Vim_format_quickfix.md

A simplified variant of vim-addon-qf-layout.

• Format location like grep -H
• Align start of contents from all files
• Sperate location and contents with |

function! QuickFixFormat()
  let qflist = map(getqflist(),
    \ "extend(v:val, {'filename' : bufname(v:val.bufnr)})")

  let prefix_len = max(map(copy(qflist),
    \ "strchars(v:val.filename . ':' . v:val.lnum)"))

  let fmt = '%-' . prefix_len . 's' . '%s'

  setlocal modifiable

  call setline('1', map(qflist,
    \ "printf(fmt, v:val.filename . ':' . v:val.lnum, ' | ' . v:val.text)"))

  setlocal nomodifiable nomodified
endfunction

augroup QuickFixFormat
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufReadPost quickfix
    \ if !getwininfo(win_getid())[0]['loclist']
    \ |   call QuickFixFormat
    \ | endif
augroup END

As an update Vim 8.2.0869 introduces the quickfixtextfunc option which can be set to a function intended to format the contents of the quickfix window. However this function is called for each entry rather than the entire list. As such it is useless for aligning text other than on predetermined fixed boundaries.