vim-indent-object : Text Objects based on Indentation Level



script karma Rating 186/73, Downloaded by 2336 Comments, bugs, improvements Vim wiki created by Michael Smith script type utility description Vim text objects provide a convenient way to select and operate on various

types of objects. These objects include regions surrounded by various types of

brackets and various parts of language (ie sentences, paragraphs, etc).



This plugin defines a new text object, based on indentation levels. This is

very useful in languages such as Python, in which the syntax defines scope in

terms of indentation. Using the objects defined in this plugin, an entire if

structure can be quickly selected, for example.



Project Repository:

http://github.com/michaeljsmith/vim-indent-object



Feedback/criticism is welcome:

msmith@msmith.id.au

http://msmith.id.au



This plugin defines two new text objects. These are very similar - they differ

only in whether they include the line below the block or not.



Key Mapping Description



<count>ai (A)n (I)ndentation level and line above.

<count>ii (I)nner (I)ndentation level (no line above).

<count>aI (A)n (I)ndentation level and lines above/below.

<count>iI (I)nner (I)ndentation level (no lines above/below).





Note that the iI mapping is mostly included simply for completeness, it is

effectively a synonym for ii.



Just like regular text objects, these mappings can be used either with

operators expecting a motion, such as 'd' or 'c', as well as in visual mode.

In visual mode the mapping can be repeated, which has the effect of

iteratively increasing the scope of indentation block selected. Specifying a

count can be used to achieve the same effect.



The difference between |ai| and |aI| is that |ai| includes the line

immediately above the indentation block, whereas aI includes not only that,

but also the line below. Which of these is most useful largely depends on the

structure of the language being edited.



For example, when editing the Python code, |ai| is generally more useful, as

the line above the indentation block is usually related to it. For example, in

the following code (* is used to indicate the cursor position):



if foo > 3:

log("foo is big") *

foo = 3

do_something_else()



the if clause is logically related to the code block, whereas the function

call below is not. It is unlikely we would want to select the line below when

we are interested in the if block.



However, in other languages, such as Vim scripts, control structures are

usually terminated with something like 'endif'. Therefore, in this example:



if foo > 3

echo "foo is big" *

let foo = 3

endif

call do_something_else()



we would more likely want to include the endif when we select the if

structure.



When scanning code blocks, the plugin usually ignores blank lines. There is an

exception to this, however, when the block being selected is not indented. In

this case if blank lines are ignored, then the entire file would be selected.

Instead when code at the top level is being indented blank lines are

considered to delimit the block.

install details Unpack the zip archive onto your vim runtime directory.



Alternatively unpack it to a location of your choice, and update your runtimepath to point to it. rate this script Life Changing Helpful Unfulfilling script versions (upload new version) Click on the package to download. package script version date Vim version user release notes vim-indent-object.zip 1.1.2 2010-04-06 7.0 Michael Smith Now uses linewise visual mode by default. vim-indent-object.zip 1.1.1 2010-04-02 7.0 Michael Smith Fixed when using 'ignorecase'. vim-indent-object.zip 1.1 2010-04-02 7.0 Michael Smith Made behaviour more consistent and intuitive. vim-indent-object.zip 1.0 2010-04-01 7.0 Michael Smith Initial upload ip used for rating: 34.123.205.132