vim-textobj-user is a Vim plugin to create your own text objects without pain. It is hard to create text objects, because there are many pitfalls to deal with. This plugin hides such details and provides a declarative way to define text objects. You can use regular expressions to define simple text objects, or use functions to define complex ones.
Define ad/id to select a date such as 2013-03-16, and define at/it to select a time such as 22:04:21:
call textobj#user#plugin('datetime', { \ 'date': { \ 'pattern': '\<\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d\>', \ 'select': ['ad', 'id'], \ }, \ 'time': { \ 'pattern': '\<\d\d:\d\d:\d\d\>', \ 'select': ['at', 'it'], \ }, \ })Define aA to select text from << to the matching >>, and define iA to select text inside << and >>:
call textobj#user#plugin('braces', { \ 'angle': { \ 'pattern': ['<<', '>>'], \ 'select-a': 'aA', \ 'select-i': 'iA', \ }, \ })Define al to select the current line, and define il to select the current line without indentation:
call textobj#user#plugin('line', { \ '-': { \ 'select-a-function': 'CurrentLineA', \ 'select-a': 'al', \ 'select-i-function': 'CurrentLineI', \ 'select-i': 'il', \ }, \ }) function! CurrentLineA() normal! 0 let head_pos = getpos('.') normal! $ let tail_pos = getpos('.') return ['v', head_pos, tail_pos] endfunction function! CurrentLineI() normal! ^ let head_pos = getpos('.') normal! g_ let tail_pos = getpos('.') let non_blank_char_exists_p = getline('.')[head_pos[2] - 1] !~# '\s' return \ non_blank_char_exists_p \ ? ['v', head_pos, tail_pos] \ : 0 endfunctionDefine a( to select text from \left( to the matching \right), and define i( to select text inside \left( to the matching \right), but only for tex files:
call textobj#user#plugin('tex', { \ 'paren-math': { \ 'pattern': ['\\left(', '\\right)'], \ 'select-a': [], \ 'select-i': [], \ }, \ }) augroup tex_textobjs autocmd! autocmd FileType tex call textobj#user#map('tex', { \ 'paren-math': { \ 'select-a': '<buffer> a(', \ 'select-i': '<buffer> i(', \ }, \ }) augroup ENDYou can define your own text objects like the above examples. See also the reference manual for more details.
There are many text objects written with vim-textobj-user. If you want to find useful ones, or to know how they are implemented, see a list of text objects implemented with vim-textobj-user.