How to delete content backwards until "=" at the previous line?

Question

I use an example of javascript code:

1        var a = 1;
2        var b = |{};

The cursor is at the position of |( on the character "{" when the cursor shape is block), I find out that I want a should be assigned an object, so I want to modify it like below:

1        var a = {};

So I want to know when cursor is on "{", how to quickly delete all the contents before "{" until the blank after the "=" sign at line 1?

In other normal editors, I'll just press backspace key to delete the code. But I don't how to achieve this in vim.

Answer 1

Not sure if I totally understand the question, but if you wanted to delete until you only have var a = {};, you could, from the cursor position, use d?1Enter

d takes a motion, and you can give it a search pattern with / for a forward search or ? for a backward search.

Here's a small gif demonstrating this:

Answer 2

If you are using vim (and not classic vi), then in your example you could do vkd (or vkx).

• v will put it into 'visual' (select) mode
• k will go up one line to put the cursor on the '1', selecting the portion you want deleted
• d or x will delete the selection

Answer 3

Delete Up

For this specific example, dgk is one of the quickest ways to do so.

The d command, as Akshay explained, can be followed by a motion, deleting all the characters between where the cursor begins, and where the motion takes it to.

In your code, you want to to delete everything between the cursor position and the same column one row further up, so moving the cursor upwards with the gk motion (which when used with an operator is non-linewise) will achieve your goal.

EDIT: BobH points out in the comments that this method only works when 'wrap' is set. As such, unless you always have wrap set, you're probably better off using dvk or vkd, as suggested by the other answers on this page.

Delete Words Backwards

You could also use: d5b or d4B, which will delete 5 words or 4 WORDs backwards, respectively. (1; is one WORD, but two regular words).

Answer 4

I can't yet comment, so I need to make a new answer. The keys d k given by Rich don't work for me even when using the nocompatible option. A reason might be that the motion k is considered linewise by vim, in which case both lines are deleted. From :help d:

An exception for the d{motion} command: If the motion is not linewise, the start and end of the motion are not in the same line, and there are only blanks before the start and after the end of the motion, the delete becomes linewise. This means that the delete also removes the line of blanks that you might expect to remain. Use the |o_v| operator to force the motion to be characterwise

It also shows the remedy: Use dvk to force the motion to be character-wise. This does the trick for me.

I didn't know o_v before, so here's :help o_v:

v

When used after an operator, before the motion command: Force the operator to work characterwise, also when the motion is linewise. If the motion was linewise, it will become |exclusive|. If the motion already was characterwise, toggle inclusive/exclusive. This can be used to make an exclusive motion inclusive and an inclusive motion exclusive