Vim Quick Dev Reference

A useful collection of Vim 8.2 quick reference cheat sheets to help you learn vim editor faster.

Getting Started

Motion Diagrams

▼/▶ Cursor   ▽/▷ Target

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

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

Motions

h | j | k | l — 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/End of line

^ — Start of line (non-blank)

Fe / fe — Move to previous/next e

To / to — Move before/after previous/next o

| / n| — Go to first/nth column

gg / G — First/Last line

:n | nG — Go to line n

} / { — Next/Previous empty line

H / M / L — Top/Middle/Bottom screen

zt / zz / zb — Top/Center/Bottom this line

Insert Mode

i / a — Insert before/after cursor

I / A — Insert start/end of line

o / O (letter) — Insert new line below/above

s / S — Delete char/line and insert

C / cc — Change to end of/current line

gi — Insert at last insert point

Esc | <C-[> — Exit insert mode

Saving and Exiting

:w — Save

:q — Close file

:wq | :x | ZZ — Save and quit

:wqa — Save and quit all files

:q! | ZQ — Force quit

:qa — Close all files

:qa! — Force quit all files

:w now.txt — Write to now.txt

:sav new.txt — Save and edit new.txt

:w !sudo tee % — Write to readonly file

Normal Mode

r — Replace one character

R — Enter Replace mode

u / 3u — Undo changes 1 / 3 times

U — Undo changes on one line

J — Join with next line

<C-r> / 5 <C-r> — Redo changes 1 / 5 times

Cut and paste

x — Delete character (Cut)

p / P — Paste after/before

xp — Swap two characters

D — Delete to end of line (Cut)

dw — Delete word (Cut)

dd — Delete line (Cut)

ddp — Swap two lines

yy — Yank line (Copy)

"*p | "+p — Paste from system clipboard

"*y | "+y — Paste to system clipboard

d | x — Delete selection (Cut)

s — Replace selection

y — Yank selection (Copy)

Repeating

. — Repeat last command

; — Repeat latest f, t, F or T

, — Repeat latest f, t, F or T reversed

& — Repeat last :s

@: — Repeat a command-line command

Visual mode

v — Enter visual mode

V — Enter visual line mode

<C-v> — Enter visual block mode

ggVG — Select all text

> / < — Shift text right/left

Macros

qi — Record macro i

q — Stop recording macro

@i — Run macro i

7@i — Run macro i 7 times

@@ — Repeat last macro

You can save macro for any letters not just i

Vim Operators

Usage

d — w

Operator — Motion

Combine motions to use them

Available Operators

d — Delete

y — Yank (copy)

c — Change (delete then insert)

p — Paste

= — Formats code

g~ — Toggle case

gU — Uppercase

gu — Lowercase

> — Indent right

< — Indent left

! — Filter through external program

Examples

dd — Delete current line

dj — Delete two lines

dw — Delete to next word

db — Delete to beginning of word

dfa — Delete until a char

d/hello — Delete until hello

cc — Change current line, synonym with S

yy — Copy current line

>j — Indent 2 lines

ggdG — Delete a complete document

gg=G — Indent a complete document

ggyG — Copy a whole document

Counts

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

2dd — Delete 2 lines

6yy — Copy 6 lines

d3w — Delete 3 words

d5j — Delete 5 lines downwards

>4k — Indent 4 lines upwards

Vim Text objects

Usage

v — i / a — p

Operator — inner / around — Text object

Operate with an

Text objects

p — Paragraph

w — Word

W — WORD (surrounded by whitespace)

s — Sentence

[ ( { < — A [], (), or {} block

] ) } > — A [], (), or {} block

' " ` — A quoted string

b — A block [(

B — A block in [{

t — A HTML tag block

See :help text-objects

Delete

diw — Delete inner word

dis — Delete inner sentence

di" — Delete in quotes

da" — Delete in quotes (including quotes)

dip — Delete a paragraph

Selections

vi" — Select inner quotes "..."

va" — Select quotes "..."

vi[ — Select inner brackets [...]

va[ — Select brackets [...]

viw — Select inner word

vip — Select inner paragraph

vipip — Select more paragraph

Misc

ciw — Change inner word

ci" — Change inner quotes

cit — Change inner tags (HTML)

cip — Change inner paragraph

yip — Yank inner paragraph

yap — Yank paragraph (including newline)

Vim Multiple files

Buffers

:e file — Edit a file in a new buffer

:bn — Go to the next buffer

:bp — Go to the previous buffer

:bd — Remove file from buffer list

:b 5 — Open buffer #5

:b file — Go to a buffer by file

:ls — List all open buffers

:sp file — Open and split window

:vs file — Open and vertically split window

:hid — Hide this buffer

:wn — Write file and move to next

:tab ba — Edit all buffers as tabs

Windows

<C-w> s — Split window

<C-w> v — Split window vertically

<C-w> w — Switch windows

<C-w> q — Quit a window

<C-w> T — Break out into a new tab

<C-w> x — Swap current with next

<C-w> - / + — Decrease/Increase height

<C-w> < / > — Decrease/Increase width

<C-w> | — Max out the width

<C-w> = — Equally high and wide

<C-w> h / l — Go to the left/right window

<C-w> j / k — Go to the up/down window

Tabs

:tabe [file] — Edit file in a new tab

:tabf [file] — Open if exists in new tab

:tabc — Close current tab

:tabo — Close other tabs

:tabs — List all tabs

:tabr — Go to first tab

:tabl — Go to last tab

:tabm 0 — Move to position 0

:tabn — Go to next tab

:tabp — Go to previous tab

gt — Go to next tab

gT — Go to previous tab

2gt — Go to tab number 2

Vim Search and Replace

Search

/foo — Search forward

/foo\c — Search forward (case insensitive)

?foo — Search backward

/\v\d+ — Search with regex

n — Next matching search pattern

N — Previous match

* — Search for current word forward

# — Search for current word backward

Replace LINE

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

:s/old/new — Replace first

:s/old/new/g — Replace all

:s/\vold/new/g — Replace all with regex

:s/old/new/gc — replace all (Confirm)

:s/old/new/i — Ignore case replace first

:2,6s/old/new/g — Replace between lines 2-6

Replace FILE

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

:%s/old/new — Replace first

:%s/old/new/g — Replace all

:%s/old/new/gc — Replace all (Confirm)

:%s/old/new/gi — Replace all (ignore case)

:%s/\vold/new/g — Replace all with regex

Ranges

% — Entire file

’<,’> — Current selection

5 — Line 5

5,10 — Lines 5 to 10

$ — Last line

2,$ — Lines 2 to Last

. — Current line

,3 — Next 3 lines

-3, — Forward 3 lines

Global command

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

:g/foo/d — Delete lines containing foo

:g!/foo/d — Delete lines not containing foo

:g/^\s*$/d — Delete all blank lines

:g/foo/t$ — Copy lines containing foo to EOF

:g/foo/m$ — Move lines containing foo to EOF

:g/^/m0 — Reverse a file

:g/^/t. — Duplicate every line

Inverse :g

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

:v/foo/d — Delete lines not containing foo(also :g!/foo/d)

Flags

g — Replace all occurrences

i — Ignore case

I — Don't ignore case

c — Confirm each substitution

Substitute expression (magic)

& | \0 — Replace with the whole matched

\1...\9 — Replace with the group 0-9

\u — Uppercase next letter

\U — Uppercase following characters

\l — Lowercase next letter

\L — Lowercase following characters

\e — End of \u, \U, \l and \L

\E — End of \u, \U, \l and \L

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>

Vimdiff

Usage


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

Editing

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

do / :diffget — Obtain (get) difference

dp / :diffput — Put difference

:dif — Re-scan differences

:diffo — Switch off diff mode

:1,$+1diffget — Get all differences

ZQ — Quit without changes

See:

Folds

zo / zO — Open

zc / zC — Close

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

Jumping

]c — Next difference

[c — Previous difference

Miscellaneous

Case

vU — Uppercase character

vu — Lowercase character

~ — Toggle case character

viw U — Uppercase word

viw u — Lowercase word

viw ~ — Toggle case word

VU / gUU — Uppercase line

Vu / guu — Lowercase line

V~ / g~~ — Toggle case line

gggUG — Uppercase all text

ggguG — Lowercase all text

ggg~G — Toggle case all text

Jumping

<C-o> — Go back to previous

<C-i> — Go forward

gf — Go to file in cursor

ga — Display hex, ascii value

Misc command-lines

:h — Help open help view

:edit! — Reload current file

:2,8m0 — Move lines 2-8 to 0

:noh — Clear search highlights

:sort — Sort lines

:ter — Open a terminal window

:set paste — Enable Insert Paste sub-mode

:set nopaste — disable Insert Paste sub-mode

:cq — Exiting with an error(aborting Git)

Navigating

% — Nearest/matching {[()]}

[( | [{ — Previous ( or {

]) | ]{ — Next ) or }

[m — Previous method start

[M — Previous method end

Counters

<C-a> — Increase number

<C-x> — Decrease number

Formatting

:ce 8 — Center lines between 8 columns

:ri 4 — Right-align lines at 4 columns

:le — Left-align lines

See :help formatting

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

`[ — 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

`a — 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

d`a — Delete from current position to position of mark a

c'a — Change text from current line to line of a

y`a — 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

Calculator

<C-r> = 7*7 — Shows the result

<C-r> = 10/2 — Shows the result

Do this in INSERT mode

Shell

:!<shell> — Interpret Shell Command

:r!<shell> — Read in output of shell

:r!date — Insert date

:!!date — Replace current line with date

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

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