Bracket Text Objects

i( i{ i[ i< — operate on the contents of any bracket pair.

Keys: i(, a(, i{, a{, i[, a[, i<, a<, ib, iB

i( / a( for parens, i{ / a{ for braces, i[ / a[ for square brackets, i< / a< for angle brackets. ib and iB are aliases for parens and braces.

Bracket objects are the most-used text objects in real code. They're how you yank arguments, change function bodies, and delete array literals without ever counting characters.

Change inside parens

Key	Note
`c`
`i`
`(`

Delete a brace block including the braces

Key	Note
`d`
`a`
`{`

Visual-select inside brackets

Key	Note
`v`
`i`
`[`

Yank inside angle brackets

Key	Note
`y`
`i`
`<`

i( / a( — parens

i{ / a{ — braces

i[ / a[ — square brackets

i< / a< — angle brackets

Tip. ib is the same as i(. iB is the same as i{. The letter aliases exist because some keyboards make ( and { painful to type repeatedly. Pick whichever you prefer.

Reference

Object	Range
`i(` / `ib`	Inside ( … )
`a(` / `ab`	Including ( … )
`i{` / `iB`	Inside { … }
`a{` / `aB`	Including { … }
`i[` / `a[`	Inside / including [ … ]
`i<` / `a<`	Inside / including < … >

Worked example — di( vs da(

Brackets work like quotes.

Step 1 · Cursor on 'a' of arg1.

[missing screenshot textobj.brackets/frame_01.color.svg — run python content/render_screenshots.py]

Step 2 · di( · di( — args removed.

[missing screenshot textobj.brackets/frame_02.color.svg — run python content/render_screenshots.py]

Step 3 · uda( · da( — parens removed too.

[missing screenshot textobj.brackets/frame_03.color.svg — run python content/render_screenshots.py]