How do I count the words, lines, and characters in just my visual selection?

Explanation

In visual mode, pressing g<C-g> reports detailed statistics for the selected text only — word count, character count, and byte count. This is far more useful than the normal-mode version (which counts the whole file) when you need to measure a specific excerpt, passage, or code block.

How it works

• Enter visual mode (v, V, or <C-v>) and select the text
• Press g<C-g> to display the selection statistics in the statusbar
• Output format: Selected N of M Lines; N of M Words; N of M Bytes

Example

Select two lines of text with Vjj, then press g<C-g>:

Selected 2 of 312 Lines; 18 of 2341 Words; 97 of 14032 Bytes

This shows 18 words and 97 bytes in your 2-line selection, out of the full file's totals.

Tips

• Works with all three visual modes: character (v), line (V), and block (<C-v>)
• In normal mode, g<C-g> shows the same stats for the entire file
• The word count algorithm matches Vim's internal word boundaries (split on whitespace)
• Useful when checking blog post excerpts, commit message lengths, or doc sections against word limits