How move cursore "past the first paired delimiter" (quote, parentheses, etc) - searchpair()?

Question

What is the best way to bind key, to go "past the last delimiter. I want to bind, for example <leader>, to behave like this:

• "foo bar| baz" -> key press -> "foo bar baz",|
• (arg1, arg2, |arg3) -> key press -> (arg1, arg2, arg3),|

And same for other delimiter i choose. Is there any plugin for this?

For now my solution is this function (well, key binding is easy):

    function! MovePastDelimiter()
        let parantheses = { '('  : ')', '['  : ']', '{'  : '}', '<'  : '>' }
        let quotes_and_etc = ['"', '|', '`', '''']
        let regex = "[" . join(keys(parantheses),"") . join(quotes_and_etc,"") . "]"
        let match = searchpos(regex, 'bn')
        if match != [0, 0]
            let current_delimiter = getline(match[0])[match[1]-1]
            if has_key(parantheses, current_delimiter)
                if !searchpair(current_delimiter, '', parantheses[current_delimiter])
                    " this is stupid, but searchpair will
                    " work only with \[, not just [
                    call searchpair('\' . current_delimiter, '', '\' . parantheses[current_delimiter])
                endif

            else
                call search(current_delimiter)
            endif
        endif
    endfunction

But maybe there is a better way?

Answer 1

This was a tough one as:

• I couldn't get getpos('``<') to work
• searchpair*() don't work when the opening and the closing signs are not identical. Here, two cases:
  • with strings, va' and va" can be used
  • with other possible pairs like _ and * in markdown, * and | in vim help files, we have to use search() twice
• searchpairpos() returns a byte offset and not a column position, this means that we need to count characters in UTF-8 documents -- as I didn't want to use setpos() but instead move the cursor in a redoable way
• sometimes we have pairs like angle-brackets that can be used for other things (like ordered comparisons), and they can introduce new jump points (I have no generic solution for this one).

Note that I've integrated your idea in lh-brackets where I'm maintaining the list of registered pairs automatically.

I've ended up with two functions: one that searches for the compatible pairs (used to define block), and one called from various mappings to actually move the cursor. NB: I won't reproduce the code from lh-vim-lib functions used:

" Function: s:outer_blocks() {{{2
function! s:outer_blocks() abort
  let crt_pairs = s:GetPairs(0) " global pairs
  call extend(copy(crt_pairs), s:GetPairs(1), 'force') " buffer-local ones
  let matches = {}
  for p in crt_pairs
    if p[0] != p[1] " searchpos doesn't work in that case
      let pos = searchpairpos(p[0], '', p[1], 'cWn', "lh#syntax#is_a_comment('.')")
      call s:Verbose('Testing searchpos(%1) -> %2', p, pos)
    elseif p[0] =~ '["'']'
      " Stuff which can be checked with vi', vi"
      let crt_pos = getpos('.')
      let cleanup = lh#on#exit()
            \.restore('@a')
            \.register('call setpos(".", '.string(crt_pos).')')
      try
        let @a = ''
        silent! exe 'normal! "aya'.p[0]
        " 2 chars are to be expected for open and close
        if lh#encoding#strlen(@a) >= lh#encoding#strlen(p[0].p[1])
          " In two steps because it may fail
          " -- it shouldn't though thanks to len(@a) >= 2 * len(open)
          exe 'normal! v'
          silent! exe 'normal! a'.p[0]
          silent! exe "normal! \<esc>"
          let pos = getpos('.')[1:2]
        else
          let pos = [0,0]
        endif
        if 0
          " getpos doesn't seem to work...
          let pos = getpos('`>')[1:2]
          if getpos('`<')[1:2] == pos
            let pos = [0,0]
          endif
        endif
        call s:Verbose('Testing va%1 -> %2 - %3', p[0], pos, @a)
      finally
        call cleanup.finalize()
      endtry
    else
      let pos = searchpos(p[0], 'cWnb', 'lh#syntax#is_a_comment(".")')
      if  pos != [0,0]
        let pos = searchpos(p[1], 'cWn', 'lh#syntax#is_a_comment(".")')
      endif
      call s:Verbose('Testing /%1 -> %2', p[0], pos)
    endif
    if pos != [0,0]
      let matches[p[0]] = pos
    endif
  endfor
  call s:Verbose('Containing bracket pairs: %1', matches)
  return matches
endfunction

"------------------------------------------------------------------------
" Function: lh#brackets#jump_outside(param) {{{2
" In this flavour, we don't expect to be just before the current closing
" character. Instead, search for the next character that closes the current
" scope.
function! lh#brackets#jump_outside(param) abort
  let mode      = get(a:param, 'mode')

  let matches = s:outer_blocks()
  if empty(matches)
    call s:Verbose('The cursor doesn''t belong to any block')
    return ''
  endif
  let m2 = map(values(matches), '[0]+v:val')
  call sort(m2, 'lh#position#compare')
  let crt_pos = getpos('.')
  let dest = m2[0]+[0]
  " call assert_true(lh#position#is_before(crt_pos, dest))
  " Insert mode, :map-<expr>
  if mode == 'i' && crt_pos[1] == dest[1] " same-line
    " Need to know how many characters does this really represent, not the
    " number of bytes!
    let text = lh#position#extract(crt_pos, dest)
    let offset = lh#encoding#strlen(text)+1
    " produces a redo-able move sequence
    return lh#map#_move_cursor_on_the_current_line(offset)
  else
    call setpos('.', dest)
    return mode == 'i' ? "\<Right>" : "a"
  endif
endfunction

inoremap <silent> <Plug>MarkersJumpOutside <C-R>=lh#brackets#jump_outside({'mode': 'i'})<cr>
nnoremap <silent> <Plug>MarkersJumpOutside @=lh#brackets#jump_outside({'mode': 'n'})<cr>
xnoremap <silent> <Plug>MarkersJumpOutside <C-\><C-N>@=lh#brackets#jump_outside({'mode': 'x'})<cr>
    smap <silent> <Plug>MarkersJumpOutside <C-\><C-N>a<Plug>MarkersJumpOutside

Answer 2

I) Don't create an insert mode mapping:

Insert mode is made to insert characters, when you need to move your cursor you should go back to normal mode or use ctrl+o to go to normal mode for only one command. (:h i_CTRL-O)

II) Use the built-in motion command:

In normal mode f+character goes to the next character (:h f). For example:

"foo bar| baz"

In normal mode pressing f" will put the cursor on the second " and a will start insert mode after this character.

Thus in the previous example from insert mode I would use esc+f+"+a. This has the benefit to seperate your edit in different undoable chunck of edits which is how you're supposed to use Vim.

---

Now if you still want to what you asked I think you'll have to create a function which will try to detect in which text object the cursor is currently and then move to the end of this text object. In my opinion that is more trouble than simply using Vim as it is meant to be used.

Edit

You may be interested by the % command which cycles through matching groups (:h matchit-%):

For example:

inoremap <leader>, <esc>%%a

Would do the trick for the matching brackets ((, {, () but not for the quotes.

Answer 3

This is a simple one, you can add more delimiters in the [ ] group, but it won't check for the "inside" of anything:

inoremap <C-x><C-x> <Esc>/[\])}"]/e<CR>a,

It just searches for the 1st delimiter in the list, goes after it and appends a comma. So it roughly goes out of the "most inner" delimited group. If I'd use such a map, I'd skip the comma addition and add some more delimiters, to keep it more generic, and repeatable - say I hit <C-x><C-x> and I don't like where I landed, I just repeat the combo and go "out" after the next delimiter.