What Vim command(s) can be used to quote/unquote words?

vim quoting
Eugene Yarmash picture Eugene Yarmash · Jan 27, 2010 · Viewed 104.9k times · Source

How can I quickly quote/unquote words and change quoting (e.g. from ' to ") in Vim? I know about the surround.vim plugin, but I would like to use just Vim.

Answer

jamessan picture jamessan · Jan 27, 2010

surround.vim is going to be your easiest answer. If you are truly set against using it, here are some examples for what you can do. Not necessarily the most efficient, but that's why surround.vim was written.

  • Quote a word, using single quotes
    ciw'Ctrl+r"'
    • ciw - Delete the word the cursor is on, and end up in insert mode.
    • ' - add the first quote.
    • Ctrl+r" - Insert the contents of the " register, aka the last yank/delete.
    • ' - add the closing quote.


  • Unquote a word that's enclosed in single quotes
    di'hPl2x
    • di' - Delete the word enclosed by single quotes.
    • hP - Move the cursor left one place (on top of the opening quote) and put the just deleted text before the quote.
    • l - Move the cursor right one place (on top of the opening quote).
    • 2x - Delete the two quotes.


  • Change single quotes to double quotes
    va':s/\%V'\%V/"/g
    • va' - Visually select the quoted word and the quotes.
    • :s/ - Start a replacement.
    • \%V'\%V - Only match single quotes that are within the visually selected region.
    • /"/g - Replace them all with double quotes.

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