~ / find / matching-pairslesson 2/5

Matching pairs: %, [( and [{

Bounce between matching brackets, or jump out to the enclosing one.

?how it works

% jumps between matching brackets: ( and ), [ and ], { and }. It works across lines and skips over nested pairs. If the cursor isn't on a bracket, % first finds the next bracket on the line, so from the start of if (ready) { one % lands on the ).

% is a motion, so it works with operators. With the cursor on an opening bracket, d% deletes the whole bracketed group and c% replaces it.

To get out of a block, [( and [{ jump back to the unclosed ( or { around the cursor, and ]) and ]} jump forward to the bracket that closes it.

% is a jump, so `` (two backticks) takes you back to where you were.

⌨keys

`%`	jump to the matching bracket (finds the next bracket on the line first)
`[(`	back to the unclosed ( around the cursor
`[{`	back to the unclosed { around the cursor
`])`	forward to the ) that closes the current group
`]}`	forward to the } that closes the current block

Nin neovim

Neovim loads the matchit plugin by default. In file types that set it up (HTML, Lua, Vim script, shell and more), % also cycles through matching keywords and tags, like if/else/end or <div>/</div>. With syntax highlighting on, it also skips brackets inside comments and strings. This trainer only matches brackets.

4 drills

Bounce to the partner: The cursor is on a bracket. Jump to its partner with %.
% looks ahead: The cursor is before the brackets. Press % once: it finds the next bracket on the line and jumps to that bracket's partner.
Replace a whole group with c%: The cursor is on an opening bracket. Replace the whole bracketed group, brackets included, with the name shown in the target, using c%.
Out to the enclosing bracket: Jump to the bracket that encloses the cursor: [{ or [( back to the opener, ]} or ]) forward to the closer.

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