how to move current line up or down

[setop]

I have that:

line a
line c
line b

I want to put cursor on "line b" (resp. "line c") and have a shortcut to move it up (resp. down). To obtain

line a
line b
line c

Some editor map it to alt+up and alt+down

[CptPotato]

I'm not aware of a way to move the current line in the way you've described.

Another way to approach this is deleting the whole line and inserting it somewhere else. In your example you can do this by moving your cursor somewhere on line c and performing xdp (effectively swapping the current line with the next).

Edit: Moving the line up would be xdkP (or xdkkp)

[CptPotato]

Here's how you can map this to Altj and Altk in your config.toml:

[keys.normal]
"A-j" = [ "extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after" ]
"A-k" = [ "extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before" ]

Note that this will overwrite what you have currently yanked.

(feels pretty convenient to me to be honest 👀)

[goyalyashpal]

Note that this will overwrite what you have currently yanked.

ohw that's sad... can't some additonal temp buffer/register be used to avoid that?

[CptPotato]

You can switch to a different register manually. But I'm not aware of a way to do this using a keybind.

[maxsz]

I have this in my config:

[keys.normal]
C-j = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after"]
C-k = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before"]

works like in other editors 👍

[goosy]

But there will be a problem when moving down to the last line if the last line is a non-blank line

[vwkd]

Somehow this adds a newline to the end of the file if there isn't one already, even if moving lines around just in the middle of the file.

[aral]

Very nice, thank you.

PS. I altered the keybinding for my needs, in case it makes sense for anyone else, I’m using shift-up and shift-down (semantic, innit?) ;)

S-down = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after"]
S-up = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before"]

[servufi]

[keys.normal]
"A-j" = [
  "extend_to_line_bounds",
  "delete_selection",
  "paste_after",
  "select_mode",
  "goto_line_start",
  "normal_mode",
] # Move line(s) down
"A-k" = [
  "extend_to_line_bounds",
  "delete_selection",
  "move_line_up",
  "paste_before",
  "flip_selections",
] # Move line(s) up

Keeps cursor at start of line too if there is ever longer lines.. I wonder if there is way to move line in insert mode and keep cursor pos?

[goyalyashpal]

One more way to do this - though, a very different one can be to

1. select all the lines from source (the line where it's originally at)
   and destination (where the line has to go)
   the terminals (source line, and destination line) both included in selection,
2. Alt-s : break the selection at new line
3. Alt-( or Alt-) : "rotate" contents of the selection
4. deselect ; (collapse selection) and close multicursor , (keep primary selection only)
   Addend: #5912 (comment) by @ brixy mentions esc

Tips:

• selection collapse, and de-multicursor (in step 4) can be done in either order
• rotate selection contents in opposite direction (i.e. rotate down if u've to move up)
  this will move the line to its destination in just 1 rotation, rather than moving/rotating up up up again and again...

This last tip above makes it extremely efficient method O(1) for moving in long spans, and doesn't interfere with registers etc.

Source of confusions:

• efficiently making the line selection: which i asked in any advices for improvement in my line selections & navigations #5612, and will expand on there itself in some days
• forgetting command names for step 4
• command palette <Space> ? is ur friend for any forgotten command or keybind

Screen record:

movig.line.up.by.rotating.selection.in.helix.in.wezterm-gui_LbE68bA06F.mp4

Old

Resolved/thanks @ CptPotato for sharing A-s

i am not sure if this (breaking selection at newline) is possible _yet_, haven't tried it... but this just came in my mind, thought to share....

will confirm a bit later

[CptPotato]

Good point, this should also work!

i am not sure if this (breaking selection at newline) is possible yet, haven't tried it yet...

Yes, you can split the selection into one selection per line, using A-s.

[CptPotato]

Here's the above binding with your method:

"A-j" = [ "extend_to_line_bounds", "extend_line_below", "split_selection_on_newline", "rotate_selection_contents_forward", "rotate_selections_backward", "keep_primary_selection" ]
"A-k" = [ "extend_to_line_bounds", "extend_line_above", "split_selection_on_newline", "rotate_selection_contents_forward", "keep_primary_selection" ]

However, the big issue with this is that empty lines break this sequence.

This one is even more convoluted, but still works with empty lines present:

"A-j" = [ "keep_primary_selection", "move_line_down", "extend_to_line_bounds", "extend_line_above", "split_selection_on_newline", "select_mode", "goto_line_end_newline", "normal_mode", "rotate_selection_contents_forward", "keep_primary_selection", "move_line_down" ]
"A-k" = [ "keep_primary_selection", "extend_to_line_bounds", "extend_line_above", "split_selection_on_newline", "select_mode", "goto_line_end_newline", "normal_mode", "rotate_selection_contents_forward", "keep_primary_selection" ]

^{The first keep_primary_selection is used to prevent multiple selections from breaking this keybind.}

So I guess there are two options now. One works with multiple cursors (but overwrites the yank register), the other doesn't touch any register but can only handle a single selection (and is too complicated for my liking).

[goyalyashpal]

haha. ohwww my goddd, sooo longg lolol...
thanks a LOTT

i anticipated this one to be complicated and multi-step... and realised, and indicated in the edited comment above that this method is suitable for moving over long spans of lines, which i frequently do when organising things

one may argue, that why not just cut-paste then? umh... just 'cz i find it quite hard to keep mental track of the "cut" material... and this rotation thing check all boxes i always dreamt of ....

just only if the multiple line selection could be nailed to satisfaction

[goyalyashpal]

one works with multiple cursors

ahw, and the multi-cursor part can also be significant in some use cases.
this consideration never crossed my mind - as i had never seen it before in any GUI editor haha.

[goyalyashpal]

yep, stumbled upon a case where there were empty lines in between, and rotating it merged the lines...

[goyalyashpal]

Much more indepth discussion:

• Move lines or blocks up or down #2245

[setop]

After all the great advice, I choose the following:

[keys.normal]
A-up = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before"]
A-down = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after"]

This really helped my migration to helix

[goyalyashpal]

glad u found smth to help u with helix - i will keep on searching for this line selection issues lol

[sgon00]

Thanks a lot. It works very well. I also put [keys.select] to move multiple lines selection.

[tifandotme]

this is so elegant, thank you!

[adminy]

I've also put this in select mode under keys.select, unfortunately it deletes all the lines and leaves just 1 line to move around. why is that?

[eugenesvk]

The answer insert mode doesn't preserve the cursor position, is there a way to fix that and fully replicate line swap up/down functionality?

[BVegNow]

once there is a command to store cursor position within a selection despite being cut n paste, then it can be done, seems not yet, that is the key functionality to be worked on

[7ombie]

None of the suggestions work in Insert Mode. I have it working in Normal Mode (and Select Mode), but Insert Mode executes the same commands differently??

I like to use Shift with the arrow keys to move text up, down, right and left (swap up, swap down, indent, dedent). Being able to easily adjust the indentation as I move a block into a function or out of a loop is really convenient.

[rjawaji1]

I feel like having a native command would be really great. Especially since natively you could use something like tree sitter to identify the indentation level like they do on JetBrains ides and I feel like its also a feature that would be great in the core version of helix.

[forivall]

To support repetition and avoid clobbering the buffer, i use the following:

  { "key": "ctrl+j", "command": "dance.run",    "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly && dance.mode == 'normal' || editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly && dance.mode == 'select'", "args": {
    "code": [
      "const _ = Context.current;",
      "Selections.updateWithFallbackByIndex((_i, selection) => {",
      "  let start = Positions.lineStart(Selections.seekFrom(selection, Direction.Backward, selection.start).line);",
      "  let endSeek = Selections.seekFrom(selection, Direction.Forward, selection.end);",
      "  let end = endSeek.character >= 0 ? Positions.lineBreak(endSeek.line) : endSeek;",
      "  let sel1 = Selections.fromStartEnd(start, end);",
      "  let pos = Positions.lineStart(Lines.clamp(end.line + repetitions))",
      "  let sel2 = Selections.fromStartEnd(pos, pos);",
      "  rotateContents(1, [sel1, sel2])",
      "  return mapBoth(selection, (p) => Positions.at(Lines.clamp(p.line + repetitions), p.character));",
      "});"
    ] }
  },
  { "key": "ctrl+k", "command": "dance.run",  "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly && dance.mode == 'normal' || editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly && dance.mode == 'select'", "args": {
    "code": [
      "const _ = Context.current;",
      "Selections.updateWithFallbackByIndex((_i, selection) => {",
      "  let start = Positions.lineStart(Selections.seekFrom(selection, Direction.Backward, selection.start).line);",
      "  let endSeek = Selections.seekFrom(selection, Direction.Forward, selection.end);",
      "  let end = endSeek.character >= 0 ? Positions.lineBreak(endSeek.line) : endSeek;",
      "  let sel1 = Selections.fromStartEnd(start, end);",
      "  let pos = Positions.lineStart(Lines.clamp(start.line - repetitions))",
      "  let sel2 = Selections.fromStartEnd(pos, pos);",
      "  rotateContents(1, [sel1, sel2])",
      "  return mapBoth(selection, (p) => Positions.at(Lines.clamp(p.line - repetitions), p.character));",
      "});"
    ]}
  },