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Vim - key combinations to change text

Khang Nguyen on March 02, 2024

I'm a fan of Vim, I've been using Vim syntax in my work for more than a year, and I so love it. The most thing I love in Vim is the key combination...
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Max Shen

Here's a little trick: cib is equivalent to ci(. I use cib because it is a little bit faster to press b instead of ( which is Shift + 9 in QWERTY layout. This improvement seems small, but over the time this can make a big difference.

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Khang Nguyen

Wow. Thanks @m4xshen. That's a good trick. Is there any same thing that we can apply for [], and {}?

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Max Shen

Yes, can use ciB instead of ci{. However I personally don't use this because the speed are pretty much the same (pressing B also requires Shift key).

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Ben Sinclair

You can also do c% if you're on the character itself, regardless of what that character is so long as it is part of a matched pair.

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huantd

Great article, Khang!
I have an explanation for 'ct':
"ct=" change text til the "="
We also use "ct" with another character. Eg: "ct,", "ct:", "ct_". It's really helpful when working with objects or JSON.

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Khang Nguyen • Edited

Yeah, thanks @huantd1 for your explanation, that makes "ct" command more clearly.

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Ahmed Helmi

Very insightful!

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Tyler Smith

This is great. The gifs really help visualize what's happening.