nvim-various-textobjs

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

• List of Text Objects
• Installation
• Configuration
• Advanced Usage
  • Opening a regex at regex101
  • Smart Alternative to gx
• Other Text-Object Plugins
• Roadmap
• Credits

List of Text Objects

textobj	description	inner / outer	forward-seeking	default keymaps	filetypes (for default keymaps)
indentation	lines with same amount of indentation	see overview from vim-indent-object	no	ii, ai, (aI, iI)	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
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
nearEoL	from cursor position to end of line, minus one character	-	no	n	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
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
column	column down until indent or shorter line. Accepts {count} for multiple columns.	-	no	| (pipe char)	all
restOfParagraph	like }, but linewise	-	no	r	all
subword	like iw, but treating -, _ or . as word delimiters and only part of camelcase.	outer includes trailing _ or -	yes	iS, aS	all
entireBuffer	entire buffer as one text object	-	-	gG	all
url	link beginning with "http"	-	yes	L	all
shellPipe	command stdout is piped to	outer includes the front pipe character	yes	iP/aP	bash, zsh, fish, sh

Installation

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

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

Configuration

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

-- 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 yourself, you can do so by calling the respective function:

• 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 number, `in` for inner number
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "an", function () require("various-textobjs").number(false) end)
vim.keymap.set({"o", "x"}, "in", function () require("various-textobjs").number(true) end)

-- exception: indentation textobj requires two parameters, first for exclusion of the 
-- starting border, 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)

Advanced Usage

Opening a regex at regex101

You can also use the text objects as input for small snippets by yanking them and using getreg(). The following example uses the outer regex text object to retrieve pattern, flags, and replacement value of the next regex, and opens regex101 prefilled with them:

vim.keymap.set("n", "gR", function()
    require("various-textobjs").jsRegex(false) -- set visual selection to outer regex
    vim.cmd.normal { '"zy', bang = true } -- retrieve regex with "z as intermediary
    local regex = vim.fn.getreg("z")

    local pattern = regex:match("/(.*)/")
    local flags = regex:match("/.*/(.*)")
    local replacement = fn.getline("."):match('replace ?%(/.*/.*, ?"(.-)"')

    -- https://github.com/firasdib/Regex101/wiki/FAQ#how-to-prefill-the-fields-on-the-interface-via-url
    local url = "https://regex101.com/?regex=" .. pattern .. "&flags=" .. flags
    if replacement then url = url .. "&subst=" .. replacement end

    local opener
    if vim.fn.has("macunix") then
        opener = "open"
    elseif vim.fn.has("unix") then
        opener = "xdg-open"
    elseif vim.fn.has("win64") or fn.has("win32") then
        opener = "start"
    end
    os.execute(opener .. "'" .. url .. "'")
end, { desc = "Open next js regex in regex101" })

Smart Alternative to gx

Using the URL textobj, you can also write a small snippet for a 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. 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 which to open.

vim.keymap.set("n", "gx", function ()
    require("various-textobjs").url() -- select URL
    local foundURL = fn.mode():find("v") -- only switches to visual mode if found
    local url
    if foundURL then
        vim.cmd.normal { '"zy', bang = true } -- retrieve URL with "z as intermediary
        url = fn.getreg("z")

        local opener
        if vim.fn.has("macunix") then
            opener = "open"
        elseif vim.fn.has("unix") then
            opener = "xdg-open"
        elseif vim.fn.has("win64") or fn.has("win32") then
            opener = "start"
        end
        os.execute(opener .. "'" .. url .. "'")
    else
        -- if not found in proximity, search whole buffer via urlview.nvim instead
        cmd.UrlView("buffer")
    end
end, {desc = "Smart URL Opener"})

Other Text-Object Plugins

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

Roadmap

• dot-repeatability. Any pointers or help on making text objects dot-repeatable are welcome. (All plugins/guides I could found implement dot-repeatability for normal mode mappings, and that method doesn't seem to work for operator-pending mode.) See also this issue.
• use treesitter for some textobjs

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

• Discord
• Academic Website
• GitHub
• Twitter
• ResearchGate
• LinkedIn