vim cheat sheet

Vim is awesome. Its modal nature and text editing features make it unique amongst other editors. Vim offers a complete different level of text editing proficiency, speed and accuracy from anything else out there.

basic move：

• h move cursor to the left
• j move down
• k move up
• l move right
• i Go into Insert mode
• <ESC>``<Ctrl-C>``<Ctrl-[> Go back to Normal mode

move fast word by word

• w move to the beginning of next word
• b move to the beginning of the previous word
• e move to the end of the next word
• ge move to the end of the previous word
• W move to the beginning of next WORD
• B move to the beginning of the previous WORD
• E move to the end of the next WORD
• gE move to the end of the previous WORD

find character

• f{character} Find next occurrence of character
• F{character} Find previous occurrence of character
• t{character} Find next occurrence of character and place cursor just before it
• T{character} Find previous occurrence of character and place cursor just before it
• ; Go to next occurrence of {character}
• , Go to previous occurrence of {character}

move extremely horizontally

• 0 Moves to the first character of a line
• ^ Moves to the first non-blank character of a line
• $ Moves to the end of a line
• g_ Moves to the non-blank character at the end of a line

move faster vertically

• } Jumps entire paragraphs downwards
• { similarly but upwards
• CTRL-D lets you move down half a page by scrolling the page
• CTRL-U lets you move up half a page also by scrolling

high precision vertical motions with search

• /{pattern} Search for {pattern}. {pattern} is a regex.
• ?{pattern} Search for {pattern} backwards.
• / Repeat last search forwards
• ? Repeat last search backwards
• n Go to next match
• N Go to previous match

move faster with counts

• {count}{motion} Repeat {motion} {count} times
  e.g:
• 2w Jump to second word
• 4f" Jump to fourth occurrence of the " character
• 3/cucumber Jump to third match of “cucumber”

move semantically

• gd Go to definition (of the word under the cursor)
• gf Go to file (for file under the cursor)

more nifty core motions

• gg Go to the top of the file
• {line}gg Go to {line}
• G Go to the end of the file
• % jump to matching ({[]})

edit like magic with vim operators

• {operator}{count}{motion} Apply operator on bit of text covered by motion
  e.g:
• d delete
• c change
• y yank (copy)
• p p (paste)
• g~ switch case
• > shift right
• < shift left
• = format

line-wise operators

• dd delete a line
• cc change a line
• yy yank (copy) a line
• g~~ switch case of a line
• >> shift line right
• << shift lineleft
• == format line

capital case(stronger version) operators

• D delete from cursor to the end of the line
• C change from cursor to the end of the line
• Y yank (copy) a line. Like yy
• P put (paste) before the cursor

text objects

• {operator}a{text-object} Apply operator to all text-object including trailing whitespace
• {operator}i{text-object} Apply operator inside text-object
  e.g:
• diw delete inner word
• daw delete a word
• dis delete inner sentence
• das delete a sentence
• dip delete inner paragraph
• dap delete a paragraph
• di(``dib delete inside parentheses
• da(``dab delete text inside parentheses (including parentheses)
• di{``diB delete inside braces
• da{``daB delete text inside braces (including braces)
• di[ delete inside brackets
• da[ delete text inside brackets (including brackets)
• di" delete inside quotes
• da" delete a quoted text (including quotes)
• dit delete inside tag
• dat delete a tag (including tag)
• ciw same goes for other operators…

repeat last change

• . Repeat the last change

character editing commands

• x delete a character. Like dl
• X delete character before the cursor. Like dh
• s change a character. Like cl
• ~ switch case of a character

undo & redo

• u undo last change
• Ctrl-R redo last undo
• {count}u undo last {count} changes

inserting text

• i go into insert mode before the cursor
• a go into insert mode after the cursor
• I go into insert mode at the beginning of a line
• A go into insert mode at the end of a line
• o insert new line below current line and go into insert mode
• O insert new line above current line and go into insert mode
• gi go to the last place you left insert mode
• Ctrl-H delete last character
• Ctrl-W delete last word
• Ctrl-U delete last line

visual mode

• v go into character-wise visual mode
• V go into line-wise visual mode
• Ctrl-V go into block-wise visual mode (to select rectangular blocks of text)
• {trigger visual mode}{motion}{operator} Visual mode operates in kind of the opposite way to normal mode. First you specify the motion to select text, and then you apply the operator

operate on next search

• {operator}gn Apply operator on next match
• . After using {op}gn, the dot commant repeats the last change on the next match. Woooot!

copying & pasting

• y{motion} yank (copy) text covered by motion
• p put (paste) after cursor
• P paste before cursor
• yy copy line
• Y copy line
• yyp duplicate line
• ddp swap lines
• xp swap characters
• "ay{motion} copy to register a
• "Ay{motion} copy and append to register a
• "ap paste from register a
• " unnamed register
• 0 yank register
• 1-9 delete registers
• [a-z] named registers
• Ctrl-R a paste from register a when in Insert mode

command-line mode

• :edit {file}``:e {file} create or edit file
• :write``:w save file
• :quit``:q close file
• :write!``:w! force save file
• :quit!``:q! close file without saving
• :wq save and close file
• :wall``:wa save all files
• :qall``:qa close all files
• :wqall``:wqa save and close all files
• :qall!``:qa! close all files without saving
• :[range]delete [register]``:[r]d [r] delete multiple lines into register
• @: repeat last ex command
• @@ after repeating it once, you can continue repeating with this

command-line mode ranges

• :{start},{end} start and end lines of range e.g. :1,2d
• :{start},{offset} start and offset lines of range e.g. :1,+2d
• . current line e.g. :.,+2d
• % whole file e.g. :%d
• 0 beginning of file e.g. :0,10d
• $ end of file e.g. :10,$d
• :'<,'> visual selection

command-line mode substitute

• :[range]/{pattern}/{substitute}/[flags] substitute matched pattern for string literal in given range
• g flag substitute all matches in a line
• i flag case insensitive search
• c flag confirm substitution for each match

split windows

• :sp {file} Open file in a horizontal split
• :vsp {file} Open file in a vertical split
• Ctrl-W S Open same file in a horizontal split
• Ctrl-W V Open same file in a vertical split
• Ctrl-W h Move to split to the left
• Ctrl-W j Move to split below
• Ctrl-W k Move to split above
• Ctrl-W l Move to split to the right

tabs

• :tabnew {file} Open file in new tab
• :tabnext``:tabn Jump to next tab
• :tabprev``:tabp Jump to previous tab
• :tabonly``:tabo Close all other tabs

vim surround

• ds delete surroundings e.g. ds"
• cs change surroundings e.g. cs*tem>
• ys add surroundings e.g. ysiw"
• ds" delete surrounding quotes
• cs*tem> change surrounding * for the <em> tag
• ysiw" surround word under the cursor with quotes
• S In visual mode you can select some text, then type S to add surroundings. e.g. Stp> to wrap the selection in a <p> tag

custom mappings(they need to be added to your config)

Insert mode

• jk Go back to normal mode

Normal mode

• J Go down faster
• K Go up faster
• <leader>j Join lines
• <leader>/ Clear highlighted text
• <leader>w Save file
• <leader>p Open command palette
• <leader>t Go to symbol in file
• <Ctrl-H> Move to the window on the left
• <Ctrl-J> Move to the window below
• <Ctrl-K> Move to the window above
• <Ctrl-L> Move to the window on the right
• <leader>tt Create new tab
• <leader>tn Move to next tab
• <leader>tp Move to previous tab
• <leader>to Close all tabs but the current one

Moving faster with vim-sneak

• s{char}{char} Jump to the next ocurrence of {char}{char}
• S{char}{char} Jump to the previous ocurrence of {char}{char}
• ; Go to next occurrence of {char}{char}
• , Go to previous occurrence of {char}{char}
• {op}z{char}{char} Apply operator on text traversed by vim sneak motion

Moving faster with easymotion

• <leader><leader>w start of words
• <leader><leader>b start of words backwards
• <leader><leader>bdw start of words everywhere. The bd stands for bidirectional
• <leader><leader>e end of words
• <leader><leader>ge end of words backwards
• <leader><leader>bdw end of words everywhere
• <leader><leader>j beginning of lines
• <leader><leader>k beginning of lines backwards
• <leader><leader>f{char} find character
• <leader><leader>F{char} find character backwards
• <leader><leader>t{char} until character
• <leader><leader>T{char} until character backwards
• <leader><leader>s{char} search character everywhere

Multiple cursors

Based on Search

• <CMD-D>``<Ctrl-D>``gb Adds an additional cursor. This command puts you in visual mode. In effect, it selects all the words under each new cursor at once.
• {operator} Applies operator on words selected by the multiple cursors.
• I Insert before multiple words at the same time
• A Append after multiple words at the same time

In Consecutive Rows

• <Ctrl-V> Go into Visual-block mode and select text using motions
• {operator} Applies operator on visual selection.
• I Insert before visual selection
• A Append after visual selection

Reusable editing with macros

• q{register} Start recording a new macro in {register}
• q Stop recording macro
• @{register} Replay macro in {register}
• @@ Replay the last macro that you executed

Integrating with neovim

• :[range]copy {address} Copy lines after {address} line
• :[range]move {address} Move lines after {address} line
• :[range]normal {commands} Apply normal mode commands on a range of lines
• :execute "{ex-command}" Execute string as an Ex command. Useful in combination with normal when the normal mode commands include special characters.
• :[range]global/{pattern}/{command} Execute an Ex command on lines within a range that match a pattern. The default range is the whole file. Really useful in combination with the normal command.
• :[range]global!/{pattern}/{command} Execute an Ex command on lines within a range that do not match a pattern.