Vim Cheatsheet

Cliped from vim.rtorr.com

Global

• :h[elp] keyword - open help for keyword
• :sav[eas] file - save file as
• :clo[se] - close current pane
• :ter[minal] - open a terminal window
• K - open man page for word under the cursor

Tip Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.

Cursor movement

• h - move cursor left
• j - move cursor down
• k - move cursor up
• l - move cursor right
• gj - move cursor down (multi-line text)
• gk - move cursor up (multi-line text)
• H - move to top of screen
• M - move to middle of screen
• L - move to bottom of screen
• w - jump forwards to the start of a word
• W - jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• e - jump forwards to the end of a word
• E - jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• b - jump backwards to the start of a word
• B - jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• ge - jump backwards to the end of a word
• gE - jump backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: ‘()’, ‘{}’, ‘[]’ - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
• 0 - jump to the start of the line
• ^ - jump to the first non-blank character of the line
• $ - jump to the end of the line
• g_ - jump to the last non-blank character of the line
• gg - go to the first line of the document
• G - go to the last line of the document
• 5gg or 5G - go to line 5
• gd - move to local declaration
• gD - move to global declaration
• fx - jump to next occurrence of character x
• tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x
• Fx - jump to the previous occurrence of character x
• Tx - jump to after previous occurrence of character x
• ; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
• , - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
• } - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• { - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• zz - center cursor on screen
• zt - position cursor on top of the screen
• zb - position cursor on bottom of the screen
• Ctrl + e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
• Ctrl + y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
• Ctrl + b - move back one full screen
• Ctrl + f - move forward one full screen
• Ctrl + d - move forward 1/2 a screen
• Ctrl + u - move back 1/2 a screen

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

Insert mode - inserting/appending text

• i - insert before the cursor
• I - insert at the beginning of the line
• a - insert (append) after the cursor
• A - insert (append) at the end of the line
• o - append (open) a new line below the current line
• O - append (open) a new line above the current line
• ea - insert (append) at the end of the word
• Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + j - begin new line during insert mode
• Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
• Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
• Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + rx - insert the contents of register x
• Ctrl + ox - Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x.
• Esc or Ctrl + c - exit insert mode

Editing

• r - replace a single character.
• R - replace more than one character, until ESC is pressed.
• J - join line below to the current one with one space in between
• gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between
• gwip - reflow paragraph
• g~ - switch case up to motion
• gu - change to lowercase up to motion
• gU - change to uppercase up to motion
• cc - change (replace) entire line
• c$ or C - change (replace) to the end of the line
• ciw - change (replace) entire word
• cw or ce - change (replace) to the end of the word
• s - delete character and substitute text
• S - delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
• xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)
• u - undo
• U - restore (undo) last changed line
• Ctrl + r - redo
• . - repeat last command

Marking text (visual mode)

• v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
• V - start linewise visual mode
• o - move to other end of marked area
• Ctrl + v - start visual block mode
• O - move to other corner of block
• aw - mark a word
• ab - a block with ()
• aB - a block with {}
• at - a block with <> tags
• ib - inner block with ()
• iB - inner block with {}
• it - inner block with <> tags
• Esc or Ctrl + c - exit visual mode

Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

Visual commands

• > - shift text right
• < - shift text left
• y - yank (copy) marked text
• d - delete marked text
• ~ - switch case
• u - change marked text to lowercase
• U - change marked text to uppercase

Registers

• :reg[isters] - show registers content
• “xy - yank into register x
• “xp - paste contents of register x
• “+y - yank into the system clipboard register
• “+p - paste from the system clipboard register

Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.

Tip Special registers:

 0 - last yank
 ” - unnamed register, last delete or yank
 % - current file name
 # - alternate file name
 * - clipboard contents (X11 primary)
 + - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard)
 / - last search pattern
 : - last command-line
 . - last inserted text
 - - last small (less than a line) delete
 = - expression register
 _ - black hole register

Marks and positions

• :marks - list of marks
• ma - set current position for mark A
• `a - jump to position of mark A
• y`a - yank text to position of mark A
• `0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited
• `” - go to the position when last editing this file
• `. - go to the position of the last change in this file
• `` - go to the position before the last jump
• :ju[mps] - list of jumps
• Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list
• Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list
• :changes - list of changes
• g, - go to newer position in change list
• g; - go to older position in change list
• Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor

Tip To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe (‘). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-blank) of the line holding the mark.

Macros

• qa - record macro a
• q - stop recording macro
• @a - run macro a
• @@ - rerun last run macro

Cut and paste

• yy - yank (copy) a line
• 2yy - yank (copy) 2 lines
• yw - yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
• yiw - yank (copy) word under the cursor
• yaw - yank (copy) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
• y$ or Y - yank (copy) to end of line
• x - delete (cut) character
• p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
• P - put (paste) before cursor
• gp - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor and leave cursor after the new text
• gP - put (paste) before cursor and leave cursor after the new text

Delete

• dd - delete (cut) a line
• 2dd - delete (cut) 2 lines
• dw - delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
• 5dw - delete five words
• diw - delete (cut) word under the cursor
• daw - delete (cut) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
• d0 - delete to the beginning of the line
• d$ or D - delete (cut) to the end of the line
• :1,.d - delete all lines from the beginning of the file to cursor position
• :.,$d - delete all lines from cursor position to the end of the file
• :3,5d - delete lines starting from 3 to 5
• :g/{pattern}/d - delete all lines containing pattern
• :g!/{pattern}/d - delete all lines not containing pattern
• :$d - delete all lines
• :%d - delete all lines
• ggdG - delete all lines

Indent text

• >> - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth
• « - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth
• >% - indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
• <% - de-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
• >ib - indent inner block with ()
• >at - indent a block with <> tags
• 3== - re-indent 3 lines
• =% - re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
• =iB - re-indent inner block with {}
• gg=G - re-indent entire buffer
• ]p - paste and adjust indent to current line

Exiting

• :w - write (save) the file, but don’t exit
• :w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo
• :wq or :x or ZZ - write (save) and quit
• :q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
• :q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes
• :wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

Search and replace

• /pattern - search for pattern
• ?pattern - search backward for pattern
• \vpattern - ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
• n - repeat search in same direction
• N - repeat search in opposite direction
• :%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
• :%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
• :noh[lsearch] - remove highlighting of search matches

Search in multiple files

• :vim[grep] /pattern/ {{file}} - search for pattern in multiple files

e.g. :vim[grep] /foo/ */

• :cn[ext] - jump to the next match
• :cp[revious] - jump to the previous match
• :cope[n] - open a window containing the list of matches
• :ccl[ose] - close the quickfix window

Tabs

• :tabnew or :tabnew {page.words.file} - open a file in a new tab
• Ctrl + wT - move the current split window into its own tab
• gt or :tabn[ext] - move to the next tab
• gT or :tabp[revious] - move to the previous tab
• #gt - move to tab number #
• :tabm[ove] # - move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
• :tabc[lose] - close the current tab and all its windows
• :tabo[nly] - close all tabs except for the current one
• :tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q - closes all opened tabs)