Vim cheat sheet

Motion Diagrams

▼/▶ Cursor   ▽/▷ Target

Left-right motions

┌───────────── |      
├───────────── 0      $ ──────────────┐ 
│  ┌────────── ^      fe ────────┐    │
│  │  ┌─────── Fo     te ───────┐│    │
│  │  │┌────── To     30| ───┐  ││    │
│  │  ││ ┌──── ge     w ───┐ │  ││    │
│  │  ││ │ ┌── b      e ─┐ │ │  ││    │
│  │  ││ │ │  ┌h      l┐ │ │ │  ││    │
▽  ▽  ▽▽ ▽ ▽  ▽▼      ▼▽ ▽ ▽ ▽  ▽▽    ▽
   echo "A cheatsheet from quickref.me"

Up-down motions

                 - SCREEN 1 START
   ┌─┬─────────▷ #!/usr/bin/python
   │ │     ┌───▷     
   │ │     │     print("Hello")
   │ │     { } ▶ print("Vim")
   │ │       │   print("!")
   │ │       └─▷    
   │ │ ┌───┬───▷ print("Welcome")
G gg H M L k j ▶ print("to")
│        │   └─▷ print("cheatsheets.zip")
│        │       print("/vim")
│        │     
│        └─────▷ 
│                - SCREEN 1 END
└──────────────▷ print("SCREEN 2")

Motions

Words

Line

Character

Document

Window

Insert Mode

Saving and Exiting

Normal Mode

Cut and paste

In visual mode

Repeating

Visual mode

Macros

You can save macro for any letters not just i

Usage

Combine operators with motions to use them

Available Operators

Examples

Counts

[count] <operator> <motion>
<operator> [count] <motion>

Usage

Operate with an operator inner or around text blocks

Text objects

See :help text-objects

Delete

Selections

Misc

Buffers

Windows

Tabs

Normal mode

Search

Replace LINE

:[range]s/{pattern}/{str}/[flags]

Replace FILE

:%s/{pattern}/{str}/[flags]

Ranges

Global command

:[range]g/{pattern}/[command]

Inverse :g

:[range]v/{pattern}/[command]

Flags

Substitute expression (magic)

Examples

:s/a\|b/xxx\0xxx/g               # Modifies "a b"      to "xxxaxxx xxxbxxx"
:s/test/\U& file/                # Modifies "test"     to "TEST FILE"
:s/\(test\)/\U\1\e file/         # Modifies "test"     to "TEST file"
:s/\v([abc])([efg])/\2\1/g       # Modifies "af fa bg" to "fa fa gb"
:s/\v\w+/\u\0/g                  # Modifies "bla bla"  to "Bla Bla"
:s/\v([ab])|([cd])/\1x/g         # Modifies "a b c d"  to "ax bx x x"
:%s/.*/\L&/                      # Modifies "HTML"     to "html"
:s/\v<(.)(\w*)/\u\1\L\2/g        # Make every first letter of a word uppercase
:%s/^\(.*\)\n\1/\1/              # Remove duplicate lines
:%s/<\/\=\(\w\+\)\>/\U&/g        # Convert HTML-Tags to uppercase
:g/^pattern/s/$/mytext           # Find and append text to the end
:g/pattern/norm! @i              # Run a macro on matching lines
/^\(.*\)\(\r\?\n\1\)\+$          # View the duplicates lines
/\v^(.*)(\r?\n\1)+$              # View the duplicates lines (very magic)
:v/./,/./-j                      # Compress blank lines into a blank line
:g/<p1>/,/<p2>/d                 # Delete inclusively from <p1> to <p2>

Usage

$ vimdiff file1 file2 [file3]
$ vim -d file1 file2 [file3]

Editing

:[range]diffget [bufspec]
:[range]diffput [bufspec]

See: Ranges

Folds

Jumping

Case

Jumping

Misc command-lines

Navigating

Counters

Tags

Formatting

See :help formatting

Marks

Calculator

Do this in INSERT mode

Shell

Command line

Tricks

Remove duplicate lines

:sort | %!uniq -u

To number the lines in the file

:%!cat -n

Copy whole doc to clipboard

:%w !pbcopy            # Mac OS X
:%w !xclip -i -sel c   # GNU/Linux
:%w !xsel -i -b        # GNU/Linux

Tips

Here are five useful tips for using Vim that can enhance your productivity and make your editing experience more efficient:

Tip 1: Efficient Navigation

Use the combination of gg and G to quickly move to the beginning or the end of your document, respectively. For line-specific navigation, :n or nG (where n is the line number) can instantly take you to a specific line. This method is far more efficient than scrolling or using repeated j and k commands.

Markdown Format

- `gg`: Jump to the start of the document.
- `G`: Jump to the end of the document.
- `:n`: Go to line `n`.
- `nG`: Also goes to line `n`.

Tip 2: Powerful Search and Replace

Vim's search and replace functionality is both powerful and versatile. Use :%s/old/new/g to replace all instances of "old" with "new" throughout your document. Adding c at the end (:%s/old/new/gc) allows you to confirm each replacement, providing more control over the changes.

Markdown Format

- `:%s/old/new/g`: Replace all occurrences of "old" with "new".
- `:%s/old/new/gc`: Replace all occurrences with confirmation.

Tip 3: Visual Block Editing

With visual block mode, you can edit multiple lines at once, which is perfect for formatting or inserting repetitive content. Enter visual block mode with Ctrl-v, select your block, and then apply commands (I for insert, A for append, etc.) to all selected lines simultaneously.

Markdown Format

- `Ctrl-v`: Enter visual block mode.
- After selection, `I` or `A`: Insert or append text to all selected lines.

Tip 4: Undo and Redo

Mastering undo and redo commands in Vim can save you from many unintended changes. Use u to undo the last action and Ctrl-r to redo it. Remember, Vim has a multi-level undo tree, so you can undo and redo multiple steps.

Markdown Format

- `u`: Undo the last action.
- `Ctrl-r`: Redo the last undone action.

Tip 5: Split Windows for Multi-file Editing

Vim allows you to work with multiple files in the same instance using split windows. Use :sp file to split horizontally and edit another file or :vsp file to split vertically. Switch between splits using Ctrl-w followed by a direction key (h, j, k, l).

Markdown Format

- `:sp file`: Open a file in a horizontal split window.
- `:vsp file`: Open a file in a vertical split window.
- `Ctrl-w h/j/k/l`: Navigate through split windows.

These tips should help you navigate and edit files in Vim more effectively. Remember, the key to mastering Vim is practice and exploring its extensive documentation (:help).

Useful Links

• Curated Vim Learning Resources
• Vim cheatsheet
• Learn Vim For the Last Time
• Vim documentation
• Interactive Vim tutorial
• Devhints