How do I select or operate on the content of an HTML or XML tag using text objects?

Explanation

Vim provides two built-in text objects for HTML and XML tags: it (inner tag) and at (a tag). Like all Vim text objects, they work with any operator — d, c, y, v, =, <, >, and more — making them far more efficient than manually positioning the cursor and visually selecting.

How it works

• it selects the text inside the tag, excluding the opening and closing tags themselves
• at selects the text plus the surrounding opening and closing tags
• The cursor can be anywhere inside the tag — at the start, middle, or end of the content
• Nested tags work as expected: Vim targets the innermost tag containing the cursor

Example

Given the buffer:

<p>Hello <em>world</em> today</p>

With the cursor inside <em>world</em>:

• vit → selects world
• vat → selects <em>world</em>
• dit → deletes world, leaving <em></em>
• dat → deletes <em>world</em> entirely, leaving <p>Hello today</p>

Tips

• Use cit to replace tag contents: delete the contents and drop into Insert mode in one stroke
• Use yat to yank an entire tag with its content — useful before pasting or wrapping
• Combine with counts: 2dat can delete the outer tag after the inner one is gone
• These text objects require filetype detection to be active. Run :filetype detect or ensure filetype plugin on is in your config if they are not working