Vim Text Objects

Select a word without surrounding white space

Suppose we want to select a word without surrounding white spaces, use the text object iw for inner word using visual mode:

1. Got to normal mode by pressing ESC

2. Type viw at the beginning of a word

3. This will select the inner word

   

Select a word with surrounding white space

Suppose we want to select a word with a surrounding white space, use the text object aw for around a word using visual mode:

1. Got to normal mode by pressing ESC

2. Type vaw at the beginning of a word

3. This will select the word with white space

   

Select text inside a tag

We can select a text within an html or xml tag by using visual selection v and text object it .

1. Go to normal mode py pressing ESC
2. Type vit from anywhere within the html or xml section
3. This will visually select all text inside the tag

All other text objects can also be used to operate on the text inside the tag

1. cit - delete text inside the tag and place in insert mode
2. dit - delete text inside the tag and remain in normal mode
3. cat - delete around tag and place in insert mode
4. dat - delete text around the tag and remain in normal mode