nvim-various-textobjs

Bundle of more than a dozen new text objects for Neovim.

• List of Text Objects
• Installation
• Configuration
• Advanced Usage
  • Smart Alternative to gx
• Limitations
• Other Text-Object Plugins
• Credits

List of Text Objects

textobj	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	no	ii, ai, aI, (iI)	all
restOfIndentation	lines down with same or higher indentation	-	no	R	all
subword	like iw, but treating -, _, and . as word delimiters and only part of camelCase	outer includes trailing _ or -	yes	iS, aS	all
toNextClosingBracket	from cursor to next closing ], ), or }	-	no	%	all
restOfParagraph	like }, but linewise	-	no	r	all
entireBuffer	entire buffer as one text object	-	-	gG	all
nearEoL	from cursor position to end of line, minus one character	-	no	n	all
lineCharacterwise	current line, but characterwise	-	no	_	all
column	column down until indent or shorter line. Accepts {count} for multiple columns.	-	no	| (pipe char)	all
value	value of key-value pair, or right side of a variable assignment (inside one line)	outer includes trailing commas or semicolons	yes	iv, av	all
key	key of key-value pair, or left side of a variable assignment	outer includes the = or :	yes	ik, ak	all
url	link beginning with "http"	-	yes	L	all
number*	numbers, similar to <C-a>	inner: only pure digits, outer: number including minus sign and decimal point	yes	in, an	all
diagnostic	LSP diagnostic (requires built-in LSP)	-	yes	!	all
mdlink	markdown link like [title](url)	inner is only the link title (between the [])	yes	il, al	markdown, toml
mdFencedCodeBlock	markdown fenced code (enclosed by three backticks)	outer includes the enclosing backticks	yes	iC, aC	markdown
cssSelector	class in CSS, like .my-class	outer includes trailing comma and space	yes	ic, ac	css, scss
htmlAttribute	attribute in html or xml, like href="foobar.com"	inner is only the value inside the quotes trailing comma and space	yes	ix, ax	html, xml, css, scss
jsRegex*	JavaScript regex pattern	outer includes the slashes and any flags	yes	i/, a/	javascript, typescript
doubleSquareBrackets	text enclosed by [[]]	outer includes the four square brackets	yes	iD, aD	lua, shell, neorg, markdown
shellPipe	command stdout is piped to	outer includes the front pipe character	yes	iP,aP	bash, zsh, fish, sh

Warning
* Textobject deprecated due to treesitter-textobject introducing a similar textobject that is more capable.

Installation

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

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

Configuration

The .setup() call is optional if you are fine with the defaults below. (Note that the default is to not set any keymaps.)

-- default config
require("various-textobjs").setup {
    lookForwardLines = 5, -- set to 0 to only look in the current line
    useDefaultKeymaps = false, -- use suggested keymaps (see README)
}

---

If you want to set your own keybindings, you can do so by calling the respective functions:

• The function names correspond to the textobj-names from the overview table.
• The text objects that differentiate between outer and inner require a boolean parameter, true always meaning "inner," and false meaning "outer."

-- example: `?` for diagnostic textobj
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "?", function () require("various-textobjs").diagnostic() end)

-- example: `an` for outer subword, `in` for inner subword
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "aS", function () require("various-textobjs").subword(false) end)
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "iS", function () require("various-textobjs").subword(true) end)

-- exception: 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", function () require("various-textobjs").indentation(true, true) end)
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "ai", function () require("various-textobjs").indentation(false, true) end)

For your convenience, here the code to create mappings for all text objects. You can copypaste this list and enter your own bindings.

local keymap = vim.keymap.set
local vt = require("various-textobjs") -- inline this for lazy-loading

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "ii" , function() vt.indentation(true, true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "ai" , function() vt.indentation(false, true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "iI" , function() vt.indentation(true, true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "aI" , function() vt.indentation(false, false) end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.subword(true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.subword(false) end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.toNextClosingBracket() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.restOfParagraph() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.entireBuffer() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.nearEoL() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.lineCharacterwise() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.column() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.value(true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.value(false) end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.key(true) end)
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.key(false) end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.url() end)

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.diagnostic() end)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- put these into the ftplugins or autocms for the filetypes you want to use them with

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.mdlink(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.mdlink(false) end, { buffer = true })

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.mdFencedCodeBlock(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.mdFencedCodeBlock(false) end, { buffer = true })

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.cssSelector(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.cssSelector(false) end, { buffer = true })

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.htmlAttribute(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.htmlAttribute(false) end, { buffer = true })

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.doubleSquareBrackets(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.doubleSquareBrackets(false) end, { buffer = true })

keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.shellPipe(true) end, { buffer = true })
keymap( { "o", "x" }, "YOUR_MAPPING" , function() vt.shellPipe(false) end, { buffer = true })

Advanced Usage

Smart Alternative to gx

Using the URL textobj, you can also write a small snippet to replace netrw's gx. The code below retrieves the next URL (within the amount of lines configured in the setup call), and opens it in your browser. While this is already an improvement to vim's built-in gx, which requires the cursor to be standing on a URL to work, you can even go one step further. If no URL has been found within the next few lines, the :UrlView command from urlview.nvim is triggered, searching the entire buffer for URLs from which you can choose one to open.

vim.keymap.set("n", "gx", function ()
    require("various-textobjs").url() -- select URL
    -- this works since the plugin switched to visual mode
    -- if the textobj has been found
    local foundURL = vim.fn.mode():find("v")

    -- if not found in proximity, search whole buffer via urlview.nvim instead
    if not foundURL then
        vim.cmd.UrlView("buffer")
        return
    end
    
    -- retrieve URL with the z-register as intermediary
    vim.cmd.normal { '"zy', bang = true }
    local url = vim.fn.getreg("z")

    -- open with the OS-specific shell command
    local opener
    if vim.fn.has("macunix") == 1 then
        opener = "open"
    elseif vim.fn.has("linux") == 1 then
        opener = "xdg-open"
    elseif vim.fn.has("win64") == 1 or vim.fn.has("win32") == 1 then
        opener = "start"
    end
    local openCommand = string.format ("%s '%s' >/dev/null 2>&1", opener, url)
    os.execute(openCommand)
end, {desc = "Smart URL Opener"})

Limitations

• This plugin uses pattern matching, so it can be inaccurate in some edge cases.
• The value-textobj does not work with multi-line values.
• There is no reliable dot-repeatability. Any pointers or help on making text objects dot-repeatable are welcome. All plugins/guides I could find implement dot-repeatability only for normal mode mappings and do not work for text objects.

Other Text-Object Plugins

• treesitter-textobjects
• treesitter-textsubjects
• ts-hint-textobject
• mini.ai
• targets.vim

Credits

Thanks
Kudos to the Valuable Dev for their blog post on how to get started with creating custom text objects.

About Me
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.

Profiles

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• Academic Website
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