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nvim-various-textobjs 🟪🔷🟡

Bundle of more than 30 new textobjects for Neovim.

• List of Text Objects
• Non-Goals
• 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
• Other Text Object Plugins
• Credits

List of Text Objects

Non-Goals

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.

Installation

Have nvim-various-textobjs set up text objects for you:

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

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

If you prefer to set up your own keybindings, use this code and then see the Configuration section for information on setting your own keymaps.

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

-- 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 notifications 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. 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, 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 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 (cursor on `print("bar")`)
if foo then
	print("bar")
	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 somewhat 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 [p]aste" 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

• 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.

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

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