Vim for Vertica (V4V)

When the best editor meets the best database...

What is V4V

V4V stands for Vim for Vertica. It's a set of VIM plugins and syntax files in order to:

Highlight SQL Vertica "the right way"
Format SQL commands
Run vsql from within VIM getting the results back in VIM
Copy SQL snippets in HTML format into your clipboard

What V4V consists of

V4V consists of:

VIM Syntax file: sqlvertica.vim
VIM File Type plugin: sql.vim
settings to be added to your VIM initialization file: .vimrc

Which tools are used by V4V

V4V uses:

vsql to run you SQL commands. By default vsql is executed with the following options: o -X to exclude local vsqlrc o -i to add execution elapsed o vsql uses standard VSQL_USER``, VSQL_PASSWORD, VSQL_HOST```, etc settings.
A SQL formatter called sqlformat (see in the following section how to install it)
xclip(Linux)/pbcopy(Mac) tool to copy formatted SQL to your clipboard
sed to manipulate the SQL Interpreter (vsql by default) output
GraphViz's dot to transform the Vertica EXPLAIN plan into a graph
xdg-open (Linux) or open to run the PDF visualizer installed on your system

You are free to use a different SQL clients and/or SQL formatters by changing the sql.vim file type plugin.

How to Install V4V

V4V Prerequisites

V4V uses an external SQL formatter. You can use any SQL formatter you like as long as you change the default sqlformat call in the V4V's sql.vim plugin file. The default formatter (sqlformat) can be installed on Linux/Mac as follows:

Downloadpython-sqlparse from https://github.com/andialbrecht/sqlparse
Install the python setup tools: sudo apt install python-setuptools
Install sqlparse: cd sqlparse-master && sudo python setup.py install
Unzip sqlparse archihve: unzip sqlparse-master.zip

This will create the /usr/local/bin/sqlformat executable which is then used by V4V. This tool has several options; check them with sqlfmt --help. The ones used by default in V4V are:

    sqlformat -k upper 
              -s 
              -r 
             --indent_width 4 
             --indent_columns.

You can change default sqlformat behaviour to better suit your needs by modifying V4V's sql.vim plugin.

V4V also uses xclip(Linux) or pbcopy (Mac) to copy formatted and syntax highlighted SQL into your clipboard. To installl xclip under Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install xclip. Mac version doesn't need any installation because pbcopy is available by default.

And, finally, to produce the graphical EXPLAIN plan, V4V uses GraphViz.More specifically the program dot. The installation of this product depends on your operating system... it could be sudo apt install graphviz under Linux Ubuntu, sudo yum install graphviz under Linux CentOS or brew install graphviz on your Mac.

V4V Installation in 4 easy steps

Step 1: Create a backup copy of your .vimrc before modifying it.
Step 2: merge sample.vimrc with your pre-existing copy. The important settings are:

let g:sql_type_default = 'sqlvertica'
nnoremap <Tab> za " Toggle to expand/close folds 
menu 20.351 Edit.Copy\ to\ HTML :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR> 
vnoremenu 1.31 PopUp.Copy\ to\ HTML :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR>

And the CopyToHTML function to copy formatted SQL:

function! CopyToHTML(line1, line2)
"Copy_to_HTML
function! CopyToHTML(line1, line2)
    let g:html_number_lines=0
    let g:html_ignore_folding=1
    let g:html_dynamic_folds=0
    let g:html_use_css=0
    let g:html_font="Courier"
    exec a:line1.','.a:line2.'TOhtml'
    %g/<body/normal k$dgg
    %s/<body\s*\(bgcolor="[^"]*"\)\s*text=\("[^"]*"\).*$/<table \1 width="95%" cellPadding=0><tr><td><font color=\2>/
    %s#</body>\(.\|\n\)*</html>#\='</font></td></tr></table>'#i
    w !pbcopy " Mac: pbcopy, Linux: xclip -selection clipboard
    q!  
endfunction
command! -range=% Copy2HTML :silent call CopyToHTML(<line1>,<line2>)

Step 3: copy V4V's syntax file sqlvertica.vim under your local syntax directory (for example ~/.vim/syntax/)
Step 4: copy V4V's File Type plugin sql.vim under your local after-directory. You can check the location in VIM with :echo &rtp. It could be something like ~/.vim/after/ftplugin (Linux) or ~.vim/ftplugin (Mac).

How to use V4V

Start vim (or its GUI version gvim) and open your SQL file

To FORMAT your SQL:
- Select the lines containing the SQL to be formatted
- Hit F3 or (gvim): right click and select SQL Format
To RUN your SQL:
- Select the lines containing the SQL you want to run
- Hit F4 or (gvim): right click and select SQL run
To EXPLAIN your SQL:
- Select the lines containing the SQL you want to EXPLAIN
- Hit F5 or (gvim): right click and select SQL explain text
To get the graphical EXPLAIN of your SQL:
- Select the lines containing the SQL you want to EXPLAIN
- Hit F6 or (gvim): right click and select SQL explain graph
To EXPAND/CLOSE the result set:
- Hit TAB
To COPY your SQL snippet to HTML:
- Select the lines you want to copy
- Run :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR> or (gvim): right click and select Copy to HTML

How to customize V4V

As we said Vim for Vertica uses - by default - vsql to interact with Vertica. Sometimes you might want to change the standard environment variables used by vsql in V4V to use a different database, or a different host or user.

to check all environment variables used by VSQL: :!set | grep VSQL_
to check individual variables use, for example: :echo $VSQL_USER

To set or change a VSQL environment variable:

:let $VSQL_DATABASE="<my db name>"
:let $VSQL_HOST="<my Vertica host>"
:let $VSQL_PASSWORD="<my secret password>"
:let $VSQL_PORT="5433"
:let $VSQL_USER="<my user>"

You might also want to customise:

the default prefix used by V4V to identify (and fold) commands output: :let vfv_pfx="-- out "
the default location for the temporary files created by VfV: let vfv_tmp="~/._vfv.sql"
the default SQL execution command: :let vfv_sql="vsql -X -i -f " . vfv_tmp . " 2>&1"
the default SQL formatter call: :let vfv_fmt="sqlformat -k upper -s -r --indent_width 4 --indent_columns -"

yakirgb / v4v