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Vim Cheatsheet

This document provides an overview of many commands and features in the Vim text editor, organized into sections on global commands, cursor movements, insert mode, editing, visual mode, registers, marks, macros, cut/paste, search/replace, multiple files, tabs, and more. It describes commands for opening/saving files, navigating text, inserting/editing text, copying/pasting/deleting text, searching, working with multiple files/tabs, and includes tips for repeating commands and using registers.

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rabirm77
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
204 views

Vim Cheatsheet

This document provides an overview of many commands and features in the Vim text editor, organized into sections on global commands, cursor movements, insert mode, editing, visual mode, registers, marks, macros, cut/paste, search/replace, multiple files, tabs, and more. It describes commands for opening/saving files, navigating text, inserting/editing text, copying/pasting/deleting text, searching, working with multiple files/tabs, and includes tips for repeating commands and using registers.

Uploaded by

rabirm77
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Contents [hide]

 Global
 Cursor Movements
 Insert Mode
 Editing
 Marking Text (Visual Mode)
 Visual Commands
 Registers
 Marks
 Macros
 Cut and Paste
 Exiting
 Search and Replace
 Search in Multiple Files
 Working With Multiple Files
 Tabs
 Even More

Global
:help keyword – open help for keyword
:o file – open file
:saveas file – save file as
:close – close current window

Cursor Movements
h – move cursor left
j – move cursor down
k – move cursor up
l – move cursor right
H – move to top of screen
M – move to middle of screen
L – move to bottom of screen
w – jump forwards to the start of a word
W – jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
e – jump forwards to the end of a word
E – jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
b – jump backwards to the start of a word
B – jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
0 – jump to the start of the line
^ – jump to the first non-blank character of the line
$ – jump to the end of the line
g_ – jump to the last non-blank character of the line
gg – go to the first line of the document
G – go to the last line of the document
5G – go to line 5
fx – jump to next occurrence of character x
tx – jump to before next occurrence of character x
} – jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
{ – jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
zz – center cursor on screen
Ctrl + b – move back one full screen
Ctrl + f – move forward one full screen
Ctrl + d – move forward 1/2 a screen
Ctrl + u – move back 1/2 a screen

Tip: Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j
moves down 4 lines.

Insert Mode
i – insert before the cursor
I – insert at the beginning of the line
a – insert (append) after the cursor
A – insert (append) at the end of the line
o – append (open) a new line below the current line
O – append (open) a new line above the current line
ea – insert (append) at the end of the word
Esc – exit insert mode

Editing
r – replace a single character
J – join line below to the current line
cc – change (replace) entire line
cw – change (replace) to the end of the word
c$ – change (replace) to the end of the line
s – delete character and substitute text
S – delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
xp – transpose two letters (delete and paste)
u – undo
Ctrl + r – redo
. – repeat last command

Marking Text (Visual Mode)


v – start visual mode, mark lines, then perform an operation (such as d-delete)
V – start linewise visual mode
Ctrl + v – start blockwise visual mode
o – move to the other end of marked area
O – move to other corner of block
aw – mark a word
ab – a block with ()
aB – a block with {}
ib – inner block with ()
iB – inner block with {}
Esc – exit visual mode

Visual Commands
> – shift text right
< – shift text left
y – yank (copy) marked text
d – delete marked text
~ – switch case

Registers
:reg – show registers content
"xy – yank into register x
"xp – paste contents of register x

Tip: Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next
restart of vim.

Tip: Register 0 contains always the value of the last yank command.

Marks
:marks – list of marks
ma – set current position for mark A
`a – jump to position of mark A
y`a – yank text to position of mark A

Macros
qa – record macro a
q – stop recording macro
@a – run macro a
@@ – rerun last run macro

Cut and Paste


yy – yank (copy) a line
2yy – yank (copy) 2 lines
yw – yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start
of the next word
y$ – yank (copy) to end of line
p – put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
P – put (paste) before cursor
dd – delete (cut) a line
2dd – delete (cut) 2 lines
dw – delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start
of the next word
D – delete (cut) to the end of the line
d$ – delete (cut) to the end of the line
x – delete (cut) character

Exiting
:w – write (save) the file, but don’t exit
:w !sudo tee % – write out the current file using sudo
:wq or :x or ZZ – write (save) and quit
:q – quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
:q! or ZQ – quit and throw away unsaved changes

Search and Replace


/pattern – search for pattern
?pattern – search backward for pattern
\vpattern – ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as
special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
n – repeat search in same direction
N – repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g – replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc – replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
:noh – remove highlighting of search matches

Search in Multiple Files


:vimgrep /pattern/ {file} – search for pattern in multiple files
e.g.
:vimgrep /foo/ **/*
:cn – jump to the next match
:cp – jump to the previous match
:copen – open a window containing the list of matches

Working With Multiple Files


:e file – edit a file in a new buffer
:bnext or :bn – go to the next buffer
:bprev or :bp – go to the previous buffer
:bd – delete a buffer (close a file)
:ls – list all open buffers
:sp file – open a file in a new buffer and split window
:vsp file – open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
Ctrl + ws – split window
Ctrl + ww – switch windows
Ctrl + wq – quit a window
Ctrl + wv – split window vertically
Ctrl + wh – move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wl – move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wj – move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
Ctrl + wk – move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)

Tabs
:tabnew or :tabnew file – open a file in a new tab
Ctrl + wT – move the current split window into its own tab
gt or :tabnext or :tabn – move to the next tab
gT or :tabprev or :tabp – move to the previous tab
#gt – move to tab number #
:tabmove # – move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
:tabclose or :tabc – close the current tab and all its windows
:tabonly or :tabo – close all tabs except for the current one
:tabdo command – run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q – closes all opened
tabs)
Even More
If you're looking for even more help with vim, then check out the Vim Masterclass course.

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