Incorrect whitespace in status line

[john-cj]

:ver
VIM - Vi IMproved 8.1 (2018 May 18, compiled May 18 2018 18:36:07)
MS-Windows 32-bit GUI version with OLE support
Included patches: 1
Compiled by mool@tororo

It seems that statusline doesn't properly work with whitespace.

Here is my .vimrc:

set encoding=utf-8
set guifont=Consolas:h10
colorscheme desert

let separator = '    '
set laststatus=2
set statusline=
set statusline+=%n
set statusline+=%{separator}
set statusline+=%t
set statusline+=%=
set statusline+=%(%l:%c%V%)
set statusline+=%{separator}
set statusline+=%{&expandtab?'spaces':'tab\ size'}:\ %{shiftwidth()}
set statusline+=%{separator}
set statusline+=%{&fileformat}
set statusline+=%{separator}
set statusline+=%{(strlen(&fileencoding)?&fileencoding:&encoding).((exists('+bomb')&&&bomb)?'-with-bom':'')}
set statusline+=%{separator}
set statusline+=%{strlen(&filetype)?&filetype:'text'}

And here is how Vim looks:

As you can see, at some places there are only 3 spaces instead of 4. and it looks like a bug for me.

Then, if we use hard-coded spaces instead of separator - everything will be correct:

set encoding=utf-8
set guifont=Consolas:h10
colorscheme desert

set laststatus=2
set statusline=
set statusline+=%n\ \ \ \ "
set statusline+=%t
set statusline+=%=
set statusline+=%(%l:%c%V%)\ \ \ \ "
set statusline+=%{&expandtab?'spaces':'tab\ size'}:\ %{shiftwidth()}\ \ \ \ "
set statusline+=%{&fileformat}\ \ \ \ "
set statusline+=%{(strlen(&fileencoding)?&fileencoding:&encoding).((exists('+bomb')&&&bomb)?'-with-bom':'')}\ \ \ \ "
set statusline+=%{strlen(&filetype)?&filetype:'text'}

[tonymec]

1. As your :version heading shows, this Vim executable was compiled on the very first day of the 8.1 release, almost 9 months ago. The latest source as of this writing is 8.1.868. Have you tried using a more up-to-date version of Vim?
2. Since hard-coded spaces work for you, well, use that then.

Best regards,
Tony.

[john-cj]

As your :version heading shows, this Vim executable was compiled on the very first day of the 8.1 release, almost 9 months ago.

Actually, it some kind of fresh version :-) I downloaded it January 30. It seems that Windows binary is a bit outdated.

Best regards you too :-)

[chrisbra]

I think this is a duplicate of #1431

[brammool]

It seems that statusline doesn't properly work with whitespace. Here is my .vimrc: ```vim set encoding=utf-8 set guifont=Consolas:h10 colorscheme desert let separator = ' ' set laststatus=2 set statusline= set statusline+=%n set statusline+=%{separator} set statusline+=%t set statusline+=%= set statusline+=%(%l:%c%V%) set statusline+=%{separator} set statusline+=%{&expandtab?'spaces':'tab\ size'}:\ %{shiftwidth()} set statusline+=%{separator} set statusline+=%{&fileformat} set statusline+=%{separator} set statusline+=%{(strlen(&fileencoding)?&fileencoding:&encoding).((exists('+bomb')&&&bomb)?'-with-bom':'')} set statusline+=%{separator} set statusline+=%{strlen(&filetype)?&filetype:'text'} ``` And here is how Vim looks:  As you can see, at some places there are only 3 spaces instead of 4. and looks like a bug for me. Then, if we use hard-coded spaces instead of `separator` - everything will be correct: ```vim set encoding=utf-8 set guifont=Consolas:h10 colorscheme desert set laststatus=2 set statusline= set statusline+=%n\ \ \ \ " set statusline+=%t set statusline+=%= set statusline+=%(%l:%c%V%)\ \ \ \ " set statusline+=%{&expandtab?'spaces':'tab\ size'}:\ %{shiftwidth()}\ \ \ \ " set statusline+=%{&fileformat}\ \ \ \ " set statusline+=%{(strlen(&fileencoding)?&fileencoding:&encoding).((exists('+bomb')&&&bomb)?'-with-bom':'')}\ \ \ \ " set statusline+=%{strlen(&filetype)?&filetype:'text'} ```

I hesitate to change how 'statusline' deals with whitespace especially for %{} items. There are some tricks to drop whitespace, especially if one of the items is empty. Existing implementations depend on that. A better solution would be to explicitly have an item that specifies the amount of white space, which then would be inserted literally.

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[john-cj]

@brammool

I hesitate to change how 'statusline' deals with whitespace especially
for %{} items. There are some tricks to drop whitespace, especially if
one of the items is empty. Existing implementations depend on that.

In other words, it's some kind of bug, which is considered as feature?

A better solution would be to explicitly have an item that specifies
the amount of white space, which then would be inserted literally.

Interesting. As n00b, I don't know the way how it should be done, but
still interesting. Probably someone could post it as code?

// There are at least 2 Monty Python fans here!

[andymass]

What if we allow %0{...} to disable the space eating? Zero pad is not otherwise used for { in the statusline. Implementation is very simple:

--- a/src/buffer.c
+++ b/src/buffer.c
@@ -4223,7 +4223,7 @@ build_stl_str_hl(
            break;

        case STL_VIM_EXPR: /* '{' */
-           itemisflag = TRUE;
+           itemisflag = zeropad ? FALSE : TRUE;
            t = p;
            while (*s != '}' && *s != NUL && p + 1 < out + outlen)
                *p++ = *s++;

[andymass]

Although, the other behavior of %{} which one might want to disable is %{"000"} becomes 0 since it looks like a number. Perhaps some other symbol should be used e.g., %+{".."} which means interpret as a string without the special processing, i.e., not a flag and no conversion to number.

[john-cj]

Does it exist a better workaround then using "?

" This line is used as separator:
set statusline+=\ \ \ \ "

[Acelya-9028]

I have the same problem, is there any news? Thanks