Easiest way to cut line content and past it inside { }

Question

I have this

subject { }

it 'delete user' do
  expect(BlaBla).to eq ''
  MyModel.my_method
end

And I want this

subject { MyModel.my_method }

it 'delete user' do
  expect(BlaBla).to eq ''
end

1. First try

If I do dd and then past it inside my bracket with i<CTRL>r"" I will get something like

subject {   MyModel.my_method
}

And I have to go in insert mode to past the text and I have to clean some extra space and joins line.

2. Second try

I go on the line wy$ then "_dd to remove the line without save it. Then go after the first { : ?{<ENTER>lpa<space>

What will be a better motion to cut only the content of the line store into a register remove the line jump below past inside brackets?

Answer 1

You can delete the content of a line (without the line break) with ^d$. You can delete to any register (e.g. 'l': "l^d$.) If you use that often, I suggest mapping it to a new key:

nnoremap D ^d$

or

nnoremap D "l^d$

Note that ^ in difference to 0 does not contain leading whitespace.

Then, within the {}, paste it via p or "lp respectively.

Additional Note:

I personally often end up deleting the line after deleting its contents (or more general: deleting something afterwards that should not overwrite my unnamed register). Instead of using registers, for me this plugin feels more convenient. It effectively turns your unnamed register into a stack, so you can delete multiple things and when you paste, you can cycle through them.

Answer 2

If your problem is to repeat the operation in an efficient way you could use a macro:

First put { in your search register with /{

Then record your macro: qq^DNp``ddq

• qq record the macro in the q register
• ma put a mark on the line you'll delete
• ^ got to the first word of the line (ie. MyModel)
• D delete the end of the line and put it in the unnamed register
• N go to the previous occurence of the search register ({)
• p put the deleted text between the brackets
• 'a go to the line you marked before
• dddelete the line
• q stop the macro recording

Then you'll simply have to go to the next occurence of MyModel.my_method and use @q to repeate the operation.

Answer 3

With the cursor on MyModel.my_method, I would do:

^y$?{<CR>p``dd

^          jump to first printable character
y$         yank the rest of the line
?{<CR>     jump to the opening bracket
p          put what I just yanked
``         jump back
dd         cut the line

Answer 4

You might consider doing something like this on the following text: 5G, ^v$hd,?{<cr>,p

1  subject { }
2
3  it 'delete user' do
4  expect(BlaBla).to eq ''
5  MyModel.my_method
6  end

5G gets you to line 5.

^v$hd selects the text an line 5 and places it in a register.

?{<cr> moves to the nearest { prior to line 5. p places the text in the register immediately after the { (the current position of the cursor).

Answer 5

For this situations, I have a smart line delete cmd:

noremap <silent> <leader>dd ^D"_dd

Then you want to paste inside { }. I'm using ?{<ENTER>vi{p:

subject {MyModel.my_method}