How do I make Ctrl-A increment 007 as decimal instead of octal?

Explanation

If you work with IDs, ticket numbers, or zero-padded counters, Vim's default octal behavior can be surprising. With octal present in nrformats, <C-a> interprets numbers that start with 0 as base-8, so incrementing 007 may behave differently than expected in decimal workflows. Removing octal from nrformats makes <C-a> and <C-x> treat those values as decimal instead.

How it works

:set nrformats-=octal

• nrformats controls how Vim recognizes numbers for increment/decrement
• -=octal removes octal interpretation from the option
• After this, 007 is treated as decimal seven for numeric operations

Example

Before changing the option:

build_007

With cursor on 007, <C-a> can follow octal rules.

After running :set nrformats-=octal, <C-a> increments as decimal (008, then 009, then 010) in the same token.

Tips

• Add this to your config if your codebase uses leading-zero decimals frequently
• Check your current value with :set nrformats?
• You can keep other formats (like hex) while disabling only octal