*usr_04.txt*	For Vim version 6.0j.  Last change: 2000 Jul 07

		     VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
		
			     Making local changes


|04.1|	Motions and operators

     Next chapter: |usr_05.txt|  Making big changes
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Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|

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*04.1*	Motions and operators

yank and put
changing text: "r", "cw", replace mode
"I", "A"
"J", "~", ">>", "."
Visual mode
text objects


Deleting text.

You can delete text in many ways.  Let's start with a single character.
Position the cursor on the character you want to delete and hit "x".  The
characters right of it will shift left to fill the gap.

before:	this is an examplle
	                ^
type "x"

after:  this is an example
			^

You can repeat the "x" to delete several characters.  When you know how many
you want to delete, prepend a count to "x".  "4x" deletes four characters.

before:	 this is an examexample
                    ^
type "4x"

after:   this is an example
                    ^

To delete the word under the cursor use "daw".  This also deletes white space
before or after the word to make the new sentence look good.

before:   this is my an example
                   ^
type "daw"

after:    this is an example
                  ^
There are many other ways to delete pieces of text.  Here are a few often used
ones:

x	delete character under the cursor (short for "dl")
X	delete character before the cursor (short for "dh")
D	delete from cursor to end of line (short for "d$")
dw	delete from cursor to next start of word
db	delete from cursor to previous start of word
diw	delete word under the cursor (excluding white space)
dG	delete until the end of the file
dgg	delete until the start of the file

The generic form of deletion is the "d" operator.  It is followed by a motion
command, to delete the text that was moved over.  For example, the "$" command
moves to the end of the line.  Thus "d$" deletes to the end of the line.  The
"D" command is in fact an abbreviation for "d$".  And "x" is an abbreviation
for "dl", since "l" moves the cursor right.

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