Enclose text in Parentheses (and Other Characters) in VIM WITHOUT PLUGINS

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 19:30:00 -0000

Whether I'm creating a backlink or adding a url or a comment I often need to wrap text in parenteses or other characters. I've been a VIM (or VIM mode) user for a while and I never committed how to do this to memory. Let's change that.

How to do it

#  In VISUAL Mode with the text selected
c()<Esc>P

For those not in the VIM world

c - changes the text and puts the previous text in the buffer (think clipboard) () - creates brackets. You can replace with braces, brackert or single/double quotes. You can also add as many of these as you wish. - escape back into Normal Mode P - Paste one character back which pulls from the buffer returning the last bit of text. If your cursor is not in the correct spot. You will need to move it.

That sounds like a lot

It kinda is (especially if VIM isn't your thing) which is why if you do this a lot you are better off mapping those steps in your config file to a command.

vnoremap <C-(> c()<esc>P

Most of the commands are the same. The vnoremap ensures that this only runs in VISUAL Mode (When you select text) and <C-(> is the command for ctrl+(.