vim: delete to character, non-inclusive

To add to what Michal said, you can also use T and F to do the same thing backwards.

Also ; will repeat the last t,T,f or F motion, and ' will repeat it in the opposite direction.

Yes, dt;. From the Vim docs:

t{char}

Till before [count]'th occurrence of {char} to the right. The cursor is placed on the character left of {char} |inclusive|. {char} can be entered like with the |f| command.