How do I jump to the start or end of the last changed, yanked, or pasted text using automatic marks?

Explanation

Vim automatically sets two special marks after every change, yank, or put operation: '[ and ']. These jump to the first and last line of the affected text, respectively. Because they update automatically, you never need to manually place marks to revisit or re-operate on recently edited regions.

How it works

• '[ — jump to the first line of the last changed, yanked, or put text
• '] — jump to the last line of the last changed, yanked, or put text
• `[ and `] — backtick variants that jump to the exact column instead of the line start

These marks are updated by: y (yank), c (change), d (delete), p / P (put), and :read.

Example

You yank a 10-line function on lines 40–49, navigate away to line 200, then want to re-indent the pasted block:

p        " paste the function somewhere
'[V']=  " jump to paste start, visually select to paste end, re-indent

With `[v`] (backtick version) you select the exact characters rather than whole lines — useful when the pasted text starts or ends mid-line.

Tips

• Quick re-indent after paste: '[V']=
• Reselect last paste as visual: `[v`]
• Check all special marks: :marks — look for [ and ] in the output
• After :read file, '[ points to the first line read in and '] to the last
• These marks are buffer-local and reset with each new change/yank/put in that buffer