Move cursor up or down a few lines at a time from the keyboard

[youlam]

Hi, I’m wondering how to create a keyboard shortcut to move the caret up down a few lines at a time. Say:

alt+up —> moves cursor up by 10 lines (or to beginning of file, if that comes first)
alt+down —> moves cursor down by 10 lines (or to end of file, if that comes first)

I tried a few things but failed. Couldn’t find a default key binding that moves the cursor up/down a line to model myself on.

Thanks!

[benfrain]

Pg up and pg down?

[unknown_user]

save this as plugin in your sublime user folder

    import sublime
    import sublime_plugin


    class PlusLineCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
    	def run(self, edit, lines = 10):
    		(row,col) = self.view.rowcol(self.view.sel()[0].begin())
    		self.view.run_command("goto_line", {"line": row+1 + lines})

    class MinusLineCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
    	def run(self, edit, lines = 10):
    		(row,col) = self.view.rowcol(self.view.sel()[0].begin())
    		self.view.run_command("goto_line", {"line": row+1 - lines})

---

	{ "keys": ["alt+down"], "command": "plus_line", "args": {"lines": 10}},
	{ "keys": ["alt+up"], "command": "minus_line", "args": {"lines": 10}},

you can also use ctrl+g to go any line or use vi mode vi already have this future
j and k move down and up one line, so 10j and 10k move down and up ten lines. You can repeat any motion by putting a number before it. (if you in vi mode)

[kingkeith]

Command to move by several lines

If I had to guess I would say that the reason the core doesn't do this on its own is because you can add your own movement command that takes an extra argument if you want it so it's not really needed. For example, this creates a move_amount command that takes an extra argument named amount that describes how many times the motion should be taken. With this in place you can duplicate an existing key binding for movement with an appropriately added new modifier and just change the command from m…

[youlam]

Thanks, looks just like what I want, but I can’t get it to work! (Warning: I am a newbie at this.)

So far I copy-pasted the plugin part into a file that I called “updown”, placed in ~/Library/…/Sublime Text 3/Packages/User and I have copy-pasted the two user keybindings into my keybindings file. Nothing happens. I have tried to restart sublime text as well.

[unknown_user]

I think it should be updown.py and check sublime console for any errors (ctrl+`)

[youlam]

Thanks, changing to updown.py did it.

There was a slight bug: moving up past top of file had a “wraparound” effect. I changed that by putting

max(1, row+1-lines)

in the second function.

In passing, I don’t understand how sublime text knows that “plus_line” refers to a function named “PlusLineCommand”… I guess that’s some sort of convention?

[FichteFoll]

Yes, command names are converted to snake_case internally with the “command” suffix stripped.

[youlam]

Hi unknown_user (or whoever else is still listening). I realized that I would also like

shift+alt+up
shift+alt+down

to do the same thing, while extending the current selection or starting a new selection. Can your code be modified to do that? (I tried and failed.)

Thanks!

[OdatNurd]

The code in the forum post I wrote that @kingkeith linked above is a drop in replacement for the move command that takes the same arguments and also takes an extra argument that allows you to specify a movement amount.

If you use that, you can replicate the key bindings used for Shift+Up and Shift+Down using that command and a repeat amount of your choosing to do this,

[youlam]

Hi, thanks for the pointer. It worked! For reference, here are my key bindings, using your code:

{ "keys": ["alt+up"], "command": "move_amount", "args": { "by": "lines", "forward": false, "amount": 7 } },
{ "keys": ["alt+down"], "command": "move_amount", "args": { "by": "lines", "forward": true, "amount": 7 } },
{ "keys": ["shift+alt+up"], "command": "move_amount", "args": { "by": "lines", "forward": false, "amount": 7, "extend": true } },
{ "keys": ["shift+alt+down"], "command": "move_amount", "args": { "by": "lines", "forward": true, "amount": 7, "extend": true } },

And for even more reference, here is the code question (courtesy OdatNurd):

import sublime
import sublime_plugin

class MoveAmountCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
	def run(self, edit, amount=1, **kwargs):
    	for _ in range(amount):
        		self.view.run_command("move", args=kwargs)

Thanks again!

[mbarkhau]

I’m using vintage mode where I start my selection using ‘v’. This version based on the version from @youlam detects that a selection has started and if so maintains it.

import sublime_plugin

class MoveAmountCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):

    def run(self, edit, amount=10, **kwargs):
        for region in self.view.sel():
            if len(region) > 0:
                kwargs['extend'] = True
        for _ in range(amount):
            self.view.run_command("move", args=kwargs)