Vim - select/yank/delete content between brackets including brackets

Question

In vim, is it possible to select content between the brackets inclusive of the brackets similar to

yi{ yi(

But I want to include the brackets.

Answer 1

You can move the cursor over one bracket, and do vf{ or vf( to bring you into visual mode and then select everything until (and including) the bracket.

Answer 2

Yes. Use a instead of i, as

ya{
ya(

See

:help a{
:help a(

and more generally,

:help text-objects
:help 04.8

Answer 3

Does f{v% or f(v% do what you want? It moves your cursor to the next { or (, enters you into visual mode, and then moves your cursor to the corresponding closing } or ). If you're already past the scope you want to select, you can use a capital F. Works just as well to jump to the closing } or ) first, too -- f}v%.

Once you have what you want selected, you can y, d, x, etc. it. The % command works multi-line, too, so you can use this technique on large blocks of code if you wish (although f and F do not, so you have to start on either the first or last line).

EDIT: Better answer, seems to be exactly what you're looking for:

ya(

Replacing the i in your original command with a does exactly the same thing, except that it includes the '(' character. This is "yanking a block", whereas yi( is "yanking an inner block".

Answer 4

One another way would be by following the below steps:

1. place the cursor on the opening parenthesis ( or braces {
2. press esc key and press v to enter into the visual mode
3. now press the % symbol (this will select the whole text between parens inclusive)
4. press the key y to yank (i.e. copy) the text (press d if you rather want to cut it.)

Then, you can move the cursor wherever you want the new text to be pasted and then press p for pasting the text there.

Answer 5

I use vi{ or va{ to select the content between brackets. The advantage is that you will be able to see the selection before you yank it.