Display number of current buffer

Question

I have a simple requirement: I want to display the number of the buffer I'm currently editing. I don't want to type :buffers (or equivalent) but have this number show up in my status bar thingy along with the file name, current column information etc.

Is there any way to do this? Inbuilt help isn't very instructive on this point.

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 05 '11 at 06:18

:h statusline shows every bit of help required.

I have the following in my .vimrc

" Status Line {  
        set laststatus=2                             " always show statusbar  
        set statusline=  
        set statusline+=%-10.3n\                     " buffer number  
        set statusline+=%f\                          " filename   
        set statusline+=%h%m%r%w                     " status flags  
        set statusline+=\[%{strlen(&ft)?&ft:'none'}] " file type  
        set statusline+=%=                           " right align remainder  
        set statusline+=0x%-8B                       " character value  
        set statusline+=%-14(%l,%c%V%)               " line, character  
        set statusline+=%<%P                         " file position  
"}

To clarify, the lines with braces in aren't actually vim syntax, right? That's just comments that mimic (for example) C? — Len, Aug 25 '20 at 05:21

score 34 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '12 at 04:15

34

To get the answer without configuring anything:

:echo bufnr('%')

answered Jun 24 '12 at 04:15

Benjamin Atkin

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and I would shorten it by a custom command ``` command Bfno :echo bufnr('%') ``` – gema Nov 21 '19 at 07:05

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 05 '11 at 06:18

4

You need %n listed in your statusline setting. Try :help statusline in vim.

answered Apr 05 '11 at 06:18

zindel

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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 07 '15 at 12:28

1

set statusline=%!bufnr('%')

Also see :help status-line

edited Dec 07 '15 at 12:28

Stefan van den Akker

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answered Apr 05 '11 at 06:20

holygeek

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Display number of current buffer

4 Answers4