nvim-various-textobjs 🟪🔷🟡

Bundle of more than 30 new text objects 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

text object	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 downwards 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	segment of a camelCase, snake_case, and kebab-case words	outer includes one trailing/leading _ or -	-	iS/aS	all
toNextClosingBracket	from cursor to next closing ], ), or }, can span multiple lines	-	small	C	all
toNextQuotationMark	from cursor to next unescaped ", ', or `, can span multiple lines	-	small	Q	all
anyQuote	between any unescaped ", ', or ` in one line	outer includes the quotation marks	small	iq/aq	all
anyBracket	between any (), [], or {} in one 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 & trailing spaces	small, if on blank	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 assignment, excluding trailing comment (does not work for multi-line assignments)	outer includes trailing , or ;	small	iv/av	all
key	key of key-value pair, or left side of an assignment	outer includes the = or :	small	ik/ak	all
url	http links or any other protocol	-	big	L	all
number	numbers, similar to <C-a>	inner: only digits, outer: number including minus sign and decimal point	small	in/an	all
diagnostic	nvim diagnostic	-	∞	!	all
closedFold	closed fold	outer includes one line after the last folded line	big	iz/az	all
chainMember	section of a chain connected with . (or :) like foo.bar or foo.baz(para)	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 (paste-manipulation plugins may interfere)	-	-	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 such as .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); requires python Treesitter parser	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 = "VeryLazy",
	opts = { 
		keymaps = {
			useDefaults = true 
		}
	},
},

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

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

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

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

Tip

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

Configuration

Options

The .setup() call is optional if you do not want to use the default keymaps.

-- default config
require("various-textobjs").setup {
	keymaps = {
		-- See overview table in README for the defaults. (Note that lazy-loading
		-- this plugin, the default keymaps cannot be set up. if you set this to
		-- `true`, you thus need to add `lazy = false` to your lazy.nvim config.)
		useDefaults = false,

		-- disable only some default keymaps, for example { "ai", "!" }
		-- (only relevant when you set `useDefaults = true`)
		---@type string[]
		disabledDefaults = {},
	},

	forwardLooking = {
		-- Number of lines to seek forwards for a text object. See the overview
		-- table in the README for which text object uses which value.
		small = 5,
		big = 15,
	},
	behavior = {
		-- save position in jumplist when using text objects
		jumplist = true, 
	},

	-- extra configuration for specific text objects
	textobjs = {
		indentation = {
			-- `false`: only indentation decreases delimit the text object
			-- `true`: indentation decreases as well as blank lines serve as delimiter
			blanksAreDelimiter = false,
		},
		subword = {
			-- When deleting the start of a camelCased word, the result should
			-- still be camelCased and not PascalCased (see #113).
			noCamelToPascalCase = true,
		},
		diagnostic = {
			wrap = true,
		},
	},

	notify = {
		icon = "󰠱", -- only used with notification plugins like `nvim-notify`
		whenObjectNotFound = true,
	},

	-- show debugging messages on use of certain text objects
	debug = false,
}

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 text object names from the overview table.

Note

For dot-repeat to work, you have to call the motions as Ex-commands. Using function() require("various-textobjs").diagnostic() end as third argument of the keymap will not 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". The only exception is the indentation text object:

-- 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>'
)

Advanced usage / API

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

Go to next occurrence of a text object

When called in normal mode, nvim-various-textobjs selects the next occurrence of the text object. Thus, you can easily create custom motions that go to the next occurrence of the text object:

local function gotoNextInnerNumber()
	require("various-textobjs").number("inner")
	local mode = vim.fn.mode()
	if mode:find("[Vv]") then -- only switches to visual when textobj found
		vim.cmd.normal { mode, bang = true } -- leaves visual mode
	end
end,

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() == "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.

vim.keymap.set("n", "gx", function()
	require("various-textobjs").url()
	local foundURL = vim.fn.mode() == "v"
	if foundURL then
		vim.cmd.normal('"zy')
		local url = vim.fn.getreg("z")
		vim.ui.open(url) -- requires nvim 0.10
		return
	end

	-- find all URLs in buffer
	local urlPattern = [[%l%l%l-://[^%s)"'`]+]]
	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
	vim.ui.select(urls, { prompt = "Select URL:" }, function(choice)
		if not choice then return end
		vim.ui.open(url) -- requires nvim 0.10
	end)
end, { desc = "URL Opener" })

Delete surrounding indentation

Using the indentation text object, 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 text object (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 text object. (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 text object. (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.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 text object 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 text objects do not match multi-line objects. Most notably, this affects the value text object.
• 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 text objects already offered by nvim-treesitter-textobjects.

Other text object plugins

• treesitter-textobjects
• treesitter-textsubjects
• mini.ai

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

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• ResearchGate
• LinkedIn