operator,
the true power of Vim

Basic usage

1. Start Visual mode, v
2. Select text by moving the cursor, hhjjkkll
3. Do something on it. d

Example of something:

• d - delete
• y - yank (copy)
• > - indent
• < - unindent
• ...

Advanced usage

There are 3 variants of Visual mode:

• characterwise Visual mode - v
• linewise Visual mode - V
• blockwise Visual mode - <C-v>

Do something on *wise text.

• vjjjd - delete several lines and characters
• Vjjjd - delete 4 lines
• <C-v>jjjd - delete 4 characters at the same column

Summary

Merits of Visual mode:

• Interactive
• Visualized
• Easy to understand
• Similar to drag-and-type editing in ordinary editors

So Visual mode is quite useful for beginners.

See also :help Visual-mode

What is "motion"?

Vim has various motions.

motion is a command to move the cursor.

Example of motions:

• w - next word
• } - next paragraph
• % - matched parenthes - ([{}])
• `] - the end of the last changed text
• ...

See also :help Q_lr

Combination

Visual mode + various motions =

• Effective selection
• Less typing
• Fast editing

But...

Recall that Visual mode is:

• Interactive
• Visualized
• Easy to understand
• Similar to drag-and-type editing in ordinary editors

... Similar to ordinary editors?

So why don't you use them instead of Vim, the strange editor?

You still have a lot of work to do.

What is "operator"?

Recall the last description of Visual mode:

1. Start Visual mode, v
2. Select text by moving the cursor, hhjjkkll
3. Do something on it. d

something is called an operator.

operator is a command to edit a portion of text.

Basic usage

operator edits on the selected text in Visual mode. But

operator can also be used in Normal mode. If so,

operator takes a motion to determine text to be edited.

Example of usage:

• dw - delete text from the cursor to the next word
• y} - yank text from the cursor to the next paragraph
• >% - indent text between a pair of parenthes ([{}])
• ...

Orthogonality

operators and motions are orthogonal, so:

Once you learn a new motion,

you can do edit on various portions of text with operators you learned.

Once you learn a new operator,

you can do new kind of edit with various motions you learned.

In other editors, you have to learn many comibations of them. kill-line, kill-sentence, kill-pragraph, kill-sexp, ... too-many-to-learn

inclusive/exclusive (advanced)

{operator}{motion} is similar to v{motion}{operator}

But there are 2 types of motions:

inclusive motion

works as same as v{motion}{operator}

exclusive motion

the character at the destination of motion is not affected

The differences are natural - You don't need to be conscious of the types of motions.

*wise (advanced)

There are 3 types of the effects of operators:

• characterwise
• linewise
• blockwise

*wise can be varied by operator and motion

• dw - characterwise - delete a word
• >j - linewise - indent 2 lines
• dj - linewise - delete 2 lines

Forcing *wise (advanced)

You can force *wise with the following keys:

• v - characterwise
• V - linewise
• <C-v> - blockwise

Usage: {operator}{*wise-specifier}{motion}

• dvj - characterwise
• dVj - linewise
• d<C-v>j - blockwise

Summary

The merits of operators are:

• Less typing - no need to type a key to start Visual mode
• Intuitive - do something on it
• Orthogonality - various combinations to edit various portions

In most cases, you can specify some portion of text by a single motion, so you don't need to use Visual mode often.

Basic usage

Text object is a special kind of motion

Text object can be used in Visual mode or Operator-pending mode (i.e., after an operator)

Text object selects a kind of object, for example:

• aw - selects a word
• as - selects a sentence
• ap - selects a paragraph
• ...

See also :help text-objects

Comparison

Some text objects are similar to some motions, but

You don't need to adjust the cursor

• dw - delete from the cursor to the next word (so, to delete a word, you have to move the cursor at the beginnig of the word)
• daw - delete a word regardless of the cursor position

You'll be able to edit more effectively with text objects

Once you master text objects...

You'll want to write your own text objects

Examples:

• selects a function,
• selects a fold,
• selects a date and/or time,
• ...

But it's too hard for usual Vimmers to write text objects in valid and right way

How to write your own text objects

textobj-user - a library to write new text objects - http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2100

call textobj#user#plugin('datetime', {
\      'full': {'select': ['adf', 'idf'],
\               '*pattern*': s:REGEXP_FULL},
\    })

• Define simple text objects by a regular expression (you can also use a function)
• Set up right key mappings for text objects
• Be happy because you don't need to know the dark side of Vim script