Vim documentation: digraph
main help file*digraph.txt* For Vim version 7.2. Last change: 2008 Aug 06 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Digraphs *digraph* *digraphs* *Digraphs* Digraphs are used to enter characters that normally cannot be entered by an ordinary keyboard. These are mostly printable non-ASCII characters. The digraphs are easier to remember than the decimal number that can be entered with CTRL-V (see |i_CTRL-V|). There is a brief introduction on digraphs in the user manual: |24.9| An alternative is using the 'keymap' option. 1. Defining digraphs |digraphs-define| 2. Using digraphs |digraphs-use| 3. Default digraphs |digraphs-default| {Vi does not have any of these commands}
1. Defining digraphs *digraphs-define* *:dig* *:digraphs* :dig[raphs] show currently defined digraphs. *E104* *E39* :dig[raphs] {char1}{char2} {number} ... Add digraph {char1}{char2} to the list. {number} is the decimal representation of the character. Normally it is the Unicode character, see |digraph-encoding|. Example: :digr e: 235 a: 228 Avoid defining a digraph with '_' (underscore) as the first character, it has a special meaning in the future. Vim is normally compiled with the |+digraphs| feature. If the feature is disabled, the ":digraph" command will display an error message. Example of the output of ":digraphs": TH Þ 222 ss ß 223 a! à 224 a' á 225 a> â 226 a? ã 227 a: ä 228 The first two characters in each column are the characters you have to type to enter the digraph. In the middle of each column is the resulting character. This may be mangled if you look at it on a system that does not support digraphs or if you print this file. *digraph-encoding* The decimal number normally is the Unicode number of the character. Note that the meaning doesn't change when 'encoding' changes. The character will be converted from Unicode to 'encoding' when needed. This does require the conversion to be available, it might fail. For the NUL character you will see "10". That's because NUL characters are internally represented with a NL character. When you write the file it will become a NUL character. When Vim was compiled without the +multi_byte feature, you need to specify the character in the encoding given with 'encoding'. You might want to use something like this: if has("multi_byte") digraph oe 339 elseif &encoding == "iso-8859-15" digraph oe 189 endif This defines the "oe" digraph for a character that is number 339 in Unicode and 189 in latin9 (iso-8859-15).
2. Using digraphs *digraphs-use* There are two methods to enter digraphs: *i_digraph* CTRL-K {char1} {char2} or {char1} <BS> {char2} The first is always available; the second only when the 'digraph' option is set. If a digraph with {char1}{char2} does not exist, Vim searches for a digraph {char2}{char1}. This helps when you don't remember which character comes first. Note that when you enter CTRL-K {char1}, where {char1} is a special key, Vim enters the code for that special key. This is not a digraph. Once you have entered the digraph, Vim treats the character like a normal character that occupies only one character in the file and on the screen. Example: 'B' <BS> 'B' will enter the broken '|' character (166) 'a' <BS> '>' will enter an 'a' with a circumflex (226) CTRL-K '-' '-' will enter a soft hyphen (173) The current digraphs are listed with the ":digraphs" command. Some of the default ones are listed below |digraph-table|. For CTRL-K, there is one general digraph: CTRL-K <Space> {char} will enter {char} with the highest bit set. You can use this to enter meta-characters. The <Esc> character cannot be part of a digraph. When hitting <Esc>, Vim stops digraph entry and ends Insert mode or Command-line mode, just like hitting an <Esc> out of digraph context. Use CTRL-V 155 to enter meta-ESC (CSI). If you accidentally typed an 'a' that should be an 'e', you will type 'a' <BS> 'e'. But that is a digraph, so you will not get what you want. To correct this, you will have to type <BS> e again. To avoid this don't set the 'digraph' option and use CTRL-K to enter digraphs. You may have problems using Vim with characters which have a value above 128. For example: You insert ue (u-umlaut) and the editor echoes \334 in Insert mode. After leaving the Insert mode everything is fine. Note that fmt removes all characters with a value above 128 from the text being formatted. On some Unix systems this means you have to define the environment-variable LC_CTYPE. If you are using csh, then put the following line in your .cshrc: setenv LC_CTYPE iso_8859_1
3. Default digraphs *digraphs-default* Vim comes with a set of default digraphs. Check the output of ":digraphs" to see them. On most systems Vim uses the same digraphs. They work for the Unicode and ISO-8859-1 character sets. These default digraphs are taken from the RFC1345 mnemonics. To make it easy to remember the mnemonic, the second character has a standard meaning: char name char meaning Exclamation mark ! Grave Apostrophe '' Acute accent Greater-Than sign > Circumflex accent Question mark ? Tilde Hyphen-Minus - Macron Left parenthesis ( Breve Full stop . Dot above Colon : Diaeresis Comma , Cedilla Underline _ Underline Solidus / Stroke Quotation mark " Double acute accent Semicolon ; Ogonek Less-Than sign < Caron Zero 0 Ring above Two 2 Hook Nine 9 Horn Equals = Cyrillic Asterisk * Greek Percent sign % Greek/Cyrillic special Plus + smalls: Arabic, capitals: Hebrew Three 3 some Latin/Greek/Cyrillic letters Four 4 Bopomofo Five 5 Hiragana Six 6 Katakana Example: a: is These are the RFC1345 digraphs for the one-byte characters. See the output of ":digraphs" for the others. The characters above 255 are only available when Vim was compiled with the |+multi_byte| feature. EURO Exception: RFC1345 doesn't specify the euro sign. In Vim the digraph =e was added for this. Note the difference between latin1, where the digraph Cu is used for the currency sign, and latin9 (iso-8859-15), where the digraph =e is used for the euro sign, while both of them are the character 164, 0xa4. For compatibility with zsh Eu can also be used for the euro sign. *digraph-table* char digraph hex dec official name ^@ NU 0x00 0 NULL (NUL) ^A SH 0x01 1 START OF HEADING (SOH) ^B SX 0x02 2 START OF TEXT (STX) ^C EX 0x03 3 END OF TEXT (ETX) ^D ET 0x04 4 END OF TRANSMISSION (EOT) ^E EQ 0x05 5 ENQUIRY (ENQ) ^F AK 0x06 6 ACKNOWLEDGE (ACK) ^G BL 0x07 7 BELL (BEL) ^H BS 0x08 8 BACKSPACE (BS) ^I HT 0x09 9 CHARACTER TABULATION (HT) ^@ LF 0x0a 10 LINE FEED (LF) ^K VT 0x0b 11 LINE TABULATION (VT) ^L FF 0x0c 12 FORM FEED (FF) ^M CR 0x0d 13 CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) ^N SO 0x0e 14 SHIFT OUT (SO) ^O SI 0x0f 15 SHIFT IN (SI) ^P DL 0x10 16 DATALINK ESCAPE (DLE) ^Q D1 0x11 17 DEVICE CONTROL ONE (DC1) ^R D2 0x12 18 DEVICE CONTROL TWO (DC2) ^S D3 0x13 19 DEVICE CONTROL THREE (DC3) ^T D4 0x14 20 DEVICE CONTROL FOUR (DC4) ^U NK 0x15 21 NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE (NAK) ^V SY 0x16 22 SYNCHRONOUS IDLE (SYN) ^W EB 0x17 23 END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK (ETB) ^X CN 0x18 24 CANCEL (CAN) ^Y EM 0x19 25 END OF MEDIUM (EM) ^Z SB 0x1a 26 SUBSTITUTE (SUB) ^[ EC 0x1b 27 ESCAPE (ESC) ^\ FS 0x1c 28 FILE SEPARATOR (IS4) ^] GS 0x1d 29 GROUP SEPARATOR (IS3) ^^ RS 0x1e 30 RECORD SEPARATOR (IS2) ^_ US 0x1f 31 UNIT SEPARATOR (IS1) SP 0x20 32 SPACE # Nb 0x23 35 NUMBER SIGN $ DO 0x24 36 DOLLAR SIGN @ At 0x40 64 COMMERCIAL AT [ <( 0x5b 91 LEFT SQUARE BRACKET \ // 0x5c 92 REVERSE SOLIDUS ] )> 0x5d 93 RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET ^ '> 0x5e 94 CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT ` ''! 0x60 96 GRAVE ACCENT { (! 0x7b 123 LEFT CURLY BRACKET | !! 0x7c 124 VERTICAL LINE } !) 0x7d 125 RIGHT CURLY BRACKET ~ ''? 0x7e 126 TILDE ^? DT 0x7f 127 DELETE (DEL) ~@ PA 0x80 128 PADDING CHARACTER (PAD) ~A HO 0x81 129 HIGH OCTET PRESET (HOP) ~B BH 0x82 130 BREAK PERMITTED HERE (BPH) ~C NH 0x83 131 NO BREAK HERE (NBH) ~D IN 0x84 132 INDEX (IND) ~E NL 0x85 133 NEXT LINE (NEL) ~F SA 0x86 134 START OF SELECTED AREA (SSA) ~G ES 0x87 135 END OF SELECTED AREA (ESA) ~H HS 0x88 136 CHARACTER TABULATION SET (HTS) ~I HJ 0x89 137 CHARACTER TABULATION WITH JUSTIFICATION (HTJ) ~J VS 0x8a 138 LINE TABULATION SET (VTS) ~K PD 0x8b 139 PARTIAL LINE FORWARD (PLD) ~L PU 0x8c 140 PARTIAL LINE BACKWARD (PLU) ~M RI 0x8d 141 REVERSE LINE FEED (RI) ~N S2 0x8e 142 SINGLE-SHIFT TWO (SS2) ~O S3 0x8f 143 SINGLE-SHIFT THREE (SS3) ~P DC 0x90 144 DEVICE CONTROL STRING (DCS) ~Q P1 0x91 145 PRIVATE USE ONE (PU1) ~R P2 0x92 146 PRIVATE USE TWO (PU2) ~S TS 0x93 147 SET TRANSMIT STATE (STS) ~T CC 0x94 148 CANCEL CHARACTER (CCH) ~U MW 0x95 149 MESSAGE WAITING (MW) ~V SG 0x96 150 START OF GUARDED AREA (SPA) ~W EG 0x97 151 END OF GUARDED AREA (EPA) ~X SS 0x98 152 START OF STRING (SOS) ~Y GC 0x99 153 SINGLE GRAPHIC CHARACTER INTRODUCER (SGCI) ~Z SC 0x9a 154 SINGLE CHARACTER INTRODUCER (SCI) ~[ CI 0x9b 155 CONTROL SEQUENCE INTRODUCER (CSI) ~\ ST 0x9c 156 STRING TERMINATOR (ST) ~] OC 0x9d 157 OPERATING SYSTEM COMMAND (OSC) ~^ PM 0x9e 158 PRIVACY MESSAGE (PM) ~_ AC 0x9f 159 APPLICATION PROGRAM COMMAND (APC) | NS 0xa0 160 NO-BREAK SPACE !I 0xa1 161 INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK Ct 0xa2 162 CENT SIGN Pd 0xa3 163 POUND SIGN Cu 0xa4 164 CURRENCY SIGN Ye 0xa5 165 YEN SIGN BB 0xa6 166 BROKEN BAR SE 0xa7 167 SECTION SIGN '': 0xa8 168 DIAERESIS Co 0xa9 169 COPYRIGHT SIGN -a 0xaa 170 FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR << 0xab 171 LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK NO 0xac 172 NOT SIGN -- 0xad 173 SOFT HYPHEN Rg 0xae 174 REGISTERED SIGN 'm 0xaf 175 MACRON DG 0xb0 176 DEGREE SIGN +- 0xb1 177 PLUS-MINUS SIGN 2S 0xb2 178 SUPERSCRIPT TWO 3S 0xb3 179 SUPERSCRIPT THREE '' 0xb4 180 ACUTE ACCENT My 0xb5 181 MICRO SIGN PI 0xb6 182 PILCROW SIGN .M 0xb7 183 MIDDLE DOT '', 0xb8 184 CEDILLA 1S 0xb9 185 SUPERSCRIPT ONE -o 0xba 186 MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR >> 0xbb 187 RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK 14 0xbc 188 VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER 12 0xbd 189 VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF 34 0xbe 190 VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS ?I 0xbf 191 INVERTED QUESTION MARK A! 0xc0 192 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE A' 0xc1 193 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE A> 0xc2 194 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX A? 0xc3 195 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH TILDE A: 0xc4 196 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS AA 0xc5 197 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE AE 0xc6 198 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE C, 0xc7 199 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA E! 0xc8 200 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH GRAVE E' 0xc9 201 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE E> 0xca 202 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX E: 0xcb 203 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS I! 0xcc 204 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH GRAVE I' 0xcd 205 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH ACUTE I> 0xce 206 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX I: 0xcf 207 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS D- 0xd0 208 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ETH (Icelandic) N? 0xd1 209 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE O! 0xd2 210 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH GRAVE O' 0xd3 211 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH ACUTE O> 0xd4 212 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX O? 0xd5 213 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH TILDE O: 0xd6 214 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS *X 0xd7 215 MULTIPLICATION SIGN O/ 0xd8 216 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE U! 0xd9 217 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH GRAVE U' 0xda 218 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH ACUTE U> 0xdb 219 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX U: 0xdc 220 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS Y' 0xdd 221 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE TH 0xde 222 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN (Icelandic) ss 0xdf 223 LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (German) a! 0xe0 224 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE á a' 0xe1 225 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE a> 0xe2 226 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX a? 0xe3 227 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH TILDE a: 0xe4 228 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS aa 0xe5 229 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE ae 0xe6 230 LATIN SMALL LETTER AE c, 0xe7 231 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA e! 0xe8 232 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE e' 0xe9 233 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE e> 0xea 234 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX e: 0xeb 235 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS i! 0xec 236 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE i' 0xed 237 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE i> 0xee 238 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX i: 0xef 239 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS d- 0xf0 240 LATIN SMALL LETTER ETH (Icelandic) n? 0xf1 241 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE o! 0xf2 242 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE o' 0xf3 243 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE o> 0xf4 244 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX o? 0xf5 245 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH TILDE o: 0xf6 246 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS -: 0xf7 247 DIVISION SIGN o/ 0xf8 248 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE u! 0xf9 249 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE u' 0xfa 250 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE u> 0xfb 251 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX u: 0xfc 252 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS y' 0xfd 253 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE th 0xfe 254 LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN (Icelandic) y: 0xff 255 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS top - main help file