Vim - Move selection up/down with Ctrl+Shift+Arrow

I want to move a selection up/down with Ctrl+Shift+Arrow, similar like in other editors. What I currently have in my .vimrc is the following:

" from :behave mswin :set clipboard=unnamedplus :smap <Del> <C-g>"_d :smap <C-c> <C-g>y :smap <C-x> <C-g>x :imap <C-v> <Esc>pi :smap <C-v> <C-g>p :smap <Tab> <C-g>1> :smap <S-Tab> <C-g>1< " from nnoremap <C-S-Up> :m-2<CR> nnoremap <C-S-Down> :m+<CR> inoremap <C-S-Up> <Esc>:m-2<CR> inoremap <C-S-Down> <Esc>:m+<CR> " enable syntax highlighting syntax enable " show line numbers set number " set tabs to have 4 spaces set ts=4 " indent when moving to the next line while writing code set autoindent " expand tabs into spaces set expandtab " when using the >> or << commands, shift lines by 4 spaces set shiftwidth=4 " show a visual line under the cursor's current line set cursorline " show the matching part of the pair for [] {} and () set showmatch " enable all Python syntax highlighting features let python_highlight_all = 1 " remove wrong indentation when pasting augroup auto_comment au! au FileType * setlocal formatoptions-=c formatoptions-=r formatoptions-=o augroup END 

This works fine to move a line with Ctrl+Shift+ArrowUp/Down, but if I select text and then try to move the selection, only the current line will be moved and the selection gets unselected. I did not find help by googling. Help is appreciated! :-)

2 Answers

For visual moving, you could use theses bindings :

xnoremap <C-S-Up> xkP`[V`] xnoremap <C-S-Down> xp`[V`] xnoremap <C-S-Left> <gv xnoremap <C-S-Right> >gv 

I personally prefer CTRL+hjkl than reaching the arrow keys, but use whatever keys suits you best.

Now, for moving the current line while in insert mode, I use this function which moves n lines up or down. Binding it to -1 and +1 works great.

function! MoveLineAndInsert(n) " -x=up x lines; +x=down x lines let n_move = (a:n < 0 ? a:n-1 : '+'.a:n) let pos = getcurpos() try " maybe out of range exe ':move'.n_move call setpos('.', [0,pos[1]+a:n,pos[2],0]) finally startinsert endtry endfunction inoremap <C-S-Up> <Esc>`^:silent! call MoveLineAndInsert(-1)<CR> inoremap <C-S-Down> <Esc>`^:silent! call MoveLineAndInsert(+1)<CR> 

The try/finally block and the `^:silent! part of the mapping are here to make it gracefully degrading on the edges of the buffer.

Edit

For this to work,

• the set nocompatible option must be set

• behave mswin should be removed in order to use <C-S-{Arrow}>, see this answer

• for Tmux users, see this answer

Add to .vimrc to move selection with ctrl + shift + up, ctrl + shift + down:

vnoremap <C-S-Up> :m '<-2<CR>gv=gv vnoremap <C-S-Down> :m '>+1<CR>gv=gv