nvim-various-textobjs 🟪🔷🟡

Bundle of more than 30 new textobjects for Neovim.

Table of Contents

• List of Text Objects
• Installation
• Configuration
  • Options
  • Use your own keybindings
• Advanced Usage / API
  • ii on unindented line should select entire buffer
  • Smarter gx
  • Delete Surrounding Indentation
  • Yank Surrounding Indentation
  • Indent Last Paste
  • Other Ideas?
• Limitations & Non-Goals
• Other Text Object Plugins
• Credits

List of Text Objects

textobject	description	inner / outer	forward-seeking	default keymaps	filetypes (for default keymaps)
indentation	surrounding lines with same or higher indentation	see overview from vim-indent-object	-	ii, ai, aI, (iI)	all
restOfIndentation	lines down with same or higher indentation	-	-	R	all
greedyOuterIndentation	outer indentation, expanded to blank lines; useful to get functions with annotations	outer includes a blank, like ap/ip	-	ag/ig	all
subword	like iw, but treating - and _ as word delimiters and only part of camelCase	outer includes trailing _,-, or space	-	iS/aS	all
toNextClosingBracket	from cursor to next closing ], ), or }	-	small	C	all
toNextQuotationMark	from cursor to next unescaped1 ", ', or `	-	small	Q	all
anyQuote	between any unescaped1 ", ', or ` in a line	outer includes the quotation marks	small	iq/aq	all
anyBracket	between any (), [], or {} in a line	outer includes the brackets	small	io/ao	all
restOfParagraph	like }, but linewise	-	-	r	all
entireBuffer	entire buffer as one text object	-	-	gG	all
nearEoL	from cursor position to end of line, minus one character	-	-	n	all
lineCharacterwise	current line, but characterwise	outer includes indentation and trailing spaces	-	i_/a_	all
column	column down until indent or shorter line. Accepts {count} for multiple columns.	-	-	|	all
value	value of key-value pair, or right side of a assignment, excl. trailing comment (in a line)	outer includes trailing commas or semicolons	small	iv/av	all
key	key of key-value pair, or left side of a assignment	outer includes the = or :	small	ik/ak	all
url	works with http[s] or any other protocol	-	big	L	all
number	numbers, similar to <C-a>	inner: only pure digits, outer: number including minus sign and decimal point	small	in/an	all
diagnostic	LSP diagnostic (requires built-in LSP)	-	∞	!	all
closedFold	closed fold	outer includes one line after the last folded line	big	iz/az	all
chainMember	field with optional call, like .foo(param) or .bar	outer includes the leading . (or :)	small	im/am	all
visibleInWindow	all lines visible in the current window	-	-	gw	all
restOfWindow	from the cursorline to the last line in the window	-	-	gW	all
lastChange	Last non-deletion-change, yank, or paste.2	-	-	g;	all
mdlink	markdown link like [title](url)	inner is only the link title (between the [])	small	il/al	markdown, toml
mdEmphasis	markdown text enclosed by *, **, _, __, ~~, or ==	inner is only the emphasis content	small	ie/ae	markdown
mdFencedCodeBlock	markdown fenced code (enclosed by three backticks)	outer includes the enclosing backticks	big	iC/aC	markdown
cssSelector	class in CSS like .my-class	outer includes trailing comma and space	small	ic/ac	css, scss
cssColor	color in CSS (hex, rgb, or hsl)	inner includes only the color value	small	i#/a#	css, scss
htmlAttribute	attribute in html/xml like href="foobar.com"	inner is only the value inside the quotes	small	ix/ax	html, xml, css, scss, vue
doubleSquareBrackets	text enclosed by [[]]	outer includes the four square brackets	small	iD/aD	lua, shell, neorg, markdown
shellPipe	segment until/after a pipe character (|)	outer includes the pipe	small	iP/aP	bash, zsh, fish, sh
pyTripleQuotes	python strings surrounded by three quotes (regular or f-string)	inner excludes the """ or '''	-	iy/ay	python
notebookCell	cell delimited by double percent comment, such as # %%	outer includes the bottom cell border	-	iN/aN	all

Installation

Variant 1: Have nvim-various-textobjs set up all the keybindings from the table above for you.

-- lazy.nvim
{
	"chrisgrieser/nvim-various-textobjs",
	event = "UIEnter",
	opts = { useDefaultKeymaps = true },
},

-- packer
use {
	"chrisgrieser/nvim-various-textobjs",
	config = function () 
		require("various-textobjs").setup({ useDefaultKeymaps = true })
	end,
}

Variant 2: Use your own keybindings. See the Configuration section for information on setting your own keymaps.

-- lazy.nvim
{
	"chrisgrieser/nvim-various-textobjs",
	lazy = true,
	keys = {
		-- ...
	},
},

-- packer
use { "chrisgrieser/nvim-various-textobjs" }

Tip

You can also use the disabledKeymaps config option to disable only some default keymaps.

Configuration

Options

The .setup() call is optional if you are fine with the defaults below.

-- default config
require("various-textobjs").setup {
	-- set to 0 to only look in the current line
	lookForwardSmall = 5,
	lookForwardBig = 15,

	-- use suggested keymaps (see overview table in README)
	useDefaultKeymaps = false,

	-- disable only some default keymaps, e.g. { "ai", "ii" }
	disabledKeymaps = {},

	-- display notification if a text object is not found
	notifyNotFound = true,
}

Use your own keybindings

If you want to set your own keybindings, you can do so by calling the respective functions. The function names correspond to the textobject names from the overview table.

Note

For dot-repeat to work, you have to call the motions as Ex-commands. When using function() require("various-textobjs").diagnostic() end as third argument of the keymap, dot-repeatability is not going to work.

-- example: `U` for url textobj
vim.keymap.set({ "o", "x" }, "U", '<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").url()<CR>')

-- example: `as` for outer subword, `is` for inner subword
vim.keymap.set({ "o", "x" }, "as", '<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").subword("outer")<CR>')
vim.keymap.set({ "o", "x" }, "is", '<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").subword("inner")<CR>')

For most text objects, there is only one parameter which accepts "inner" or "outer". There are two exceptions for that:

-- 1. THE INDENTATION TEXTOBJ requires two parameters, the first for
-- exclusion of the starting border, the second for the exclusion of ending border
vim.keymap.set(
	{ "o", "x" },
	"ii",
	'<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").indentation("inner", "inner")<CR>'
)
vim.keymap.set(
	{ "o", "x" },
	"ai",
	'<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").indentation("outer", "inner")<CR>'
)

-- an additional parameter can be passed to control whether blank lines are included
vim.keymap.set(
	{ "o", "x" },
	"ai",
	'<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").indentation("outer", "inner", "noBlanks")<CR>'
)

-- 2. THE DIAGNOSTIC TEXTOBJ accepts `"wrap"` or `"nowrap"`
vim.keymap.set({ "o", "x" }, "!", '<cmd>lua require("various-textobjs").diagnostic("wrap")<CR>')

Advanced Usage / API

All textobjects can also be used as an API to modify their behavior or create custom commands. Here are some examples:

ii on unindented line should select entire buffer

Using a simple if-else-block, you can create a hybrid of the inner indentation text object and the entire-buffer text object, if you prefer that kind of behavior:

-- when on unindented line, `ii` should select entire buffer
vim.keymap.set("o", "ii", function()
	if vim.fn.indent(".") == 0 then
		require("various-textobjs").entireBuffer()
	else
		require("various-textobjs").indentation("inner", "inner")
	end
end)

Smarter gx

The code below retrieves the next URL (within the amount of lines configured in the setup call), and opens it in your browser. As opposed to vim's built-in gx, this is forward-seeking, meaning your cursor does not have to stand on the URL.

vim.keymap.set("n", "gx", function()
	-- select URL
	require("various-textobjs").url()

	-- plugin only switches to visual mode when textobj is found
	local foundURL = vim.fn.mode():find("v")
	if not foundURL then return end

	-- retrieve URL with the z-register as intermediary
	vim.cmd.normal { '"zy', bang = true }
	local url = vim.fn.getreg("z")
	vim.ui.open(url) -- requires nvim 0.10
end, { desc = "URL Opener" })

You could go even further: When no URL can be found by various-textobjs, you could retrieve all URLs in the buffer and select one to open. (The URL-pattern used by this plugin is exposed for this purpose.)

vim.keymap.set("n", "gx", function()
	require("various-textobjs").url()
	local foundURL = vim.fn.mode():find("v")
	if foundURL then
		vim.cmd.normal('"zy')
		local url = vim.fn.getreg("z")
		vim.ui.open(url)
	else
		-- find all URLs in buffer
		local urlPattern = require("various-textobjs.charwise-textobjs").urlPattern
		local bufText = table.concat(vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(0, 0, -1, false), "\n")
		local urls = {}
		for url in bufText:gmatch(urlPattern) do
			table.insert(urls, url)
		end
		if #urls == 0 then return end

		-- select one, use a plugin like dressing.nvim for nicer UI for
		-- `vim.ui.select`
		vim.ui.select(urls, { prompt = "Select URL:" }, function(choice)
			if choice then vim.ui.open(choice) end
		end)
	end
end, { desc = "URL Opener" })

Delete Surrounding Indentation

Using the indentation textobject, you can also create custom indentation-related utilities. A common operation is to remove the line before and after an indentation. Take for example this case where you are removing the foo condition:

-- before
if foo then
	print("bar") -- <- cursor is on this line
	print("baz")
end

-- after
print("bar")
print("baz")

The code below achieves this by dedenting the inner indentation textobject (essentially running <ii), and deleting the two lines surrounding it. As for the mapping, dsi should make sense since this command is similar to the ds operator from vim-surround but performed on an indentation textobject. (It is also an intuitive mnemonic: delete surrounding indentation.)

vim.keymap.set("n", "dsi", function()
	-- select outer indentation
	require("various-textobjs").indentation("outer", "outer")

	-- plugin only switches to visual mode when a textobj has been found
	local indentationFound = vim.fn.mode():find("V")
	if not indentationFound then return end

	-- dedent indentation
	vim.cmd.normal { "<", bang = true }

	-- delete surrounding lines
	local endBorderLn = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_mark(0, ">")[1]
	local startBorderLn = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_mark(0, "<")[1]
	vim.cmd(tostring(endBorderLn) .. " delete") -- delete end first so line index is not shifted
	vim.cmd(tostring(startBorderLn) .. " delete")
end, { desc = "Delete Surrounding Indentation" })

Yank Surrounding Indentation

Similarly, you can also create a ysii command to yank the two lines surrounding an indentation textobject. (Not using ysi, since that blocks surround commands like ysi)). Using nvim_win_[gs]et_cursor(), you make the operation sticky, meaning the cursor is not moved. vim.highlight.range is used to highlight the yanked text, to imitate the effect of vim.highlight.yank.

vim.keymap.set("n", "ysii", function()
	local startPos = vim.api.nvim_win_get_cursor(0)

	-- identify start- and end-border
	require("various-textobjs").indentation("outer", "outer")
	local indentationFound = vim.fn.mode():find("V")
	if not indentationFound then return end
	vim.cmd.normal { "V", bang = true } -- leave visual mode so the '< '> marks are set

	-- copy them into the + register
	local startLn = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_mark(0, "<")[1] - 1
	local endLn = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_mark(0, ">")[1] - 1
	local startLine = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(0, startLn, startLn + 1, false)[1]
	local endLine = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(0, endLn, endLn + 1, false)[1]
	vim.fn.setreg("+", startLine .. "\n" .. endLine .. "\n")

	-- highlight yanked text
	local ns = vim.api.nvim_create_namespace("ysi")
	vim.api.nvim_buf_add_highlight(0, ns, "IncSearch", startLn, 0, -1)
	vim.api.nvim_buf_add_highlight(0, ns, "IncSearch", endLn, 0, -1)
	vim.defer_fn(function() vim.api.nvim_buf_clear_namespace(0, ns, 0, -1) end, 1000)

	-- restore cursor position
	vim.api.nvim_win_set_cursor(0, startPos)
end, { desc = "Yank surrounding indentation" })

Indent Last Paste

The lastChange textobject can be used to indent the last text that was pasted. This is useful in languages such as Python where indentation is meaningful and thus formatters are not able to automatically indent everything for you.

If you do not use P for upwards paste, "shift paste" serves as a great mnemonic.

vim.keymap.set("n", "P", function()
	require("various-textobjs").lastChange()
	local changeFound = vim.fn.mode():find("v")
	if changeFound then vim.cmd.normal { ">", bang = true } end
end

Other Ideas?

If you have some other useful ideas, feel free to share them in this repo's discussion page.

Limitations & Non-Goals

• This plugin uses pattern matching, so it can be inaccurate in some edge cases.
• The characterwise textobjects do not match multi-line objects. Most notably, this affects the value textobject.
• nvim-treesitter-textobjects already does an excellent job when it comes to using Treesitter for text objects, such as function arguments or loops. This plugin's goal is therefore not to provide textobjects already offered by nvim-treesitter-textobjects.

Other Text Object Plugins

• treesitter-textobjects
• treesitter-textsubjects
• ts-hint-textobject
• mini.ai
• targets.vim

Credits

Thanks

• To the Valuable Dev for their blog post on how to get started with creating custom text objects.
• To @vypxl and @ii14 for figuring out dot-repeatability.

In my day job, I am a sociologist studying the social mechanisms underlying the digital economy. For my PhD project, I investigate the governance of the app economy and how software ecosystems manage the tension between innovation and compatibility. If you are interested in this subject, feel free to get in touch.

I also occasionally blog about vim: Nano Tips for Vim

• Academic Website
• Mastodon
• ResearchGate
• LinkedIn

Footnotes

1. This respects vim's quoteescape option. ↩ ↩²

2. The lastChange textobject does not work well with plugins that manipulate paste operations such as yanky.nvim or plugins that auto-save the buffer. ↩