Selecting entire function definition in Vim

Question

I've been trying Vim for any text editing work for almost a week now. I want to know the fastest way to select a C function definition.

For example, if I have a function like this:

void helloworlds( int num )
{
    int n;
    for ( n = 0; n < num; ++n ) {
        printf( "Hello World!\n" );
    }
}

How would I be able to delete the whole definition including the function name?

Answer 1

As is common in Vim, there are a bunch of ways!

Note that the first two solutions depend on an absence of blank lines.

• If your cursor is on the line with the function name, try d}. It will delete everything to the next block (i.e. your function body).

• Within the function body itself, dap will delete the 'paragraph'.

• You can delete a curly brace block with da}. (If you like this syntax, I recommend Tim Pope's fantastic surround.vim, which adds more features with a similar feel).

• You could also try using regular expressions to delete until the next far left-indented closing curly brace: d/^}Enter

• ]] and [[ move to the next/previous first-column curly brace (equivalent to using / and ? with that regex I mentioned above. Combine with the d motion, and you acheive the same effect. In addons like Python-mode, these operators are redefined to mean exactly what you're looking for: move from function to function.

How to delete the whole block, header included

If you're on the header/name, or the line before the block, da} should do the trick.

If you're below a block, you can also make use of the handy 'offset' feature of a Vim search. d?^{?-1 will delete backwards to one line before the first occurrence of a first-column opening curly brace. This command's a bit tricky to type. Maybe you could make a <leader> shortcut out of it.

Plugins

I don't do much C programming in Vim, but there are surely plugins to help with such a thing. Try Vim Scripts or their mirror at GitHub.

Answer 2

To delete an entire function, including its definition, such as:

function tick() {
        // ... 
}

• Move to the line with the function name.
• Move the cursor to the opening brace, f{ should do it, or simply $.
• Press V%d (Visual line, move to matching pair, delete)

If your functions look like this:

function tick() 
{
        // ... 
}

• Move to the line with the function name.
• Press J (join the current line with line bellow. This also puts your cursor at the last character on the resulting line, {, just the one we need for the next command.)
• Press V%d (Visual line, move to matching pair, delete.)

or

• Move to the line with the function name.
• Press V[Down]%d (Visual line, move one line down, move to matching pair, delete.)

Answer 3

You can use this shortcut to delete not only the function, also the lines between curly braces, i.e the code between if-else statements,while,for loops ,etc.

Press Shitf + v [Will get you in visual Mode] at the curly brace start/end.

Then Press ] + } i.e ] + Shitf ] - If you are in start brace.

Then Press [ + { i.e [ + Shitf [ - If you are in end brace.

Then DEL to delete the lines selected.

Answer 4

Use this simple way

   1.Go to the function definition 
   2.dd  - delete function definition 
   3.d    -start delete operation 
   4.shift+5(%) - delete the lines between { to }

Answer 5

If you are willing to install plugins vim-textobj-function will give you vif for Visual select Inside Function and vaf for Visual select A Function.

daf will delete the function, both the line with the signature and the function body ({})

The text object defined by this plugin are more specific and they don't rely on the function body being a contiguous block of text or { being placed at the first character on the line.

The drawback is that you depend on an external plugin.

Answer 6

The simplest and most direct way way is as follows (works anywhere inside function):

v   enter visual mode
{   move to first brace in function (may have to press more than once)
o   exchange cursor from top to bottom of selection
}   extend selection to bottom of function
d   delete selected text

The complete command sequence would be v{o}d. Note that you can do other operations besides delete the same way. For example, to copy the function, use y (yank) instead of d.

Answer 7

If your function were separated by the blank lines, just type:

dip

which means "delete inner paragraph".

Answer 8

non-visual way:

d/^}/e

... delete by searching for } at line beining, including it for deletion.

without /e (not mentioned in above answers), solution is incomplete.

with /e - searching goes to end of match, so closing bracket is included, and command is well for yanking too:

y/^}/e

Answer 9

Another way is to go to the line of the start of your function and hit: Vj% (or V%% if your style puts the opening brace on the same line). This puts you into Visual-Line mode and the percent takes you to the matching closing brace. In the second style, the first % takes you to the opening brace on the line that you selected and the second to its matching closing brace.

Also works for parentheses, brackets, C-style multi-line comments and preprocessor directives.

See the manual for more info.

Answer 10

Pre-condition: be somewhere inside the function. Go to the previous closing curly bracket on the first line using

[]

Then delete down to the next closing curly bracket on the first line using

d][