Vim Reference

Thursday, May 28, 2020

• h j k l → basic movement keys … 10j
• b w B W → move back/forward by token/word
• e E → move to end of the token/word
• 0 → jump to first character of line
• $ → jump to end of the line
• ^ → jump to first non-whitespace character of line
• _ → jump to first non-whitespace character of line
• g_ → jump to last non-whitespace character of line
• ctrl+u ctrl+d → scroll up/down half page
• ctrl+y ctrl+e → scroll up/down line by line
• ctrl+b ctrl+f → scroll up/down full page
• H M L → move to the top/middle/bottom of the screen
• ’’ → jump back to where you just were
• ctrl+o ctrl+i → move backward/forward through the jump history
• {} → move to the beginning/end of the paragraph
• () → move to the beginning/end of the sentence
• % → jump to the corresponding (, {, [
• 50% → jump to the line at the 50% of the file
• :42 → jump to the line 42
• 42G → jump to the line 42
• 10| → move to column 10
• f<char> → move to next <char> on line → ; next , previous occurrence
• F<char> → move to previous <char> on line
• t<char> → move before next <char> on line
• T<char> → move before previous <char> on line

Movement in insert mode

• shift+right arrow → go to the right, word by word
• shift+left arrow → go to the left, word by word

Moving screen

• zz → scroll the view, that cursor is at center
• zt → (top) scroll the view, that cursor is at top
• zb → (bottom) scroll the view, that cursor is at bottom

Marking location

• m<char> → create mark <char> to the current location ma
• '<char> → move to the line containing mark <char> 'a
• `<char> → move to the precise location of mark <char> `a

Macros

• q<char> command q → create macro <char> containing command
• qa0vwhr_jq → create macro a which in visual mode replace everything from begining of line to the first word with underscore
• @<char> → use macro <char>
• 2@<char> → use macro <char> two times
• @@ → use last macro
• :reg → shows all registers / macros

Registers

• "<char> command → create register <char> containing output of command
• "ay/foo → yanking a copy of the text from here to the next line containing “foo” into a register
• "ap → pastes a copy of the a register’s content into the text after cursor
• "+yw → copy to system’s clipboard
• "+p → paste from system’s clipboard

Search

To search for similar word under the cursor type / then press ctrl-r and ctrl-w ← this will copy the word under the cursor to command line. Now you can edit it and press enter. To return to your previous possition hit ctrl-o.

• /<char> → search for <char> forwords
• / → repeat the last search
• 5/pattern → search for fifth occurrence of the pattern
• n → to go to next occurrence
• N → to go to previous occurrence
• ggn → to go to first occurrence
• GN → to go to last occurrence
• ?<char> → search for <char> backwords
• n → to go to previous occurrence
• N → to go to next occurrence
• # * → find the previous/next occurrence of the exact word under the cursor (search → search)
• g# g* → find the previous/next occurrence of the word under the cursor (search → searching)
• 6* → search for sixth occurrence of the current word under the cursor

Editing

• i a I A → insert/append at/after cursor/beginning/end of line
• o O → open new line below/above the current line
• o<esc> → add a blank line
• cw cW → correct token/world following the cursor
• cc → correct line by clearing and then entering insert mode
• C → correct till end of the line
• dd → delete line
• D → delete till end of the line - same as d$
• ct cf ci ca → correct up to or including specific characters
• dt df di da → delete up to or including specific characters
• s → delete character at the cursor ant then enter insert mode 5s
• yy → copy line
• yw yW → copy token/word
• p P → paste before/after cursor
• u ctrl+r → undo and redo
• . → repeat the previous edit command
• r → replace one character
• R → replace till the escape key is hit

Indent

• >> → indent a line to the right
• << → indent a line to the left
• 5<< → indent 5 lines to the left
• >} → indent one paragraph to the right
• =i} → auto indent everything inside a paragraph
• >aB → indent a Block
• == → auto indent a line
• gg=G → select whole file and autoindent
• ggvG= → select whole file and autoindent in visual mode

Correcting Text

Combination with c or d
- t<char> exclusive match: continue up to the next <char> on this line
- f<char> inclusive match: continue up to the next <char> on this line
- i<char> exclusive inner match: apply to the text bounded by <char>
- a<char> inclusive inner match: apply to the text bounded by <char>

Say that I have the code below, and I want to completely replace the code inside the map() with something else:

signal.map(count -> String.format(“%d cookies, ah ah ah”, count));

The first thing I need to do is get my cursor anywhere inside the parentheses belonging to map(). The exact command I use depends on where I end up:

• If the cursor is just inside the open paren for map(), I could use “cf)”. This corrects all text up to and including the next “)” on this line.

• Say the cursor is on the word “format”. I would do “ci(”. Vim will search backward to find the first open paren, then search forward to find its match, and correct the text between (but not including) those characters.

• Maybe my cursor was already closest to the word “cookies.” To break out of the inner parentheses, I would need to add a count and do “2ci(”. This is almost identical to the last example, except that the 2 is needed due to the nested parentheses.

Some usefull commands:
- dw → delete to the end of a word
- diw → delete the entire word at the cursor
- cit → change the content inside an HTML tag
- cip → change the content inside a paragraph
- ci" → change the content inside a “…”
- y4j → copy 4 lines

Working with files

• vim file.txt → open file test.txt
• vim :e test.txt → open file test.txt from vim
• vim :wq test.txt → save as test.txt

Tabs

• gt → go to next tab
• gT → go to previous tab
• 2gt → go to second tab

Explore file system

• :e. → open file explorer at current working directory
• :sp. → open file explorer in split at current working directory
• :vs. → open file explorer in vertical split at current working directory
• :Se → open file explorer in split at directory of current file

Visual mode

• Ctrl + v → visual block
• v → visual
• vW → select word
• vjjjJ → select three lines and join them to one

Search and replace

• :%s/foo/bar/g → change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ in all lines
• :s/foo/bar/g → change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ in the current line only)
• :%s/foo/bar/gc → change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’, but ask for confirmation first
• :%s/<foo>/bar/gc → change only whole words exactly matching ‘foo’ to ‘bar’
• :%s/foo/bar/gci → change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ case insensitive
• :%s/foo/bar/gcI → change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ case sensitive
• :%s/foo//gn → show count number of matches of ‘foo’
• :%s///gn → show count number of matches of last searched pattern (if * used on some word)