Re: Inserting date/text

[A.J.Mechelynck]

David Woodfall wrote:
I would like to make a command that would insert at cursor todays date,
and also a command to insert some custom text.
In the help file it shows how to make a keybind to do this but I would
rather use a command - eg :date

Can this be done?

Thanks

(untested; requires strftime() function) (note all user-defined command names 
must start with an uppercase letter)

        command -nargs=* -bar Date call InsertDate(<q-args>)
        function InsertDate(format)
                if ! exists('*strftime')
                        echoerr 'strftime() not defined'
                        return -1
                endif
                let f = a:format
                if f == ""
                        let f = '%c'
                endif
                exe "normal a\<C-R>=strftime(" . f . ")\e"
        endfunction

then
        :Date
will insert the current date and time in your locale-dependent default format; 
or

        :Date %d %b %Y

will (today) insert

        14 Nov 2006

I hope I'm not just doing your homework (this sounds like a classical exercise).

The simplest way to insert some custom text is to keep in a register:

        let @w = "David Woodfall "

then hit

        "wp

to insert your name at the cursor in Normal mode, or

        ^Rw

(where ^R means "hit Ctrl-R") in Insert mode.


Best regards,
Tony.