Date Time Inserter

Date Time Inserter is a simple/basic Neovim plugin that allows you to easily insert the current date and time into your Neovim buffer.

Why?

This plugin does basically the same as the code block below, but this requires the date command to be installed on the system. Therefore it's not always possible to use it on every system, this is exactly what Date Time Inserter tries to solve by using the lua built-in os.date() function. The plugin allows you to insert the date and time into your Neovim buffer on every system regardless of the operating system.

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>dt", ':r! date "+\\%d-\\%m-\\%Y" <CR>', {noremap = true, vim.keymap.set})
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tt", ':r! date "+\\%H:\\%M:\\%S" <CR>', {noremap = true, vim.keymap.set})

Installation

The example below describes how to install the plugin using lazy.nvim, but you can also use other plugin managers to install the plugin. Refer to the documentation of your plugin manager for more information.

{
  'AntonVanAssche/date-time-inserter.nvim',
  version = '*',
  lazy = false,
  opts = {
    -- your configuration here
  }
}

Configuration

You can configure the plugin by adding the following to your init.lua:

Configuring Date Time Inserter in init.vim

While the examples below are in lua, you can adapt them for .vim files by wrapping them in a lua heredoc. However, it's not recommended due to significant slowdowns in Neovim's load time.

lua << END
    require('date-time-inserter').setup()
END

Configuring Date Time Inserter in init.lua

Configure the plugin in your init.lua file, as demonstrated in the example below. The default configuration is shown, and you can customize it by modifying the values of different settings.

local date_time_inserter_status_ok, date_time_inserter = pcall(require, "date-time-inserter")
if not date_time_inserter_status_ok then
    return
end

date_time_inserter.setup {
    date_format = 'MMDDYYYY',
    date_separator = '/',
    date_time_separator = ' at ',
    time_format = 12,
    show_seconds = false,
}

You can customize the following settings:

• date_format: Defines the date structure using Y, M, and D for year, month, and day (e.g., MMDDYYYY → 12/31/2022).
• time_format: Use 12 for 12-hour or 24 for 24-hour time (e.g., 12 → 1:00 PM).
• date_separator: Character separating date parts (e.g., - → 12-31-2022).
• date_time_separator: String separating date and time (e.g., at → 12-31-2022 at 11:59 AM).
• show_seconds: Set true to include seconds (e.g., true → 11:59:41 AM).

If you do not configure Date Time Inserter or leave certain settings unconfigured, it will use its default settings for those settings.

Usage

The plugin provides the following commands, which can be called in normal mode:

• :InsertDate: Inserts the current date into the buffer.
• :InsertTime: Inserts the current time into the buffer.
• :InsertDateTime: Inserts the current date and time into the buffer.

However, it's recommended to use the keybindings instead of the commands.

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>dt", ":InsertDate<CR>", {noremap = true, silent = true})
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tt", ":InsertTime<CR>", {noremap = true, silent = true})
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>dtt", ":InsertDateTime<CR>", {noremap = true, silent = true})

License

Date Time Inserter is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE.md file for more information.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue for any bugs or feature requests.