Vim Cheat Sheet
Basic Commands
i = insert mode
h,j,k,l = move left, up, down, left
w = move from word to word
b = move back word to word
W = jumps the whole word
B = jusmps back a word to word
$ = go to end of the line
^ = go to the begining of the line
0 = goes to the very beginning
gg = goes to the begginig of the file
G = goes to the bottom of the file
{ } = jumps paragraphs
f = finds the first occurence of a string in the file
F = fins the first occurance of a string backward
number followed by comman (4dd) – deletes four lines
3gg = goes 3 lines from the top
:13 = goes to line 13
3 G = goes three lines from the bottom
Advanced Movement
ctrl d – moves half screen down
ctrl u – moves half screen up
ctrl f – full screen forward
ctrl b – full screen backward
M – goes to middle of the window
H – goes to top of window
L – goes to last line of window
3L – goes three lines above bottom of window
zt – moves the line our cursor is on to the top
zb – moves the line to the botton
zz – moves the line to the middle
ma – saves cursor position to a register
‘a – goes directly to register a
’ – move between markers
Basic Editing
X – deletes behind the cursor
x – delete whats under the cursor
dd – delete the line
dw – delete the word
db – delete previous word
cc – delete line and enter insert mode
cw – delete work and enter insert mode
cd – delete previous word and enter insert mode
ci” – changes whats inbetween two “
ca” – deletes everything inside the quotes
Cut, Copy and Paste
Every deletion is a cut command, puts in a special register for pasting later
p – pastes last thing in deletion cut register
P – pastes before the cursor
y – yank/copy something copy can be used with any familiar command
yw – copy word
yy – copy line
Search
/search = starts searching for word search. it is also case sensitive
?search = looks backwards for the word search
set incsearch = sets incremental search on
set ignorecase = turns off case sensitive search
set hlsearch = turns on highlight search
nohlsearch / noh = turns off highlight search
n = find next occurence. vim stores the last search
c/find = will delete from the cursor to find and then enter insert mode
vim search can use regexs
Search and Replace
:s/pattern/replace/flags
:s – perfoms a substitutions replaces on first occurance by default
:s/vim/Vim – replaces vim for Vim
:%s/vim/Vim – replaces whole file with vim for Vim
:%s/vim/Vim/g – replaces whole file with vim for Vim globally
vim will use previous serach pattern so can do :s//pattern
when using regex can use \ze or \zs to stop selection before or after
Visual mode – v
visual line mode – V
gv – reslects last selection
go to a bracket, enter visual mode hit % and that will find the corresponding bracket
FLAGS
c = confirm, asks for confirmation for oeach occurence
i = insensitive
g = finds all occurances in a line
HELP
:help s – opens the help for a command
Macros and Register
ctrl g – get file info
macros store a command pipeline that can be used over and over
qa – start recording a macro in register a
q – stops recroding
:registers / reg – shows the recorded registers
@a – runs macro in a register
@@ – runts the last macro ran again
Command Line in Vim
:! – initalises comman from the shell then run command
:read !date – puts the oupt of shell into the file under cursor
:r !curl —silent URL – outputs the file into the buffer
you can take the selected text buffer and feed it into standard in and replace it with output
Navigating Between Buffers
:ls – lists all active buffers for files in memory
:bn / bnext – next buffer
:bp / bprev – previous buffer
:b# – last buffer we visited
:bf – first buffer
:bd 14 – deletes buffer 14
Windows and Tabs
Split windows
:vsplit / vs file_path – splits the buffer vertically
ctrl+w h/l = move between left right
ctrl+w H / L = move to the left / right most part
ctrl + w J/K = move to the bottom / top
ctrl + w +/– = increase/decrease window hight 1 row
ctrl + w = increase/decrease width by 1 column
ctrl + w = = auto resize windows equally
:q = clost a window buffer
:sb 2 = split buffer in memory
:vert sb = vetical split buffer in memory
Tabs
:tab e / tabedit file_path
:gt – move oen tab forward
:gT – move one tab backward
Graphical Vim
set gfn – sets current font
Indents and Folds
:set list – prnts lines/tabs/space
>> – indent of one tab
8>> – indents following 8 lines
:set expandtab – sets soft tabs
:set noexpandtab – sets tabs normal
:set shiftwidth=3 – 3 spaces for one indentation
:set smartindent – sets smart indentation
:set softtabstop / sts 3
in visual mode –
gv – reselects last selection
>/< – indents
Auto indent
= on select texted auto indent
=3j auto indent next 2 lines
=G indents the whole file
In inset mode
tab = inserts
ctrl + t = indent forward
ctrl + d = indent back
Folding
manual folds
zf5j – fold the next 5 lines
zo – open fold
zO – open from cursor fown
zc – close everything from position up fold
zd – delete fold
zf% – folds the matching bracket
zi – inverts folding on/off
auto folding
set foldmethod/fdm – numberous options see help foldmethod
set fdm=sytax = fold baed on syntax
set fdm=marker = set a custom folder maker } for instace
.vimrc File
:so % – source our current file
set nocompatible – sets vims way of doing things
allows file types to be detected than plugins and indentation set up based on those files
filetype on
filetype indent on
filetype plugin on
let VARIAABLE – “.”
syntax enable
set ignorecase
set hlsearch
set autoindent
set fileencoding=utf-8
set encoding=utf-8
set backspace=indent.eol.start
set smartcase – perform smart searchs
gdefault – perform global replacments
set incsearch
set showmatch – highlight all matching parentheses
deals with how windows are auto sized
set winwidth=84
set winheight=5
set winminheight=5
set winheight=999
set no/list – view all tabs and line endings
set guifont= – sets the font
set guioptions= add options
set guioptions-= remove options
set number – set line numbers
set visualbell – flash the screen over the bell
set cursoline – highlight line your in
set cc=80 – sets line at 80th column
set background=dark
colorschmeme solarized
au BufRead,BufNewFil *.ru setfiletype ruby
Mappings
sequence of characters that triggers sequence of commands