lines) you want to indent and press the appropriate direction as many times as you want.

Rappel

It's a nice trick if you do it all in visual mode, and I like to see the selection afterwards, but I like to use . after the initial modification, which is only in normal mode. I'm adding this to my .vimrc but mapping them to <TAB> and <S-TAB> instead. – Citizenship

That is such standard and expectable behavior, I can't believe this isn't simply just the default. – Ambiguous

Answer 3

You can select the current line by pressing v, and then type 5> to indent the current line 5 times, the equivalent of pressing > 10 times.

Yield

Daenyth is right, but it is moot. You only have to be in visual mode; whether line-select or not is irrelevant in this case. – Masterwork

Answer 4

Indent once the use . to redo the previous command or u to undo it.

Hence

Answer 5

From vim help: :help >

To move a line several 'shiftwidth's, use Visual mode or the : commands.

For example:

    Vjj4>           move three lines 4 indents to the right
    :<<<            move current line 3 indents to the left
    :>> 5           move 5 lines 2 indents to the right
    :5>>            move line 5 2 indents to the right

Or simply, >> and repeat the command with . in normal mode.

Crewel