Replace tabs with spaces in vim

vim vi
David.Chu.ca picture David.Chu.ca · Jan 9, 2009 · Viewed 342.4k times · Source

I would like to convert tab to spaces in gVim. I added the following line to my _vimrc:

set tabstop=2

It works to stop at two spaces but it still looks like one tab key is inserted (I tried to use the h key to count spaces afterwards).

I'm not sure what should I do to make gVim convert tabs to spaces?

Answer

ʞɔıu picture ʞɔıu · Jan 9, 2009

Once you've got expandtab on as per the other answers, the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is:

:retab

It will work on the current buffer.

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