Python – How to select Python code block using Vim

pythonvim

I can use vi{ and va{ to select C++ code blocks. It helps me a lot when I need to yank/delete them.

But Python uses indentation to indicate code blocks. I cannot find any better way. Any ideas?

Best Answer

I have not had much of an occasion to use it yet, but Michael Smith’s vim-indent-object sounds like it may be close to what you want.

Example usage (line numbers shown as with set number active):

  1 This is
  2   some text
  3     with multiple
  4   levels of
  5   indentation.
  6 There is also
  7     another stanza.

With the cursor on the line 2, 4 or 5, type Vii to select lines 2 through 5.
With the cursor on line 3, type Vai to select lines 2 through 3.
With the cursor on line 3, type Vaiii (or Viiii), to select lines 2 through 5 (in visual mode multiple uses of indentation objects extend the selection to the next level up/out).

The text objects it defines are:

ai: the current indentation level plus the line above
useful when you want to grab the introductory line (e.g. grab the if and its “then” block)
ii: the current indentation level
aI: the current indentation level plus the one line above and one line below
useful for languages that use “end” statements: if/endif).
iI: the current indentation level (effectively, ii, and iI are the same)

The objects can also be used with other commands that expect text objects (i.e. cii to delete the current indentation level and start inserting its replacement).

Use `\r` instead of `\n`.

Substituting by \n inserts a null character into the text. To get a newline, use \r. When searching for a newline, you’d still use \n, however. This asymmetry is due to the fact that \n and \r do slightly different things:

\n matches an end of line (newline), whereas \r matches a carriage return. On the other hand, in substitutions \n inserts a null character whereas \r inserts a newline (more precisely, it’s treated as the input CR). Here’s a small, non-interactive example to illustrate this, using the Vim command line feature (in other words, you can copy and paste the following into a terminal to run it). xxd shows a hexdump of the resulting file.

echo bar > test
(echo 'Before:'; xxd test) > output.txt
vim test '+s/b/\n/' '+s/a/\r/' +wq
(echo 'After:'; xxd test) >> output.txt
more output.txt

Before:
0000000: 6261 720a                                bar.
After:
0000000: 000a 720a                                ..r.

In other words, \n has inserted the byte 0x00 into the text; \r has inserted the byte 0x0a.

Eclipse – How to duplicate a whole line in Vim

yy or Y to copy the line (mnemonic: yank)
or
dd to delete the line (Vim copies what you deleted into a clipboard-like "register", like a cut operation)

then

p to paste the copied or deleted text after the current line
or
P to paste the copied or deleted text before the current line

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to replace a character by a newline in Vim

Use \r instead of \n.

Eclipse – How to duplicate a whole line in Vim

Related Topic

Use `\r` instead of `\n`.