How do I delete or change an entire paragraph of text in one motion?

Explanation

The dap and dip commands use Vim's paragraph text objects to delete an entire block of contiguous text in a single motion. A paragraph in Vim is defined as a block of non-empty lines separated by blank lines — making these commands perfect for deleting functions, configuration blocks, log entries, or prose paragraphs without counting lines.

How it works

• d is the delete operator
• ip is the "inner paragraph" text object — it selects all contiguous non-blank lines around the cursor
• ap is "a paragraph" — it selects the paragraph plus the trailing blank line (or leading blank line if at the end of the file)
• The cursor can be anywhere within the paragraph — Vim finds the boundaries automatically

Example

Given the text with the cursor anywhere on beta or gamma:

alpha

beta
gamma
delta

epsilon

Pressing dap deletes the middle paragraph and its trailing blank line:

alpha

epsilon

Pressing dip instead would delete only the three lines, leaving the surrounding blank lines intact:

alpha



epsilon

Tips

• Use cap to delete the paragraph and enter insert mode, ready to type a replacement
• Use yap to yank (copy) a paragraph for pasting elsewhere
• Use vap to visually select the paragraph first so you can verify the boundaries before acting
• dap is cleaner than dip when rearranging blocks because it removes the trailing whitespace, preventing double blank lines
• Combine with . to repeat: dap on one paragraph, move to another, press . to delete that one too
• The { and } motions move backward and forward by paragraph — use them to navigate between blocks quickly before operating
• Paragraph text objects work beautifully with other operators: =ap re-indents a paragraph, gqap reformats it to fit textwidth, >ap indents it by one shiftwidth
• In code, paragraphs correspond to blocks separated by blank lines, which often aligns naturally with functions, classes, or logical sections