~ / text-objects / quoteslesson 2/6

Quotes: i", a", i' and i`

Change or delete a string's contents from anywhere on the line.

?how it works

i" is everything between a pair of double quotes, and a" is the same plus the quotes themselves and the white space after them (or before them, if there is none after). It works the same with single quotes (i', a') and backticks (i`, a`).

You don't even need to be inside the string. If the cursor is before the first quote on the line, Vim looks ahead and uses the first string it finds, so ci" works straight from the start of a line.

Quote objects only look at the current line. If the cursor sits between two strings, Vim pairs up the nearest quotes and you get the text between the strings, so start inside the string you mean (or before the first one).

⌨keys

`i"`	inside double quotes
`a"`	a double-quoted string, quotes and trailing space included
`i'`	inside single quotes
`a'`	a single-quoted string
i`	inside backticks
a`	a backtick string
`ci"`	change a string's contents

4 drills

Change a string: Replace the text inside the quotes. The cursor is somewhere inside the string.
Reach ahead into a string: The cursor is at the start of the line, before any quotes. Change the contents of the first string without moving there first.
Delete a quoted phrase: Delete the quoted phrase the cursor is in, quotes and all, so the sentence still reads cleanly.
Single quotes too: Same idea with single quotes: replace the text inside them.

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