Swapping characters, words and lines

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created 2001 · complexity basic · version 6.0

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Normal-mode commands

Swap the current character (the character under the cursor) with the next:

xp

Swap the current character with the previous:

Xp

Swap the current line with the next (but see below for a better method):

ddp

Swap the current line with the previous:

ddkP or ddkkp

Swap the current word with the next (see note):

dawwP
dawelp
hdeep                (works at start of first word)
"xdiwdwep"xp         (works with most punctuations too)

Swap the current word with the previous (see note):

dawbP

Note: These swap-word techniques don't work with punctuation. Use the mappings below to more intelligently move words. However, for many more complex swaps, several plugins are available with often do a better job.

Mappings

See moving lines up or down for the best method to move lines.

To use gc to swap the current character with the next, without changing the cursor position:

:nnoremap <silent> gc xph

To use gw to swap the current word with the next, without changing cursor position: (See note.)

:nnoremap <silent> gw "_yiw:s/\(\%#\w\+\)\(\W\+\)\(\w\+\)/\3\2\1/<CR><c-o><c-l>
" This version will work across newlines:
:nnoremap <silent> gw "_yiw:s/\(\%#\w\+\)\(\_W\+\)\(\w\+\)/\3\2\1/<CR><c-o><c-l>

To use gl to swap the current word with the previous, keeping cursor on current word: (This feels like "pushing" the word to the left.) (See note.)

:nnoremap <silent> gl "_yiw?\w\+\_W\+\%#<CR>:s/\(\%#\w\+\)\(\_W\+\)\(\w\+\)/\3\2\1/<CR><c-o><c-l>

To use gr to swap the current word with the next, keeping cursor on current word: (This feels like "pushing" the word to the right.) (See note.)

:nnoremap <silent> gr "_yiw:s/\(\%#\w\+\)\(\_W\+\)\(\w\+\)/\3\2\1/<CR><c-o>/\w\+\_W\+<CR><c-l>

To use g{ to swap the current paragraph with the next:

:nnoremap g{ {dap}p{

Note: Mappings above which perform a search-and-replace (ones containing :s//) will operate incorrectly on words with accented characters. To adjust the mappings above to work with your locale, replace all \w with [alphabet] and \W with [^alphabet], where alphabet is the set of characters in your alphabet. :help /\w

Visual-mode swapping

To use this mapping: first, delete some text (using a command such as daw or dt in normal mode, or x in visual mode). Then, use visual mode to select some other text, and press Ctrl-X. The two pieces of text should then be swapped.

:vnoremap <C-X> <Esc>`.``gvP``P

Related plugins

• Visual Mode Based Swapping script by Chip Campbell to swap visually-selected text
• Swap plugin provides mappings to swap adjacent words or selected text around a "pivot"
• Transpose words plugin swap two words as M-t (transpose words) in Emacs or bash
• Swap two columns plugin swap two columns (words) in one line or multiple selected lines
• Flipwords plugin swap delimited words

See also

• Moving lines up or down mappings to move lines up/down, with re-indenting
• Transposing script to move current or selected lines up/down

Comments

Swap all lines in a visual selected block

When working with arrays I sometimes realize that I have to do things in the opposite order. To easily change this I created this small function:

function SwapAll() range
  if a:firstline != a:lastline
    if a:firstline < a:lastline
      let first=a:firstline
      let last=a:lastline
    else
      let first=a:lastline
      let last=a:firstline
    endif
    while first < last
      exec first.'m'.last.'|'.(last-1).'m'.(first-1)
      let first=first+1
      let last=last-1
    endwhile
  endif
endfunction

vmap     <silent> <C-s>   :call SwapAll()<CR>
vnoremap <silent> <C-x>   :call SwapAll()<CR>

--December 4, 2013