Text Objects & Operators in Vim
From the Vim cheat sheet · Editing · verified Jul 2026
Text Objects & Operators
Powerful text manipulation with operators and text objects
text
# Operators
d - Delete
c - Change (delete and enter insert)
y - Yank (copy)
v - Visual select
= - Indent
# Text Objects
iw - Inner word
aw - Around word (includes space)
is - Inner sentence
as - Around sentence
ip - Inner paragraph
ap - Around paragraph
i" - Inner quotes
a" - Around quotes (includes quotes)
i( or ib - Inner parentheses
a( or ab - Around parentheses
i{ or iB - Inner braces
a{ or aB - Around braces
it - Inner tag (HTML/XML)
at - Around tag
# Examples
diw - Delete inner word
ciw - Change inner word
yi( - Yank inside parentheses
da" - Delete around quotes
vip - Select inner paragraph
=ap - Indent around paragraph💡 Combine operators (d/c/y/v) with text objects for power
⚡ "i" means inner (excludes delimiters), "a" means around
📌 ciw changes word from anywhere inside it
🟢 Master diw, ciw, and yiw first
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