What mapping should I add to my .vimrc that will allow me to split a buffer/window vertically/horizontally in VIM?

Question

I just want to be able to split my VIM buffers/windows vertically and/or horizontally with a keyboard shortcut. I would like to use the following shortcuts:

Vertical split

,v

Horizontal split

,h

That would be a , (comma) followed by a v to vertically split a buffer & , (comma) followed by a h to horizontally split a buffer.

Answer 1

You could try to learn directly the commands

<C-w>s
<C-w>v

for the horizontal and vertical splits. I use the mapping

nnoremap ,w <C-w>

for <Cw> so for the splits I type ,ws or ,wv

The advantage of this is that it allows you to use ,w for all the other mappings provided by <Cw>

One last mapping I find useful in this context is

nnoremap ,, <C-w><C-w>

for changing between the various splits.

Answer 2

nnoremap ,v <C-w>v
nnoremap ,h <C-w>s

Answer 3

nnoremap ,v :split<enter>
nnoremap ,h :vsplit<enter>