Vim: enclose word in tag

Question

I would like to wrap a word in Vim with enclosing tags, such as from word to 'word' or from word to (word).

Answer 1

Use Tim Pope's vim-surround, you can use: ysw' to enclose a word with "`", ysw( to surround the word with "(". If you want to surround the word with an actual tag such as the HTML tag <code>, you can use yswt, then type in your tag in the prompt. If you want to change existing surround elements, use csw, type in the surround element you want to replace and hit <CR> (enter), and type the new surrounding element.

Note that for the commands above to work, you have to put the cursor in the beginning of the word you want to surround.

From its official page:

Press cs"' (that's c, s, double quote, single quote) inside

"Hello world!"

to change it to

'Hello world!'

Now press cs'<q> to change it to

Hello world!

To go full circle, press cat" to get

"Hello world!"

To remove the delimiters entirely, press ds" .

Hello world!

Now with the cursor on "Hello", press ysiw] (iw is a text object).

[Hello] world!

Let's make that braces and add some space (use "}" instead of "{" for no space): cs]{

{ Hello } world!

Now wrap the entire line in parentheses with yssb or yes) .

({ Hello } world!)

Revert to the original text: ds{ds)

Hello world!

Emphasize hello: ysiw<em>

Hello world!

Finally, let's try out visual mode. Press a capital V (for linewise visual mode) followed by S<p class="important">.

Hello world!

For more detailed usage info, install vim-surround, and then use :help surround to invoke the docs.