Common Vim shortcut commands

Since the 70's, VI and Vim are very popular text editors among programmers. 5 years ago, I wrote an article named "100 Vim commands Every programmer shoshould know" and here is a reworked, updated version. enjoy!

Basics

: E filename	OpenFilenameFor Edition
: W	Save File
: Q	Exit Vim
: Q!	Quit without saving
: X	Write File (if changes has been made) and exit
: Sav filename	Saves fileFilename
.	Repeats the last change made in Normal Mode
5.	Repeats 5 times the last change made in Normal Mode

Moving in the file

K or up arrow	Move the cursor up one line
J or down arrow	Move the cursor down one line
E	Move the cursor to the end of the word
B	Move the cursor to the begining of the word
0	Move the cursor to the begining of the line
G	Move the cursor to the end of the file
Gg	Move the cursor to the begining of the file
L	Move the cursor to the bottom of the screen
: 59	Move cursor to line59. Replace59By the desired line number.
20 |	Move cursor to Column20.
%	Move cursor to matching parenthesis
[[	Jump to function start
[{	Jump to block start

Cut, copy & Paste

Y	Copy the selected text to clipboard
P	Paste clipboard contents
Dd	Cut current line
YY	Copy current line
Y $	Copy to end of line
D	Cut to end of line

Search

/Word	SearchWordFrom top to bottom
? Word	SearchWordFrom bottom to top
*	Search the word under cursor
/\ Cstring	SearchStringOrString, Case insensitive
/Jo [Ha] n	SearchJohnOrJoan
/\ <	Search the, theater orThen
/The \>	SearchTheOrBreathe
/\ <The \>	SearchThe
/\ <Rule. \>	Search all words of 4 letters
/\/	SearchFredBut notAlfredOrFrederick
/Fred \ | Joe	SearchFredOrJoe
/\ <\ D \>	Search exactly 4 digits
/^ \ N \ {3}	Find 3 empty lines
: Bufdo/searchstr/	Search in all open files
Bufdo % S/something/somethingelse/g	SearchSomethingIn all the open buffers and replace itSomethingelse

Replace

: % S/old/new/g	Replace all occurencesOldByNewIn File
: % S/onward/forward/Gi	Replace onward by forward, Case unsensitive
: % S/old/new/GC	Replace all occurences with confirmation
: 2, 35 S/old/new/g	Replace all occurences between lines 2 and 35
: 5, $ S/old/new/g	Replace all occurences from line 5 to EOF
: % S/^/Hello/g	Replace the begining of each lineHello
: % S/$/Harry/g	Replace the end of each lineHarry
: % S/onward/forward/Gi	ReplaceOnwardByForward, Case unsensitive
: % S/* $ // G	Delete all white spaces
: G/string/d	Delete all lines containingString
: V/string/d	Delete all lines containing which didn't containString
: S/Bill/Steve/	Replace the first occurenceBillBySteveIn current line
: S/Bill/Steve/g	ReplaceBillBySteveIn current line
: % S/Bill/Steve/g	ReplaceBillBySteveIn all the file
: % S/^ m/g	Delete dos carriage returns (^ m)
: % S/\ r/g	Transform dos carriage returns in returns
: % S # <[^>] \ +> # G	Delete HTML tags but keeps text
: % S/^ \ (. * \) \ n \ 1 $/\ 1/	Delete lines which appears twice
CTRL +	Increment number under the cursor
CTRL + x	Decrement number under cursor
Ggvgg?	Change text to rot13

Case

VU	Lowercase line
VU	Uppercase line
G ~~	Invert case
Veu	Switch word to uppercase
Ve ~	Modify word case
Gggug	Set all text to lowercase
Gggug	Set all text to uppercase
: Set ignorecase	Ignore case in searches
: Set smartcase	Ignore case in searches incluted if an uppercase letter is used
: % S/\ <./\ U &/g	Sets first letter of each word to uppercase
: % S/\ <./\ L &/g	Sets first letter of each word to lowercase
: % S/. */\ U &	Sets first letter of each line to uppercase
: % S/. */\ L &	Sets first letter of each line to lowercase

Read/write files

: W OUTFILE	Saves lines 1 to 10 inOUTFILE
: W> OUTFILE	Appends lines 1 to 10OUTFILE
: R infile	Insert the contentInfile
: 23r infile	Insert the contentInfileUnder line 23

File Explorer

: E.	Open Integrated file Explorer
: Sex	Split Window and open integrated file Explorer
: Sex!	Same: SexBut split window vertically
: Browse E	Graphical file Explorer
: Ls	List Buffers
: CD ..	Move to parent directory
: ARGs	List Files
: ARGs *. php	Open File List
: Grep expression *. php	Returns a list of. php files conteningExpression
GF	Open File name under cursor

Interact with Unix

:! PWD	ExecutePWDUnix Command, then returns to VI
!! PWD	ExecutePWDUnix Command and insert output in file
: Sh	Temporary returns to Unix
$ Exit	Retourns to VI

Alignment

: %! FMT	Align all lines
!} FMT	Align all lines at the current position
5 !! FMT	Align the next 5 lines

Tabs/Windows

: Tabnew	Creates a new tab
GT	Show next tab
: Tabfirst	Show First Tab
: Tablast	Show last tab
: Tabm N (position)	Rearrange tabs
: Tabdo % S/Foo/BAR/g	Execute a command in all tabs
: Tab ball	Puts all open files in tabs
: New abc.txt	EditAbc.txtIn new window

Window spliting

: E filename	EditFilenameIn current window
: Split filename	Split the window and openFilename
CTRL-w up arrow	Puts cursor in top window
CTRL-W Ctrl-W	Puts cursor in next window
CTRL-W _	Maximize current window vertically
CTRL-w |	Maximize current window horizontally
CTRL-W =	Gives the same size to all windows
10 Ctrl-W +	Add 10 lines to current window
: Vsplit File	Split Window vertically
: Sview File	Same: SplitIn readonly Mode
: Hide	Close current window
: ­ NLY	Close all windows, sorted Ted current
: B 2	Open #2 in this window

Auto-completion

CTRL + N Ctrl + P (in insert mode)	Complete word
CTRL + x Ctrl + L	Complete Line
: Set dictionary = dict	DefineDictAs a dictionnary
CTRL + x Ctrl + k	Complete with dictionnary

Marks

M {A-z}	Marks current position{A-z}
'{A-z}	Move to position{A-z}
''	Move to previous position

Abbreviations

: AB Mail [email protected]

DefineMailAs abbreviation[Email protected]

Text indent

: Set autoindent	Turn on auto-indent
: Set smartindent	Turn on intelligent auto-indent
: Set shiftwidth = 4	Defines 4 spaces as indent size
CTRL-T, Ctrl-d	Indent/un-indent in insert mode
>	Indent
<	Un-indent
= %	Indent the code between parenthesis
1gvg =	Indent the whole file

Syntax highlighting

: Syntax on	Turn on syntax highlighting
: Syntax off	Turn Off syntax highlighting
: Set syntax = Perl	Force syntax highlighting