class & function names highlighting in Vim

Answer 1

Use a plug-in for vim like Taglist or set up ctags or cscope integration with vim (here's a tutorial for the vim/cscope.)

Answer 2

Interestingly, the syntax highlighters in VIM don't support applying a syntax to identifiers or function names - at least not the syntax highlighters for C and C++. So, even if you do:

:hi Function guifg=red

or

:hi Identifier guifg=red

it doesn't give these a color. I just seems to be not much more than keywords and constants for these languages.

Here, someone has started extending the cpp syntax file to support method names. It's a start I guess. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlighting_of_method_names_in_the_definition

Answer 3

The one solution is to use built ctags database. So create one with the ctags utility. Then set the 'tags' variable and put the following to the

~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim

function! s:highlight()
    let list = taglist('.*')

    for item in list
        let kind = item.kind

        if kind == 'f' || kind == 'c'
            let name = item.name
            exec 'syntax keyword Identifier '.name
        endif
    endfor
endfunction

call s:highlight()

I must warn you that this can work very slow on the very big ctags database.

Also there is one solution on the vim.org but I didn't try this one. Let me know if it works for you.

Answer 4

I had this very same problem when I started using vim. The solution is simple, you just have to edit the c syntax file used by vim, here's how to do it:

When you start editing a C or C++ file, vim reads the default c syntax file located in

$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim

(Where $VIMRUNTIME is where you have vim installed. You can find out it's default value by opening vim and using the command ":echo $VIMRUNTIME").

You can simply overwrite that file, or you can create your custom C syntax file (which will be loaded by vim instead of the default one) in this location:

$HOME/.vim/syntax/c.vim      (for UNIX)
$HOME/vimfiles/syntax/c.vim  (for PC or OS/2)

(I have never used a Mac so I dunno which one will work for you. You can find out more in the vim help, ":help vimfiles")

Now the fun part. Copy the default "$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim" file to your vimfiles directory ("$HOME/.vim/syntax/c.vim" for UNIX), and edit it by adding these lines:

" Highlight Class and Function names
syn match    cCustomParen    "(" contains=cParen,cCppParen
syn match    cCustomFunc     "\w\+\s*(" contains=cCustomParen
syn match    cCustomScope    "::"
syn match    cCustomClass    "\w\+\s*::" contains=cCustomScope

hi def link cCustomFunc  Function
hi def link cCustomClass Function

That's it! Now functions and class names will be highlighted with the color defined in the "Function" highlight (":hi Function"). If you want to customize colors, you can change the last two lines above to something like this:

hi def cCustomFunc  gui=bold guifg=yellowgreen
hi def cCustomClass gui=reverse guifg=#00FF00

or you can leave the C syntax file alone and define colors in your vimrc file (":help vimrc"):

hi cCustomFunc  gui=bold guifg=yellowgreen
hi cCustomClass gui=reverse guifg=#00FF00

(Note the absence of the "def" keyword, go to ":help highlight-default" for details). For the available parameters to the ":hi" command see ":help :highlight".

You can find the complete c.vim file for Vim 7.2 on this link (Note: only use this if you have a non-modified Vim, version 7.2):

http://pastebin.com/f33aeab77

And the obligatory screenshot:

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2073/vimy.png (Sorry for imageshack)

Answer 5

Eduardo, your options is nice (class and function hi), but it's also highlight last bracket ")", if code construction not in one line, like this:

        Console.WriteLine("object smStream is = {0}, sstrMemW is = {1}"
                , smStream == null ? true : false
                , sstrMemW == null ? true : false

                ); // here is wrong highlight

what you think about it? i'm not sportsmen to correct regex expression :) , could you help ?

Answer 6

Sergey, changing the first line from syn match cCustomParen "(" contains=cParen,cCppParen to syn match cCustomParen "(" contains=cParen contains=cCppParen seems to fix it for me.

Answer 7

Hi all,

I have posted a similar question on #defines here- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1512602/highlighting-defined-value-in-vim

Your pointers/ suggestions are appreciated.

I'm hoping there is a way to highlight this like the cool answer suggested by Eduardo above.

Answer 8

Try using this plugin http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2646 Its does all ctags highlighting very efficiently for you