Vim is great, but learning to drive it is a long term process. This is my cheat sheet for vanilla installations.

Movements

Basic motions

• Left: h
• Down: k
• Up: k
• Right: l

Examples

• Left 4 characters: 4h
• Down 2 rows: 2k
• Up 3 rows: 3k
• Right 6 characters: 6l

Word movements

• Next normal-word: w
• Previous normal-word: b
• Next whole-word: W
• Previous whole-word: B
• End of the current word: e

Examples

• Next 2 normal-words: 2w
• Previous 2 normal-words: 4b
• Next 2 whole-words: 3W
• Previous 3 whole-words: 3B

Fast movements

• Beginning of the file: gg
• End of the file: G
• Jump to line number: {Line number}G; {Line number}gg
• Next paragraph: }
• Previous paragraph: {

Examples

• Jump to line number #123: 123G
• Jump to line number #123: 123gg
• Next 3rd paragraph: 3}
• Previous 3rd paragraph: 3{

Inline Search

• Jump to next character in line: f
• Jump to previous character in line: F
• Jump to next character in line, cursor 1 char before occurrence: t
• Jump to previous character in line, cursor 1 char after occurrence: T
• Repeat last jump to character (f): ;
• Repeat last jump to character (f) backward: ,

Examples

• Search the 2nd ‘p’ forward in line: f2p
• Search the 2nd ‘p’ backwards in line: F2p

Visual mode

• Toggle going between first and last characters of selection in visual mode: o
• Toggle going between first and last characters of selection on current line in visual mode: O

Change list

• Navigate to previous change: g;
• Navigate to next change: g,
• Listing previous changes: :changes

Jumps

• Navigate to previous jump: <c-O>
• Navigate to next jump: <c-I>
• Listing previous jumps: :jumps

Editing

Basics

• Insert: i
• Append: a
• Delete: x
• Delete: d{Motion}
• Undo changes: u
• Change: c{Motion}
• Paste after: p
• Paste before: P
• Yanking: y{Motion}

Examples

• Delete word: dw
• Delete word backwards: db
• Delete 2 lines: 2dd
• Delete closest tag: di<
• Change 3 lines: 3dd
• Change text within closest double quotes in line: ci"
• Yanking 1 char: yl
• Yanking 3 chars: 3yl
• Yanking 1 line: Y
• Yanking 2 lines: 2Y

Advanced stuff

• Insert text at the beginning of the current line: I
• Insert text at the end of the current line: A

Search and Replace

Search

• Simple search: /
• Simple Close backwards: ?
• Jump to next occurence of word under cursor: *
• Jump to previous occurence of word under cursor: #
• Jump to matching curly brace, parantheses or bracket under the cursor: %
• Hide search highlights: :noh

Examples

• Regular expressions search for finding any character followed by a vowel: //.[aeiou]
• Delete everything up to a search ‘fire’ term: d/fire

Replace

• Replace first ‘Amber’ with ‘Ember’ in line: :s/Amber/Ember
• Replace all ‘Amber’ with ‘Ember’ in line: :s/Amber/Ember/g
• Replace all ‘Amber’ with ‘Ember’ in file: :%s/Amber/Ember/g
• Replace a character: r
• Enable replace mode: R

Examples

• Replace all ‘router’ with ‘dispatcher’ in method in visual mode with confirmation: v%:’<, >’s/router/dispatcher/gc
• Replace using last search: :%s//replaceText/g
• Searching for text starting with a non-space, but the non-space excluded: /[^ ]\zs(

Delete

• Delete first line that matches expression: :s/expression/d

Examples

• Delete all lines except that matches expression: :g!/expression/d
• Delete all lines except that matches expression (with shortcut): :v/expression/d

Advanced stuff

• Very magic mode (Most usual expression engine): \v

Macros

• Record empty command list into macro into register A: qaq
• Replay macro from register A: @a

Examples

• Record macro into register a, delete tag around text in line and go to next line: qadf>f<d$jq
• Replaying last macro 240 times: 240@a

Advanced movements

Jumping to positions

• Jump half a screen down: <c-d>
• Jump half a screen up: <c-u>
• Jump full screen forward: <c-f>
• Jump full screen backwards: <c-b>
• Jump top of the current screen: H
• Jump middle of the current screen: M
• Jump last line of the current screen: L

Moving the screen

• Move current line to top of the screen: zt
• Move current line to bottom of the screen: zb
• Move current line to middle of the screen: zz

Navigating wrapped lines

• Go down a visual line (in wrapped lines): gj
• Go to the beginning of the current visual line (in wrapped lines): g0

Markers

• Mark a line into register B: mb
• Go to registered marker B: ‘b
• Go back to point where you jumped to marker from: ’’

Command line

• List files from current directory :!ls
• Write date into current file: :read !date
• Using selection of Visual mode as input for script: (-c: compile, -s: standard input, -p: in place) :’<,’>!coffee -c -s -p

Buffers

Pure buffer commands

• List buffers: :ls
• Next buffer: :bn
• Previous buffer: :bp
• Go to buffer #12: :b12
• Delete current buffer: :bd
• Delete buffer #12: :bd12
• New buffer: :enew
• Switch between current and last buffer: <c-^>

Handling files

• Writing buffer to disk: :w
• Force writing buffer to disk: :w!
• Writing all buffers to disk: :wa
• Writing buffer to disk as filename: :w filename
• Save file as filename: :saveas filename
• Set file type: :set ft=filetype

New comment on the top of our 4 buffers

• Create macro in register A: qa
• Jump to top of the file: G
• Add new line at top: O
• Add comment: # My first comment
• Save file: :w
• Next buffer: :bn
• Run macro: @a
• Run macro 2 more times: 2@

Windows and Tabs

Windows

Split Windows

• Open (file in) horizontal split :split [filename]; :sp [filename]
• Open (file in) vertical split: :vpspit [filename]; :vsp [filename]
• Open buffer in horizontal split window: :sb3
• Open buffer in vertical split window: :vert sb3

Moving around

• Navigate to window to the left: <c-w>h
• Navigate to window to the bottom: <c-w>j
• Navigate to window to the top: <c-w>k
• Navigate to window to the right: <c-w>l
• Move the current window to the left: <c-w>H
• Move the current window to the bottom: <c-w>J
• Move the current window window to the top: <c-w>K
• Move the current window to the right: <c-w>L

Resizing

• Make the current window 1 row higher: <c-w>+
• Make the current window 1 row shorter: <c-w>-
• Make the current window 1 column wider: <c-w>>
• Make the current window 1 column narrower: <c-w><

Examples

• 5 rows higher: <c-w>5+
• 5 rows shorter: <c-w>5-
• 5 columns wider: <c-w>5>
• 5 columns narrower: <c-w>5<
• Make windows on current tab as equal as possible: <c-w>=

Miscellaneous

• Close all windows except the currently active one: :on

Tabs

• Open file on new tab: tabedit filename; :tabe filename
• Next tab: gt
• Previous tab: gT
• Move to tab #13: 13gt
• Close the current tab page and all its windows: :tabc
• Close all tabs except the currently active one: :tabo
• Move current tab to the end: :tabmove
• Move current tab to the beginning: :tabmove 0
• Move current tab to be the second tab: :tabmove 1

Indents and Folds

Indents

• Indent current line: »
• Unindent current line: «
• Indent current lines: 3»
• Unndent current lines: 3«
• Indent in insert mode: <c-T>
• Unindent in insert mode: <c-D>
• Indent selected lines in visual mode 6 times: 6>
• Unindent selected lines in visual mode 6 times: 6<

Mappings

Basics

Creating a new mapping:

:map ,rs :!bundle exec rspec<cr>

,rs will execute !bundle exec rspec now.

Text Objects

Object types

• Words: w
• Paragraph: p
• Sentence: s
• Tag: t
• Curly braces: {
• Brackets: [
• Parantheses: (
• Double quotes: "
• Quotes: ’
• Backticks: `

Selecting types

• Inside: i
• Around: a

Examples

• Change content of first Double quotes on line: ci"
• Delete current paragraph plus the following empyt lines: dap

Registers

• List registers: :registers; :reg, :registers
• Read current line into register A: “ayy
• Append the current line to a register A: “Ayy
• Delete text, but save it to register A: “add
• Paste the contents of register A: “ap
• Paste the contents of register A above current line: “aP
• Paste last yanked text: “0p
• Unnamed register: ”
• Numbered registeres: 0-9
• Small delete register: -
• Filename register: %
• Search register: /

Advanced Register Usage

• Execute a line as a macro via the unnamed register: 0y$@”
• Delete a row, then a second one, then paste the first one: dd”_ddp
• Insert “4” after the cursor with the expression register: "=2*2p

Actions in Insert Mode

• Vim-style backspace: <c-h>
• Deleting word backwards: <c-w>
• Delete line backwards from current position: <c-u>
• Insert literal character: <c-u>
• Insert unicode character: <c-u><Unicode Character Id>
• Leaving insert mode for one command: <c-o>
• Insert stuff from register A: <c-r>A
• Using the expression register: <c-r>=r{Expression}
• Insert something at the beginning of the current line: I
• Autoindent: =

Random actions and motions

• Perform the last action again: .
• Undo: u
• Redo: <c-r>
• Open a file under the cursor: gf
• Join current line with the following one by a space: J
• Look up manual for command/program under the cursor: K
• Increment number under cursor: <c-a>
• Decrement number under cursor: <c-x>
• Enforces spaces or tabs (depending on expandtab setting): :retab!
• Reveal current directory: :pwd
• Change current directory: :cd
• Insert newText in 3 consequtive rows at once: <c-V>2jInewText<Esc>
• Shortcut for copy: :t

Examples

• Increment all the itemnum attributes in an XML file: :g/itemnum/normal 20^A
• Copy line #9 to next line standing on line #16: :9Gyy:16Gp, :9Gyy<c-o>p, :9yankp, :9yp, :9copy16, :9t16, :9t., -7t.
• Copy 3 lines from #9 to next line standing on line #16: :9,11t.

Explorer (netrw)

netrw module usually comes with vim.

Window

• Open Explorer in current window at current working directory: :e.
• Open Explorer in split window at current working directory: :sp.
• Open Explorer in vertical split window at current working directory: :vs.
• Open Explorer at directory of current file: :Explorer
• Open Explorer in vertical split window at directory of current file: :Vex

Manipulating file system

• Create a new file: %
• Create a new directory: d
• Rename a file/directory under the cursor: R
• Delete the file/directory under the cursor: D

Spell checking

Spell checking is built in into vim.

Enabling

• Enabling spellcheking: :set spell
• Setting British English spelling: :spellang=en_gb
• Accepting all English spellings (default): :spellang=en
• Setting language for window: :windo set spellang=en
• Setting language for buffer: :bufdo set spellang=en

Navigation

• Next misspelling: ]s
• Previous misspelling: [s
• Spelling suggestions: z=
• Adding word to known words: zg
• Removing word from known words: zw
• Undoing adding word to known words: zug
• Undoing removing word to known words: zuw

Command window

• Open command history from Normal mode: q:
• Open command history from Command mode: Ctrl+F
• Open search history for forward search: q/
• Open search history for backward search: q?

Settings

Pasting

• Enable pasting without automatic indentation: :set paste
• Disable pasting without automatic indentation: :set nopaste

Searching

• Show matches while typing: :set incsearch
• Highlight search results: :set hlsearch
• Disable highlighting search results: :set nohlsearch

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