Vimscript - Surround word under cursor with quotes

Question

I'm writing a Vim plugin which will need to surround the word directly under your cursor with a quotes. I have tried using simple solutions which use commands like "b" and "e" executed in normal mode, in combination with other cursor position commands, though those felt clunky and non-robust.

I wondered if there was perhaps, a builtin way to surround text, or a more expedient method of doing so.

Answer 1

You can surround the word currently under the cursor in quotes with the following normal mode commands:

ciw""EscP

Replace iw with any other Vim motion/text object to surround other things with quotes^*. Or "" with any other pair of characters to surround the object with different things.

^{* Or use c from visual mode to surround text that is hard to describe with a single motion.}

If you want to surround the object with a longer piece of text, such as an HTML <p> tag, you can use Ctrl-R instead of the P put command:

ciw<p>Ctrl-R"</p>Esc

See :help i_CTRL-R for more details.

Objects smaller than a line can also be surrounded using the small delete register, and as of Vim 8.2.2189, this is repeatable via the dot command, making it easy to apply the edit quickly in several different places.

So e.g. to go from this:

one two three four

to this:

(one two) (three four)

type:

c2w(Ctrl-R-)Escw.

Thanks to Christian Brabandt for letting us know about the fix, and for implementing it!

However, as dicussed in the comments, if you attempt to use Ctrl-R to surround an object larger than a single line (or prior to v8.2.2189), when you repeat this with the dot command, it will enter the text from the original change command. As @user938271 explains, you can workaround this by using Ctrl-RCtrl-O or Ctrl-RCtrl-P instead of a plain Ctrl-R when inserting the contents of the register.

So to go from:

<li>one
<li>two

<li>three
<li>four

to:

<ul>
<li>one
<li>two
</ul>

<ul>
<li>three
<li>four
</ul>

You can type:

c2c<ul>ReturnCtrl-RCtrl-O"</ul>Escjj.

Answer 2

Yes, a plug-in for surrounding with quotes exists! vim-surround is what you're looking for.

To surround the current word in double quotes, you can use ysiw" once you have the plug-in installed.

ys is the command to surround and object (there's also cs to replace one delmiter with another, ds to remove surrounding), then iw is a text-object defining what to surround and finally " is what to surround it with.

You might want to read the docs for vim-surround to see all that it can do. It's really a lot!

Answer 3

Starting with Vim 8.2.2189 you can easily surround a single word using the small delete register like this:

ciw"CtrlR-"

The whole operation is repeatable using the . command. So if you have a line like this:

foo bar foobar

With the cursor anywhere on the first word, simply type ciw'<C-R>-'. This will put single quotes around to first word. For the next two words type w.w. and you'll have successfully put single quotes around all 3 words:

'foo' 'bar' 'foobar'

Answer 4

1. string to double-quote: This is my dog
2. put cursor on T
3. 4cw""<ESC>P

Answer 5

To add to the previous answer, if it's a task you have to automate, you can use substitutions and some mapping.

For example:

nnoremap <LEADER>' :let col=col('.') <BAR> s/.*\zs\<.\{-}\%#.\{-}\>/'&'/ <BAR> call setpos('.', [0, line('.'), col+1, 0])<CR>

This will surround the current world with '' upon hitting <LEADER> '

---

To make it neater, you can use a vimscript function:

function! SurroundMe()
    let cara = escape(nr2char(getchar()), '/\\^$*.[~')
    let col = col('.')
    exe 's/.*\zs\<.\{-}\%#.\{-}\>/'.cara.'&'.cara.'/'
    call setpos('.', [0, line('.'), col + 1, 0])
endfunction

nnoremap <LEADER>' :call SurroundMe()<CR>

This function will actually wait for you to input a character, and surround the current word with that character!

Answer 6

In NVIM you can use this function and map <leader>sw or <leader>sW to use :lua Surround("w") and :lua Surround("W") respectively.

After pressing <leader>sw or <leader>sW in insert mode you will be asked for the character you want to surround with.

If you want to surround with characters whose closing character is different from the opening character, just type the opening one

Note that this is easily reproduced in VIM.

function Surround(w_or_W)
    local open_char = vim.fn.input("Surround with: ")
    local closed_char = nil
    if open_char == "(" then closed_char = ")" end
    if open_char == "[" then closed_char = "]" end
    if open_char == "{" then closed_char = "}" end
    if open_char == "<" then closed_char = ">" end
    if open_char == "'" then closed_char = "'" end
    if open_char == '"' then closed_char = '"' end
    if open_char == "`" then closed_char = "`" end
    if open_char == "/" then closed_char = "/" end
    if open_char == "|" then closed_char = "|" end

    if w_or_W == "w" then
        vim.cmd("normal! ciw" .. open_char)
    elseif w_or_W == "W" then
        vim.cmd([[normal! ciW]] .. open_char)
    end
    vim.cmd("normal! p")
    vim.cmd("normal! a" .. closed_char)
    vim.cmd("normal! a")
end

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("n", "<leader>sw", ":lua Surround('w')<CR>", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("n", "<leader>sW", ":lua Surround('W')<CR>", { noremap = true, silent = true })
``