I set the setting in the vi file to spaces, and I want to verify that it is working correctly is there a way to test it ?
I know it is a trivial question but I am new to vi editor
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2Try this answer: [Make Vim show ALL white spaces as a character](http://stackoverflow.com/a/29787362/5358968). Note this question belongs in the [vi and vim SE](http://vi.stackexchange.com/) – Steve Aug 12 '16 at 10:21
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1You could also just navigate using the arrow keys or `hjkl` and if your cursor jumps over an area, then it is a tab. If it moves one position at a time, then it is spaces. – reynoldsnlp Aug 12 '16 at 11:01
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The correct answer is fiddling with `:set list` but a quick way to test is, with `set hlsearch` on (which it should either way) just do `/ ` (that's a search with one space) or `/\t` to highlight tabs. – iovis Aug 12 '16 at 11:37
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take a look at :set list / :help list
you can set listchars like so:
set listchars=tab:>-,trail:~,extends:>,precedes:< " mark all kinds of whitespace
as an example, this setting will show tabs as > so you know where your tabs are.
useful links: Make Vim show ALL white spaces as a character
