Skip to content

vim-cheatsheet.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
432 lines (368 loc) · 20.1 KB

vim-cheatsheet.md

File metadata and controls

432 lines (368 loc) · 20.1 KB

Vim Cheat Sheet

Global

  • 1 - :help keyword, :h keyword - open help for keyword
  • 2 - :saveas file - save file as
  • 2 - :close - close current pane
  • 5 - K - open man page for word under the cursor
  • 5 - gf - open file under cursor (goto file)

Cursor movement

  • 0 - h - move cursor left
  • 0 - j - move cursor down
  • 0 - k - move cursor up
  • 0 - l - move cursor right
  • 2 - H - move to top of screen
  • 2 - M - move to middle of screen
  • 2 - L - move to bottom of screen
  • 1 - w - jump forwards to the start of a word
  • 2 - W - jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
  • 1 - e - jump forwards to the end of a word
  • 2 - E - jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
  • 3 - ge - jump backward to the end of a word
  • 4 - gE - jump backward to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
  • 1 - b - jump backward to the start of a word
  • 2 - B - jump backward to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
  • 2 - % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]'; use :h matchpairs in vim for more info). It jumps to the one it finds in the current line
  • 1 - 0 - jump to the start of the line
  • 2 - ^ - jump to the first non-blank character of the line
  • 1 - $ - jump to the end of the line
  • 3 - g_ - jump to the last non-blank character of the line
  • 1 - gg - go to the first line of the document
  • 1 - G - go to the last line of the document
  • 2 - 5G - go to line 5
  • 2 - :5 - go to line 5 with command
  • 3 - fx - jump to next occurrence of character x in this line
  • 3 - tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x in this line
  • 3 - Fx - jump to previous occurence of character x in this line
  • 4 - Tx - jump to after previous occurence of character x in this line
  • 4 - ; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
  • 4 - , - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backward
  • 3 - } - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
  • 3 - { - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
  • 4 - ( - jump to the previous sentence
  • 4 - ) - jump to the next sentence
  • 3 - zz - cursor on screen to the center
  • 3 - zt - cursor on screen to top
  • 3 - zb - cursor on screen to bottom
  • 3 - ctrl-e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor), same as + symbol
  • 3 - ctrl-y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor), same as - symbol
  • 2 - ctrl-b - move back one full screen (back full page)
  • 2 - ctrl-f - move forward one full screen (forward full page)
  • 2 - ctrl-d - move forward 1/2 a screen (down half page)
  • 2 - ctrl-u - move back 1/2 a screen (up half page)
  • 4 - ctrl-o - retrace previous cursor position
  • 4 - ctrl-i - retrace next cursor position
  • 3 - gj - move down by display line (useful with wrapped lines)
  • 3 - gk - move up by display line (useful with wrapped lines)
  • 5 - g; - jump to previous change position (change list)
  • 5 - g, - jump to next change position (change list)

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

Insert mode, inserting/appending text

  • 0 - i - insert before the cursor
  • 1 - I - insert at the beginning of the line
  • 1 - a - insert (append) after the cursor
  • 1 - A - insert (append) at the end of the line
  • 1 - o - append (open) a new line below the current line
  • 2 - O - append (open) a new line above the current line
  • 3 - ea - insert (append) at the end of the word (so they can be chained with moves)
  • 0 - Esc - exit insert mode
  • 4 - ctrl-w - delete word before cursor
  • 4 - ctrl-u - delete to start of line
  • 5 - ctrl-t - indent current line one shiftwidth
  • 5 - ctrl-d - dedent current line one shiftwidth
  • 4 - gi - go to the last place where insert mode was finished
  • 6 - ctrl-r REG - insert the contents of REG register in insert mode.

Editing

  • 2 - r - replace a single character
  • 3 - R - start replace mode, similar to insert, but overwrites the characters underneath
  • 3 - J - join line below to the current one with one space in between
  • 4 - gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between
  • 6 - gwip - reflow paragraph
  • 2 - cc - change (replace) entire line
  • 2 - C, c$ - change (replace) to the end of the line
  • 3 - ciw - change (replace) entire word
  • 2 - cw - change (replace) to the end of the word
  • 5 - c/hello - change (replace) until next occurrance of "hello"
  • 3 - s - delete character and substitute text
  • 4 - xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)
  • 1 - u - undo
  • 2 - :u - undo in command mode
  • 3 - U - undo all latest changes on one line
  • 2 - ctrl-r - redo
  • 3 - :red - redo in command mode
  • 2 - . - repeat last command
  • 3 - >> - indent line one shiftwidth
  • 3 - << - dedent line one shiftwidth
  • 4 - = + motion - auto-indent motion (e.g. =ip for current paragraph)
  • 5 - gg=G - auto-indent the entire file
  • 4 - ctrl-a - increase a number
  • 4 - ctrl-x - decrease a number (practice: 4)
  • 5 - gu + movement - make movement lowercase
  • 5 - gU + movement - make movement uppercase
  • 5 - g~ + movement - toggle case of movement
  • 7 - g+ - undo branch forward
  • 7 - g- - undo branch backward
  • 8 - ea 4h - undo changes in the last 4 hours
  • 8 - ea 2f - undo last 2 file states (last 2 buffer writes)
  • 8 - lat 8m - redo changes in last 8 minutes

Marking text (visual mode)

  • 2 - v - start visual mode. (you can mark text, then do a command (like y-yank))
  • 2 - V - start linewise visual mode
  • 4 - o - move to other end of marked area
  • 3 - ctrl-v - start visual block mode
  • 5 - O - move to other corner of block
  • 3 - aw - mark a word
  • 4 - as - mark a sentence
  • 4 - ap - mark a paragraph
  • 4 - ab - mark a block with ()
  • 4 - aB - mark a block with {}
  • 4 - ib - mark inner block with ()
  • 4 - iB - mark inner block with {}
  • 2 - Esc - exit visual mode
  • 4 - gv - reselect the last visual selection

Practice here to select inner block (like this) Or {an inner block} of this.

Visual commands

  • 3 - > - shift text right
  • 3 - < - shift text left
  • 3 - y - yank (copy) marked text
  • 3 - d - delete marked text
  • 4 - ~ - switch case

Text objects

Text objects describe structured regions of text. They only work after an operator (c, d, y, v, etc.). i = inner (without surrounding delimiter), a = around (includes delimiter/whitespace).

  • 3 - iw / aw - inner word / around word (includes surrounding space)
  • 3 - is / as - inner sentence / around sentence
  • 4 - ip / ap - inner paragraph / around paragraph
  • 3 - i" / a" - inside / around double quotes
  • 3 - i' / a' - inside / around single quotes
  • 4 - i` / a` - inside / around backticks
  • 3 - i) / a) - inside / around parentheses (also ib / ab)
  • 3 - i] / a] - inside / around square brackets
  • 3 - i} / a} - inside / around curly braces (also iB / aB)
  • 4 - i> / a> - inside / around angle brackets
  • 4 - it / at - inside / around HTML/XML tag

Examples: ci" changes text inside quotes, da) deletes including parentheses, yip yanks the paragraph, vat selects the whole HTML tag.

Registers

  • 5 - :reg - show registers content (can append selectors of which registers to show)
  • 6 - "xy - yank into register x
  • 6 - "xp - paste contents of register x
  • 7 - "Xp - append contents to register x
  • 4 - "+y - yank into system clipboard
  • 4 - "+p - paste from system clipboard
  • 5 - "*y / "*p - yank/paste using primary selection (X11 middle-click buffer)
  • 4 - "_d - delete into black hole register (does not affect clipboard or other registers)

Tip: Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim. Tip: Register 0 always contains the value of the last yank command.

Marks

  • 4 - :marks - list of marks
  • 5 - ma - set current position for mark a
  • 5 - `a - jump to position of mark a
  • 5 - 'a - jump to the first non-blank character in the line of mark a
  • 6 - y`a - yank text to position of mark a
  • 7 - :delm <pattern> - delete marks. <pattern> can be 1 lowercase letter, any number of characters, range of letters or numbers

Macros

  • 7 - qa - record macro a (it empties that register and appends the keystrokes to it)
  • 7 - q - stop recording macro
  • 7 - @a - run macro a
  • 8 - @@ - rerun last run macro

Cut and paste

  • 1 - yy - yank (copy) a line
  • 2 - 2yy - yank (copy) 2 lines
  • 2 - yw - yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
  • 2 - y$ - yank (copy) to end of line
  • 1 - p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
  • 2 - P - put (paste) before cursor
  • 1 - dd - delete (cut) a line
  • 2 - 2dd - delete (cut) 2 lines
  • 3 - diw - delete (cut) the characters of the whole word
  • 2 - dw - delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
  • 2 - D, d$ - delete (cut) to the end of the line
  • 1 - x - delete (cut) character
  • 5 - viwp - replace (paste) content of the last used register with the word under the cursor
  • 6 - "/p - paste the last search
  • `":p" - paste the last command

Exiting

  • 0 - :w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
  • 6 - :w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo
  • 0 - :wq, :x, ZZ - write (save) and quit
  • 0 - :q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
  • 0 - :q!, ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes
  • 4 - :wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs
  • 5 - ctrl-z, :st, :stop - suspend vim, start up again with fg command (optionally fg %jobnumber if multiple jobs are selected). Check running suspended jobs with jobs command

Search and replace

  • 2 - /pattern - search for pattern
  • 2 - ?pattern - search backward for pattern
  • 6 - /\vpattern - 'very magic' pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
  • 2 - n - repeat search in same direction
  • 2 - N - repeat search in opposite direction
  • 4 - ggn - go to first match (assuming forward search)
  • 4 - GN - go to last match (assuming forward search)
  • 3 - :%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
  • 4 - :%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
  • 3 - :noh - remove highlighting of search matches
  • 3 - * - start a search forward with the whole current word under the cursor
  • 3 - # - start a search backward with the current word under the cursor
  • 4 - g* - start a search with the word under the cursor but find occurrences that has more content in it. e.g: rain finds rainbow
  • 4 - g# - start a search backward with the word under the cursor but find occurrences that has more content in it. e.g: rain finds rainbow

Search in multiple files

  • 6 - :vimgrep /pattern/ {file} - search for /pattern/ in multiple {file}s

e.g.: vimgrep /foo/ **/*

  • 6 - :cn - jump to the next match
  • 6 - :cp - jump to the previous match
  • 6 - :copen - open a window containing the list of matches

Vim for programmers

  • 5 - gd - go to local declaration
  • 5 - gD - go to global declaration
  • 5 - [{ - jump to start of enclosing { block
  • 5 - ]} - jump to end of enclosing } block
  • 5 - [( - jump to start of enclosing (
  • 5 - ]) - jump to end of enclosing )
  • 6 - [m / ]m - jump to start of previous / next method (Java, C++, etc.)
  • 6 - [M / ]M - jump to end of previous / next method
  • 6 - ctrl-] - jump to tag definition under cursor (requires ctags)
  • 6 - ctrl-t - pop tag stack (jump back after ctrl-])
  • 6 - :ts {word}, :tselect {word} - list and choose between matching tags
  • 6 - :tn / :tp - jump to next / previous matching tag
  • 5 - ctrl-n / ctrl-p - next / previous keyword autocomplete suggestion (insert mode)
  • 6 - ctrl-x ctrl-o - trigger omni completion (language-aware, e.g. LSP/filetype plugin)
  • 6 - ctrl-x ctrl-f - filename completion
  • 6 - ctrl-x ctrl-n - keyword completion from current buffer only
  • 6 - ctrl-x ctrl-] - tag-based completion
  • 6 - ctrl-x ctrl-l - whole-line completion
  • 5 - :make - run make and load errors into the quickfix list
  • 5 - :compiler {name} - set the compiler (error format) for :make
  • 6 - [/ - jump to start of current /* */ comment
  • 6 - ]/ - jump to end of current /* */ comment

Working with multiple files

  • 3 - :e - reload current file
  • 4 - :e file - edit a file in a new buffer
  • 5 - :r file, :read file - insert a file into the current location
  • 5 - :0r file, :0read file - insert a file before the first line
  • 6 - :r !{cmd} - execute {cmd} and insert its standard output below the cursor
  • 4 - :bnext, :bn - go to the next buffer
  • 4 - :bprev, :bp - go to the previous buffer
  • 4 - :bd - delete a buffer (close a file)
  • 4 - :ls - list all open buffers
  • 4 - ctrl-^, ctrl-6 - switch to the alternate (last edited) buffer
  • 4 - :sp file - open a file in a new buffer and split window
  • 4 - :vsp file - open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
  • 5 - :sv file, :sview file - open a file in a new buffer, but readonly
  • 5 - :vert sv file - vertically open a file as readonly as a split

Argument list

The argument list is the set of files passed to vim on startup (or set with :args). It's a stable, explicit list — unlike buffers, which grow as you open files. Great for batch editing across a specific set of files.

  • 4 - :args - display the current argument list (active file shown in [])
  • 5 - :args file1 file2 - set the argument list to file1 file2
  • 5 - :args **/*.txt - set the argument list with a glob pattern
  • 5 - :argadd file - add file to the argument list
  • 6 - :argdelete file - remove file from the argument list
  • 4 - :next, :n - go to the next file in the argument list
  • 4 - :prev, :previous - go to the previous file in the argument list
  • 5 - :first, :rewind - go to the first file in the argument list
  • 5 - :last - go to the last file in the argument list
  • 5 - :wnext, :wn - write current file and move to the next in the argument list
  • 5 - :wprevious, :wp - write current file and move to the previous in the argument list
  • 6 - :wfirst - write current file and go to the first in the argument list
  • 6 - :wlast - write current file and go to the last in the argument list
  • 6 - :argdo command - run command on every file in the argument list (e.g. :argdo %s/foo/bar/ge | update)

Tip: :wn and :wp are the quickest way to save-and-step through a set of files you opened with vim file1 file2 ... Tip: Use :argdo update after :argdo substitutions to write only files that were changed.

Split window

  • 4 - ctrl-ws - split window horizontally
  • 4 - ctrl-wv - split window vertically
  • 4 - ctrl-ww - switch windows (cycle)
  • 4 - ctrl-wq - quit a window
  • 5 - ctrl-wr - rotate two windows (can not do it if the other one is splitted)
  • 4 - ctrl-wh - move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
  • 4 - ctrl-wl - move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
  • 4 - ctrl-wj - move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
  • 4 - ctrl-wk - move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)
  • 5 - ctrl-w_ - maximize current window vertically
  • 5 - ctrl-w| - maximize current window horizontally
  • 5 - ctrl-w= - make all equal size vertically
  • 6 - :res +/-num, numctrl-w+/- - horizontally resize by +/-num of lines or columns
  • 6 - :vert res +/-num, numctrl-w</> - vertically resize by +/-num of lines or columns

Tabs

Tabs should be imagined as layouts. They can show different window arrangements of any buffers.

  • 4 - :tabe file, :tabnew, :tabnew file - open a file in a new tab
  • 5 - ctrl-wT - move the current split window into its own tab
  • 4 - gt, :tabnext, :tabn - move to the next tab
  • 4 - gT, :tabprev, :tabp - move to the previous tab
  • 5 - NUMgt - move to tab number NUM
  • 5 - :tabm NUM, :tabmove NUM - move current tab to the NUMth position (indexed from 0)
  • 4 - :tabc, :tabclose - close the current tab and all its windows
  • 5 - :tabo, :tabonly - close all tabs except for the current one
  • 6 - :tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. command = q - closes all opened tabs)

Extra

  • 3 - ctrl-n - in insert mode opens up autocomplete
  • 4 - ctrl-g - show line info
  • 5 - ctrl-o - in insert mode after this key combo, you can use a command from normal mode, and immediately switch back to the starting mode
  • 5 - :term - open terminal as a horizontal split buffer.

Open vim specially

  • 3 - vim file1 file2 - open multiple files (file1 file2) as buffer
  • 4 - vim -p file1 file2 - open multiple files (file1 file2) as tabs
  • 4 - vim -o file1 file2 - open multiple files (file1 file2) as horizontal split
  • 4 - vim -O file1 file2 - open multiple files (file1 file2) as vertical split
  • 4 - vim file +number - open file at linenumber number

Vim sessions

  • 6 - :mks workproject.vim, :mksession workproject.vim - Your current session of open tabs will be stored in a file workproject.vim
  • 6 - vim -S workproject.vim - load up vim with a session called workproject.vim
  • 6 - :source workproject.vim - load vim session to an opened vim called workproject.vim
  • 7 - :mks! workproject.vim - save changed session tabs while you are in the session called workproject.vim

If the filename is omitted then Session.vim name will be used

Command line history

  • 5 - q: - show prev commands. Close with Ctrl+c
  • 5 - q/ - show prev searches. Close with Ctrl+c
  • 4 - : - type in any word and press up. It will look for the prev command that started like that

Folding

  • 5 - za - toggle folding
  • 6 - :set foldcolumn=NUM - visualize folds. show NUM lines of nested folds per line
  • 6 - zfip - fold the current paragraph
  • 7 - zf/string - fold until next occurrance of string
  • 6 - zd - delete fold
  • 6 - zE - delete all folds
  • 7 - zf20j - fold the next 20 lines
  • 7 - zf`a - fold until wherever mark a is in the document
  • 5 - zR - open all folds
  • 5 - zM - close all folds
  • 7 - :mkview - save folding state
  • 7 - :loadview - load prev folding state

Tips and tricks

  • 8 - xi()<esc>P - wrap brackets around visually selected text (select text in visual mode first)
  • 8 - y/ctrl-r" - search for visually selected text (select text in visual mode first)
  • 7 - :w !diff % - - show the diffs with diff command since last save. (It saves the output to stdin and loads the differences between the current filename and standard input)
  • 8 - :g/pattern/norm @o - run the previously recorded o macro on all lines that match pattern

Spell checking

  • 5 - :set spell - enable spell checking
  • 5 - :set nospell - disable spell checking
  • 5 - :set spelllang=en_us - set spell language (e.g. en, en_us, de)
  • 5 - ]s - jump to next misspelled word
  • 5 - [s - jump to previous misspelled word
  • 5 - z= - show correction suggestions for word under cursor
  • 6 - zg - add word under cursor to spell dictionary (good word)
  • 6 - zw - mark word under cursor as misspelled (wrong word)
  • 6 - zug / zuw - undo zg / zw