Vim inoremap for specific filetypes

Question

I\'ve added some simple inoremap commands to my .vimrc to help with parens and brackets completion, but I only want them to apply to php files.

Answer 1

You need to do 2 things:

• create a mapping local to a specific buffer by using the option for inoremap.
• load the mappings for just a specific filetype.

This can be done via an autocommand in your .vimrc like so:

autocmd FileType php inoremap  ( ()i

The other way option is by creating a filetype plugin. (see :h ftplugin for more details)

A simple example is do create a file named, ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/php.vim and place your mappings inside like so:

inoremap  ( ()i
inoremap  { {}ko
inoremap  i

I personally lean more towards the ftplugin approach but having a everything in your .vimrc file can be nice.