Commit: patch 9.2.0538: Cannot keep leading whitespace in %{} statusline expr

[Christian Brabandt]

patch 9.2.0538: Cannot keep leading whitespace in %{} statusline expr

Commit: https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/e8d7a40b98ce4062834399f097216213a0088ff3
Author: glepnir <gleph...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon May 25 17:30:22 2026 +0000

patch 9.2.0538: Cannot keep leading whitespace in %{} statusline expr

Problem: A leading space in the result of a %{} item is sometimes
stripped, and an all-digit result is converted to a number.
Solution: Add %0{} atom which inserts the expression result verbatim
(glepnir)

fixes: #3898
closes: #20315

Signed-off-by: glepnir <gleph...@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <c...@256bit.org>

diff --git a/runtime/doc/options.txt b/runtime/doc/options.txt
index 6dc518cc7..0ef255210 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/options.txt
+++ b/runtime/doc/options.txt
@@ -8670,7 +8670,8 @@ A jump table for the options with a short description can be found at |Q_op|.
{ NF Evaluate expression between '%{' and '}' and substitute result.
Note that there is no '%' before the closing '}'. The
expression cannot contain a '}' character, call a function to
- work around that. See |stl-%{| below.
+ work around that. See |stl-%{| below. Use '%0{' to insert the
+ result verbatim.
{% - This is almost same as { except the result of the expression is
re-evaluated as a statusline format string. Thus if the
return value of expr contains % items they will get expanded.
@@ -8797,6 +8798,8 @@ A jump table for the options with a short description can be found at |Q_op|.
A result of all digits is regarded a number for display purposes.
Otherwise the result is taken as flag text and applied to the rules
described above.
+ *stl-%0{*
+ With %0{ neither applies: the result is inserted as a literal string.

Watch out for errors in expressions. They may render Vim unusable!
If you are stuck, hold down ':' or 'Q' to get a prompt, then quit and
diff --git a/runtime/doc/tags b/runtime/doc/tags
index 229186494..714a9b7db 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/tags
+++ b/runtime/doc/tags
@@ -10562,6 +10562,7 @@ static-tag tagsrch.txt /*static-tag*
status-line windows.txt /*status-line*
statusmsg-variable eval.txt /*statusmsg-variable*
stl-%! options.txt /*stl-%!*
+stl-%0{ options.txt /*stl-%0{*
stl-%@ options.txt /*stl-%@*
stl-%[FuncName] options.txt /*stl-%[FuncName]*
stl-%{ options.txt /*stl-%{*
diff --git a/runtime/doc/version9.txt b/runtime/doc/version9.txt
index 2bea93a32..7c2ace84e 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/version9.txt
+++ b/runtime/doc/version9.txt
@@ -52640,6 +52640,8 @@ Other ~
well.
- New argument handling for user commands |:command-nargs| using the "-nars=_"
attribute to handle completion of single arguments with spaces as expected.
+- Support %0{} in 'statusline' to insert the expression result verbatim and
+ not drop leading spaces |stl-%0{|.

Platform specific ~
-----------------
diff --git a/src/buffer.c b/src/buffer.c
index a903ab375..07176fbc4 100644
--- a/src/buffer.c
+++ b/src/buffer.c
@@ -5041,7 +5041,8 @@ build_stl_str_hl_local(

if (reevaluate)
s++;
- itemisflag = TRUE;
+ // %0{} keeps the result verbatim
+ itemisflag = zeropad ? FALSE : TRUE;
t = p;
while ((*s != '}' || (reevaluate && s[-1] != '%'))
&& *s != NUL && p + 1 < out + outlen)
@@ -5078,7 +5079,7 @@ build_stl_str_hl_local(
do_unlet((char_u *)"g:actual_curbuf", TRUE);
do_unlet((char_u *)"g:actual_curwin", TRUE);

- if (str != NULL && *str != NUL)
+ if (!zeropad && str != NULL && *str != NUL)
{
if (*skipdigits(str) == NUL)
{
diff --git a/src/testdir/test_statusline.vim b/src/testdir/test_statusline.vim
index 34aa94e4c..48c7bb669 100644
--- a/src/testdir/test_statusline.vim
+++ b/src/testdir/test_statusline.vim
@@ -282,6 +282,16 @@ func Test_statusline()
call assert_match('^vimLineComment\s*$', s:get_statusline())
syntax off

+ " %0{: result of expression is inserted verbatim
+ set statusline=%{'\ x'}
+ call assert_match('^x\s*$', s:get_statusline())
+ set statusline=%0{'\ x'}
+ call assert_match('^ x\s*$', s:get_statusline())
+ set statusline=%{'000'}
+ call assert_match('^0\s*$', s:get_statusline())
+ set statusline=%0{'000'}
+ call assert_match('^000\s*$', s:get_statusline())
+
"%{%expr%}: evaluates expressions present in result of expr
func! Inner_eval()
return '%n some other text'
diff --git a/src/version.c b/src/version.c
index f86259cc9..0707c875d 100644
--- a/src/version.c
+++ b/src/version.c
@@ -729,6 +729,8 @@ static char *(features[]) =

static int included_patches[] =
{ /* Add new patch number below this line */
+/**/
+ 538,
/**/
537,
/**/