How do I expand a visual selection to include the outer block?

Explanation

In visual mode, you can expand your selection to include outer nested blocks by pressing additional text object commands. Starting with vi{ and then pressing a{ expands to the enclosing block.

How it works

• vi{ selects the inner content of the current {} block
• While still in visual mode, pressing a{ expands to include the outer block
• Continue pressing a{ to keep expanding outward

Example

function outer() {
    if (true) {
        return inner();
    }
}

With the cursor on return, vi{ selects the if block content. Then a{ expands to include the if's braces. Then a{ again expands to the function body.

Tips

• Works with any paired text object: vi(a(a( for nested parens
• vi" then a" expands from inner to around quotes
• This is called "growing" the selection
• Very useful for selecting increasingly large scopes