How to invert the selection in vim?

Solution 1:

First create the following mapping (for example bound to the <F4> key)

map <F4> :<C-U>1,'<-1:delete<CR>:'>+1,$:delete<CR>

then, after selecting a range in visual mode, just press <F4> to trigger the associated command. The command can be easily explained in parts:

• ":" Enter command line mode.
• "<C-U>" Remove all characters between the cursor position and the beginning of the line.
• "1,'<-1" Specifiy the range from the first line of the file to the line before the start of current selection.
• ":delete<CR>" Delete (the previously specified range of lines).
• ":'>+1,$:delete<CR>" Delete the lines in the range "'>+1,$", i.e. from the line after the end of the selection to the end of the file.

Solution 2:

1. select your text

2. "*yggdG"*p which means ...

   "*y    " yank it to the selection register
   ggdG   " delete everything
   "*p    " and paste the selection again 
   

Solution 3:

Just for posterity:

:v/\%V/d

That does an inverse global on lines that are not part of the selection. Note that :v is a line-based construct, so any line that contains any of the selection, be it line, stream, or block selection will be spared deletion.