Select entire function call or extend selection

Question

I have the following situation a lot, where I always end up having to yank two things in a row: For example, I want to yank a function call:

func(a, b)

Okay, here I can go to f and press vf).

But when the call is nested, this does not work anymore:

func(gunk(a), b)

Here I always end up going to for example b, doing da(, then move to where I want to paste it, then move back to func, do diw and move AGAIN to where I pasted (gunk(a), b).

Instead, I would like to do vi( to select (gunk(a), b) and then somehow extend the selection to the left by one word, so and up with the complete func(gunk(a), b) as the selection.

Is there a way to do that which does not involve writing a custom function to add to the .vimrc?

Answer 1

For

func(gunk(a, b))

with the cursor on the f of func, I would press y% or d%. The % command jumps between matching pairs (roughly; depending on configuration, optional plugins that ship with Vim, etc.), but it also first finds an opening pair if not already on one. That means v% in this situation covers all of func(gunk(a, b)), as desired, and y% or d% yanks or deletes the desired text.

Answer 2

You can do:

vf(%`

f( moves the the first parenthesis

% moves to the matching parenthesis

Another way if your are at b and to follow your idea is:

va(ob

va( select (gunc(a, b))

o switch the cursor in front od the selection

b extend it to func(gunc(a, b))