Is there a way to encapsulate a variable with a method with a repeatable action?

Question

I am trying to encapsulate variables with a method. For example, I am converting this:

return variable1;

To this:

return verify(variable1);

Is there a way to quickly repeat this action (ideally with the dot command or a macro of some sort) for other variables?

Answer 1

If you already have the surround plugin, you can do ysiwfverify<CR>. Tim Pope has another plugin called repeat that lets you repeat surround commands with ..

Without any plugin or setup, you can simply do ciwverify(<C-r><C-o>")<Esc> and repeat with ..

Answer 2

Another solution is to use macros (I love macros!).

First put return in the search register: /return<CR> or :let @/="return"

Then record your macro:

qqnwiverify(<Esc>ea)q

which can be decomposed like this

qq start recording in the register q
n  go to the next occurence of the word in the search register (here 'return')
w  go to the beginning of the word following 'return'
i  enter insert mode
verify( input the function which will encapsulate your variable
e  go to the end of the word after the bracket
a  enter insert mode after the word
)  input the closing bracket
q  stop recording

You can then execute the macro with @q and repeat it with @@.

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Edit Thanks to @Nobe4 you can even make it one keystroke shorter this way:

qqnwiverify(<c-o>w)q

<c-o> allows to go into normal mode for only one command and then go back automatically to insert mode.