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global-variablesvim

What is the difference between ‘mapleader’ and ‘g:mapleader’ in Vim?

I don’t understand the difference between let mapleader="," and let g:mapleader=",". I know that g: means that it’s a global variable, but I don’t clearly understand the difference. Which one should I use in my .vimrc file?

Solution

  • If the aforementioned statements are both located outside of function definitions, they have the identical effect of setting a global variable. However, if the first statement (without the g: prefix) is used in a function body, it defines a variable local to that function. See :help internal-variables and especially :helpg In a function:.

    Hence, outside function definitions one can access the global map-leader variable simply as mapleader.