Question

I am trying to format some groovy code in vim

Firstly I the command type “:set smartindent”

… then I type the command “:=%”

and the error I get is the following:

E488: Trailing characters

Here is the code I am trying to format:

import groovy.util.GroovyTestCase

class MyTest extends GroovyTestCase {

        void testSomething() {
                assert 1 == 1
    assert 2 + 2 == 4 : "We're in trouble, arithmetic is broken"
    }

}

What am I doing wrong???
Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I don’t think that :=% is supposed to work because % is not a motion.

If you want to format the whole file, you should rather use gg=G

Otherwise, select an area and use =, for example vi}=, you don’t have to enter command mode to reformat (Command mode is when you are entering :)