How to select/ copy the word under the cursor ?

[blitzerr]

I am new to helix and enjoying it a lot so far. Thanks a lot for building it. I also find this community welcoming and very helpful. So thanks you all a lot.

I find that I tend to copy the word under the cursor and then go somewhere else and paste it or search for it in the global clipboard. I can use the w if I am at the start of the word or b if I am at the end of it to select it and then yank it, but a lot of times I am in the middle of the word and there is a shortcut to select - the * but unfortunately it only selects the character under the cursor. I am wondering how people select the entire word under the cursor ?

[pascalkuthe]

You can select text-objects under the current cursor with mi and ma.
For words in particular you can use miw/maw

[tedbennett]

You could use be instead, which won't select the whitespace character at the end?

[David-Else]

How about just keeping to the standard Vim way to search for words?

[keys.normal]
"*" = ["move_prev_word_start", "move_next_word_end", "search_selection"] # vim

I am all for learning superior Helix shortcuts, but this seems like it should be default anyway?

[alilee]

It's a shame it doesn't work when you are on the first char. I get that "e" works well then, but it would be great if "*" selected whole current word regardless of where you're starting. "e" isn't always good because it normally captures the prior separator. It raises the question, why do "e", "w" and "b" capture separators? Vim gives you "wchelloescwww." I can't get this in Helix I don't think.

[mweihs]

It's a shame it doesn't work when you are on the first char. I get that "e" works well then, but it would be great if "*" selected whole current word regardless of where you're starting.

You could move one character to the right first, like this

"*" = ["move_char_right", "move_prev_word_start", "move_next_word_start", "search_selection"]

Bit of a hack, but still ...

[Diorgeles]

I add "select_mode" in start of the command to multi_select and edit and add C-n in keybind how neovim plugin
"C-n" = ["select_mode", "move_char_right", "move_prev_word_start", "move_next_word_start", "search_selection"]

It's a shame it doesn't work when you are on the first char. I get that "e" works well then, but it would be great if "*" selected whole current word regardless of where you're starting.

You could move one character to the right first, like this

"*" = ["move_char_right", "move_prev_word_start", "move_next_word_start", "search_selection"]

Bit of a hack, but still ...