Move selected text to the right

Question

Say I have a line 1234text5678, where I have selected text in visual mode. I would like to have a command <Shift>+, that moves text to the right one character and selects text again. I.e. the result should be 12345text678, and text being selected. From playing around, I got

xnoremap * dpgv=gv

but this selects 5tex after the movement. How can it be adjusted? (I don't know if this is standard, but on German keyboards <Shift>+ is the same as *.)

Then I would also like to create a similar command to move to the left, but probably I can figure that one out myself once I got the other version.

Answer 1

Choice of Mapping

I personnally like to use v_* for searching the visually selected text, similar to what n_* does in normal mode for the word under the cursor. Using v_* for shifting a visual selection sideways is in conflict with vim-visualstar which I think could actually be the default behavior of vanilla vim.

Using viwdp or with an additional movement between d and p here is good enough for me.

A typical related feature request is shifting lines up and down. Greg Hurrell has produced a screencast how to do this (youtube). However, he does not recommend it because:

it encourages bad habits ... do not mash keys ... not the vim way

I agree and would say that repeat is an anti-pattern here.

If you want such behaviour and a direct key to press, consider also following plugins and their suggestions for mappings:

Plugins and their Suggested Mappings

• vim-move

  The default mappings use the Alt-key as prefix which does not work in all circumstances:

  <A-k>   Move current line/selection up
  <A-j>   Move current line/selection down
  <A-h>   Move current character/selection left
  <A-l>   Move current character/selection right
  

• vim-textmanip

  xmap <C-j> <Plug>(textmanip-move-down)
  xmap <C-k> <Plug>(textmanip-move-up)
  xmap <C-h> <Plug>(textmanip-move-left)
  xmap <C-l> <Plug>(textmanip-move-right)
  

  The plugin vim-tmux-navigator uses the same set in normal mode to switch windows. This makes them a little bit inconsistent between modes.

• vim-schlepp

  vmap <unique> <up>    <Plug>SchleppUp
  vmap <unique> <down>  <Plug>SchleppDown
  vmap <unique> <left>  <Plug>SchleppLeft
  vmap <unique> <right> <Plug>SchleppRight
  

  Some may argue arrow keys are too far away from the homerow.

Related Plugins

• If you want to shift list items, function arguments and similar, consider the plugins sideways.vim and vim-swap. Suggested mappings by the plugin author Andrew Radev are again:

  nnoremap <c-h> :SidewaysLeft<cr>
  nnoremap <c-l> :SidewaysRight<cr>
  

  vim-swap defines following two which I think are a quite good choice:

  nmap g< <Plug>(swap-prev)
  nmap g> <Plug>(swap-next)
  

• vim-exchange works differently by not shifting things around. I think this plugin fits better to the vim way. The mappings are

  call s:create_map('n', 'cx', '<Plug>(Exchange)')
  call s:create_map('x', 'X', '<Plug>(Exchange)')
  call s:create_map('n', 'cxx', '<Plug>(ExchangeLine)')
  

  and allows to use . if the target is addressed by the same mapping. E.g. swapping distant lines cxx, <no>G and then press . or cxiw, move and then ..

  I point the reader to the screencast by Drew Neil to see it in action.

Answer 2

xnoremap * dp`[v`]

• dp shift right
• `[v`] select newly pasted content.
  • :h `[ mark start of last changed or yanked text.
  • :h `] mark end of last changed or yanked text.

Answer 3

Here’s two alternative solutions:

xnoremap * dp`[1v

xnoremap * dpgvlol

• `[ — Jump to start of pasted text
• 1v — reselect the same amount of text as the last visual operation, but starting from the current cursor position
• gv — reselect the same visual area as last selection,
• lol — move visual selection right by moving the end one character to the right, and then jumping to the start and moving that one character to the right also.