Vim Cheatsheet and Reference Card

Vim cheatsheet
Vim is a very efficient text editor. This reference was made for Vim 8.0.
For shortcut notation, see :help key-notation.
Getting started
Exiting
Shortcut Description
:q Close file
:qa Close all files
:w Save
:wq / :x Save and close file
ZZ Save and quit
ZQ Quit without checking changes
Navigating
hjkl Arrow keys
1/11
<C-U> / <C-D> Half-page up/down
<C-B> / <C-F> Page up/down
Words
b/w Previous/next word
ge / e Previous/next end of word
Line
0 (zero) Start of line
^ Start of line (after whitespace)
$ End of line
Character
fc Go forward to character c
Fc Go backward to character c
Document
gg First line
G Last line
:{number} Go to line {number}
{number}G Go to line {number}
{number}j Go down {number} lines
{number}k Go up {number} lines
Window
2/11
zz Center this line
zt Top this line
zb Bottom this line
H Move to top of screen
M Move to middle of screen
L Move to bottom of screen
Search
n Next matching search pattern
N Previous match
* Next whole word under cursor
# Previous whole word under cursor
Tab pages
:tabedit [file] Edit file in a new tab
:tabfind [file] Open file if exists in new tab
:tabclose Close current tab
:tabs List all tabs
:tabfirst Go to first tab
:tablast Go to last tab
:tabn Go to next tab
:tabp Go to previous tab
Editing
a Append
3/11
A Append from end of line
i Insert
o Next line
O Previous line
s Delete char and insert
S Delete line and insert
C Delete until end of line and insert
r Replace one character
R Enter Replace mode
u Undo changes
<C-R> Redo changes
Exiting insert mode
Esc / <C-[> Exit insert mode
<C-C> Exit insert mode, and abort current command
Clipboard
x Delete character
dd Delete line (Cut)
yy Yank line (Copy)
p Paste
P Paste before
"*p / "+p Paste from system clipboard
"*y / "+y Paste to system clipboard
Visual mode
4/11
v Enter visual mode
V Enter visual line mode
<C-V> Enter visual block mode
In visual mode
d/x Delete selection
s Replace selection
y Yank selection (Copy)
See Operators for other things you can do.
Find & Replace
:%s/foo/bar/g Replace foo with bar in whole document
Operators
Usage
Operators let you operate in a range of text (defined by motion). These are performed in
normal mode.
d w
Operator Motion
Operators list
d Delete
y Yank (copy)
c Change (delete then insert)
> Indent right
5/11
< Indent left
= Autoindent
g~ Swap case
gU Uppercase
gu Lowercase
! Filter through external program
See :help operator
Examples
Combine operators with motions to use them.
dd (repeat the letter) Delete current line
dw Delete to next word
db Delete to beginning of word
2dd Delete 2 lines
dip Delete a text object (inside paragraph)
(in visual mode) d Delete selection
See: :help motion.txt
Text objects
Usage
Text objects let you operate (with an operator) in or around text blocks (objects).
v i p
Operator [i]nside or [a]round Text object
Text objects
p Paragraph
6/11
w Word
s Sentence
[({< A [], (), or {} block
'"` A quoted string
b A block [(
B A block in [{
t A XML tag block
Examples
vip Select paragraph
vipipipip Select more
yip Yank inner paragraph
yap Yank paragraph (including newline)
dip Delete inner paragraph
cip Change inner paragraph
See Operators for other things you can do.
Diff
gvimdiff file1 file2 [file3] See differences between files, in HMI
Misc
Folds
zo / zO Open
zc / zC Close
7/11
za / zA Toggle
zv Open folds for this line
zM Close all
zR Open all
zm Fold more (foldlevel += 1)
zr Fold less (foldlevel -= 1)
zx Update folds
Uppercase ones are recursive (eg, zO is open recursively).
Navigation
% Nearest/matching {[()]}
[( [{ [< Previous ( or { or <
]) Next
[m Previous method start
[M Previous method end
Jumping
<C-O> Go back to previous location
<C-I> Go forward
gf Go to file in cursor
Counters
<C-A> Increment number
<C-X> Decrement
Windows
8/11
z{height}<Cr> Resize pane to {height} lines tall
Tags
:tag Classname Jump to first definition of Classname
<C-]> Jump to definition
g] See all definitions
<C-T> Go back to last tag
<C-O> <C-I> Back/forward
:tselect Classname Find definitions of Classname
:tjump Classname Find definitions of Classname (auto-select 1st)
Case
~ Toggle case (Case => cASE)
gU Uppercase
gu Lowercase
gUU Uppercase current line (also gUgU)
guu Lowercase current line (also gugu)
Do these in visual or normal mode.
Marks
`^ Last position of cursor in insert mode
`. Last change in current buffer
`" Last exited current buffer
`0 In last file edited
'' Back to line in current buffer where jumped from
`` Back to position in current buffer where jumped from
9/11
`[ To beginning of previously changed or yanked text
`] To end of previously changed or yanked text
`< To beginning of last visual selection
`> To end of last visual selection
ma Mark this cursor position as a
à Jump to the cursor position a
'a Jump to the beginning of the line with position a
d'a Delete from current line to line of mark a
dà Delete from current position to position of mark a
c'a Change text from current line to line of a
yà Yank text from current position to position of a
:marks List all current marks
:delm a Delete mark a
:delm a-d Delete marks a, b, c, d
:delm abc Delete marks a, b, c
Misc
. Repeat last command
]p Paste under the current indentation level
:set ff=unix Convert Windows line endings to Unix line endings
Command line
<C-R><C-W> Insert current word into the command line
<C-R>" Paste from “ register
<C-X><C-F> Auto-completion of path in insert mode
Text alignment
10/11
:center [width]
:right [width]
:left
See :help formatting
Calculator
<C-R>=128/2 Shows the result of the division : ‘64’
Do this in insert mode.
Exiting with an error
:cq
:cquit
Works like :qa, but throws an error. Great for aborting Git commands.
Spell checking
:set spell Turn on US English spell checking

spelllang=en_us
]s Move to next misspelled word after the cursor
[s Move to previous misspelled word before the cursor
z= Suggest spellings for the word under/after the cursor
zg Add word to spell list
zw Mark word as bad/mispelling
zu / C-X (Insert Mode) Suggest words for bad word under cursor from
spellfile
11/11

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Vim cheatsheet

:qa Close all files

:wq / :x Save and close file

ZZ Save and quit

ZQ Quit without checking changes

hjkl Arrow keys

<C-U> / <C-D> Half-page up/down

<C-B> / <C-F> Page up/down

b/w Previous/next word

ge / e Previous/next end of word

0 (zero) Start of line

^ Start of line (after whitespace)

:{number} Go to line {number}

{number}G Go to line {number}

{number}j Go down {number} lines

{number}k Go up {number} lines

zt Top this line

zb Bottom this line

H Move to top of screen

M Move to middle of screen

L Move to bottom of screen

n Next matching search pattern

* Next whole word under cursor

# Previous whole word under cursor

:tabfind [file] Open file if exists in new tab

:tabclose Close current tab

:tabs List all tabs

:tabfirst Go to first tab

:tablast Go to last tab

:tabn Go to next tab

:tabp Go to previous tab

A Append from end of line

s Delete char and insert

S Delete line and insert

C Delete until end of line and insert

r Replace one character

R Enter Replace mode

<C-R> Redo changes

Exiting insert mode

Esc / <C-[> Exit insert mode

<C-C> Exit insert mode, and abort current command

dd Delete line (Cut)

yy Yank line (Copy)

"*p / "+p Paste from system clipboard

"*y / "+y Paste to system clipboard

V Enter visual line mode

<C-V> Enter visual block mode

d/x Delete selection

y Yank selection (Copy)

See Operators for other things you can do.

Find & Replace

:%s/foo/bar/g Replace foo with bar in whole document

c Change (delete then insert)

> Indent right

< Indent left

! Filter through external program

See :help operator

Combine operators with motions to use them.