How can I switch 2 characters in vi?

Question

I like the fact that I've memorized ddp for switching two lines (i.e. dd deletes the line and then p puts it back '1 higher').

Is there are similar set of keystrokes for switching 2 characters so that wsih would become wish?

Line swapping, character swapping and word swapping tips in vim can be found at [vim.wikia.com](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Swapping_characters,_words_and_lines). — Thor, Sep 15 '12 at 14:16

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

21

The answer turned out to be xp, just not the windows kind ;)

If you are working on your vim skills generally you may also find this useful:

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

answered Sep 14 '12 at 17:59

Michael Durrant

Yes, `xp` transposes two characters in vi. – maxschlepzig Sep 14 '12 at 18:22
5

`x` - eat the character under the cursor (and put it in the paste buffer); `p` - paste the buffer after the position of the cursor (which has advanced one character in the text). – Sep 14 '12 at 19:09
1

Just curious. What's the "windows kind"? – Stéphane Chazelas Sep 14 '12 at 19:57
3

@sch http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/windows-xp – Michael Mrozek Sep 14 '12 at 20:04
or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP – Michael Durrant Sep 07 '13 at 16:46

cuonglm · Answer 2 · 2014-05-22T16:33:00.043

2

xp will swap current character with next character.

We can do another kind of swap, Xp will swap current character with previous character.

edited May 22 '14 at 16:33

answered May 22 '14 at 16:08

cuonglm

2 Answers2