Surround

ds, cs, ys — operate on surroundings as a first-class concept.

Keys: ds, cs, ys, yss, S

Tim Pope's vim-surround adds three operators — ys (add), ds (delete), cs (change) — plus visual mode S. The trailing key names the surrounding kind: quotes, brackets, tags, or function calls. Once you have it, it feels like core Vim.

Vim's text-object grammar already lets you talk about the content inside surroundings — i", i(, it all select what's between the delimiters. But the delimiters themselves — the quotes, the brackets, the tags — are second-class: you can land your cursor on one with a motion, but you can't directly operate on "the thing wrapped around this word." Tim Pope's [vim-surround](https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround) plugin closes that gap. It adds three operators that treat surroundings as first-class targets, completing the grammar. It's the plugin most often cited as "this should ship with Vim."

The Grammar

Every surround command is one sentence with two slots: operator + kind The operator says what to do. The kind is a single key naming the surrounding — ', ", (, [, {, <, t (tag), f (function call). The cs operator takes two kinds because changing requires both an old and a new wrapper.

Form	Operator	Reads as
`ds`kind	Delete	delete-surrounding-kind
`cs`oldnew	Change	change-surrounding-old-to-new
`ys`motionkind	Add	you-surround the range with kind
`yss`kind	Add (whole line)	Surround the current line
Visual mode + `S`kind	Add (selection)	With a selection already made in visual mode, press `S` then kind to wrap the selection.

ys is the only operator that takes a motion (or text object) before the kind — the motion picks what gets wrapped. ds and cs need no motion: they search outward from the cursor and operate on the nearest enclosing surround.

Kinds — the Surround Alphabet

The kind key names a category of wrapper. Quotes are their own pair. Bracket pairs have two flavors: the opener form ((, [, {, <) adds a space on the inside; the closer form (), ], }, >) does not. Tags and function calls prompt for the missing piece (tag name, function name).

Kind	Wrapper	Notes
`'` `"` `	Quotes	Self-pairing — same character on both sides.
`(` or `)` (alias `b`)	Parens	`(` adds spaces inside: `( foo )`. `)` does not: `(foo)`.
`[` or `]`	Square brackets	`[` adds spaces, `]` does not.
`}` or `{` (alias `B`)	Curly braces	Opener form adds spaces; closer form does not.
`<` or `>`	Angle brackets	Plain `<…>` — not a tag, just the symbols.
`t` or `T`	HTML/XML tag	Prompts: type `em>` (or `a href="...">`) and press Enter. Closing tag generated. `T` keeps the full opening tag on change.
`f`	Function call	Prompts for a name; produces `name(content)`.
`F`	Function call (spaced)	Like `f` but `name( content )`.

Worked Examples

Sequence	Before → After
`ds'`	`'hello'` → `hello`
`dst`	`<em>hello</em>` → `hello`
`cs'"`	`'hello'` → `"hello"`
`cs[(`	`[hello]` → `( hello )`
`cs])`	`[hello]` → `(hello)`
`cst`	`<em>hi</em>` → prompts for new tag → `<strong>hi</strong>`
`ysiw'`	`hello` → `'hello'` (inner word)
`ysiwf`	`hello` → `print(hello)` (prompts for `print`)
`yss}`	`foo = 1` → `{foo = 1}` (whole line, no spaces)
`yss{`	`foo = 1` → `{ foo = 1 }` (whole line, with spaces)
`ysip<p>`	wraps paragraph in `<p>…</p>`
Visual mode + `S'`	wraps the selection in single quotes

Doubled and Capital Forms

Some shortcuts and variants follow the same operator-doubling pattern as core Vim (dd, yy):

Sequence	Effect
`yss`kind	Surround the whole current line (no motion needed).
`yS`motionkind	Like `ys` but place content on its own indented lines.
`ySS`kind	Whole-line version of the above.
Visual mode + `gS`kind	From an existing visual mode selection, `gS` wraps it like `S` but puts the content on its own lines.