I made an awesome discovery recently on vim. It was by accident. So, here is the jist:

TL;DR

before insert after
"hello |world" ci" "|"
| "hello world" ci" "|"

The | character represents your cursor position. Notice how it is placed between the quotes after the command.

Full Jist

If you don’t know what w, y or / does in vim, I’ll suggest trying out vimtutor. Very hepful!
Now, let’s break down the above commad (ci").

Synopsys

Normal mode: \<operator-pending-command\>[<inner/A\>]<motion|text-object\>
Breakdown:

  • c: operator-pending-command - These are commands that requires a motion or text object to operate on. They include y, d and c.
  • i: [optional] inner. You can use either i for inner or a to include delimiteres if any. For text objects, I think it is compulsory. It has a specific effect with motions (explained later).
  • ": text-object - This is a text object. i.e. The quotes and everything within it. Other text objects include (, { and `’.
  • w: motion - Any motion. e.g. w, j or s.

Explanation

These are normal mode commands. Just type <ESC> from which ever mode you are to go back to normal mode and execute the commands.
Operator-pending commands are commands that needs more information before it can execute it’s action. e.g. When you want to delete a text in vim, the command is d. But how will vim know what you want to delete? Tell it! You have a lot of options. You can use motions to delete “motionwise”. i.e. dw to delete word, or d$ to delete to the end of the line. Another option is to specify a text-object.
Now, text-objects is a fancy word for group of text . It could be a sentence (s), a paragraph (p), or method (]m). The " in the above example represents text withing quotes.
What about the inner (i)|A (a) part? Normally, when you specify a motion, it starts from the position of your cursor. But with i (inner) and a (A), you can perform the action on the whole … motion / text-object. i.e. iw means inner word, excluding spaces around. It works for both text-objects and motions. Let me show you the difference.

before insert after
"hello |world” ds hello |
hello | world dis |

Without i or a, the action is executed starting from your cursor position. With i or a, context is included.

Step by step guide

  • Open vim: vim file.txt.
  • Go to insert mode: i.
  • Type some text: "Hello Vim World!".
  • Go back to normal mode: \<ESC\>.
  • Execute command: ci".

Examples

I like examples. So, let me give you some:

  • ci": Change text inside quotes.
  • yis: Yank / copy whole sentence.
  • di(: Delete everything inside the parentheses.
  • diw: delete the entire word.
  • =i}: Format everything between braces ({}).
  • saa"( Using sandwich plugin, wrap the things inside the quotes with parentheses. i.e. “hello world” => saa") => (“hello world”).

Over Here

You can use / also. e.g. d/. When you timepress /, it will open the search area for you to type something to search. When you click enter, it will perform the action from your current cursor position to the first result of your search. This one was unexpected for me. I knew about using n but not /. Wonders of vim 😀

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if you don’t practice / try these commands, you will forget it all. But if you keep practising, it will become second nature!
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