Count highlighted string length in VIM

Question

I wonder is there a way to count highlighted symbols in vim (including white spaces)?

UPDATE

It shows rows count if my selection is on multiple rows. I need symbols count.

Answer 1

Unless I'm missing something, Vim already does that. If I highlight some text using the mouse or by typing v and moving the cursor, I see at the bottom of the screen

-- VISUAL --                                        12

where the number on the right is the number of highlighted characters.

You can also visually select some region of text and type g Ctrl-G which will show the number of lines, words and bytes selected.

Answer 2

:function VisualLength()
:  exe 'normal "xy'
:  echo "Visual: " . strlen(@x) . "\n"
:  exe 'normal gv'
:endfunction

:map ,q "xy:call VisualLength()<CR>

1. First you yank the current selection (into buffer x)

2. Then you display the length of that buffer: strlen(@x)
   (The -- VISUAL -- displayed in the status line obscures this, so we have to add a newline)

3. Highlight the previous visual range: gv

This doesn't take account of whether the visual mode was line-, character- or block-mode, but it's enough for most cases.