More than 130 VIM commands you need to know

Since 1970, VI and Vim have become one of the programmers ' favorite text editors. 5 years ago, I wrote a question called "100 vim commands that every programmer should know." This is an improved version of the previous article, I hope you will like it.

Basis

: E filename	Open filename for edition
: W	Save file
: Q	Exit Vim
: q!	Quit without saving
: X	Write file (if changes has been made) and exit
: Sav filename	Saves file as filename
.	Repeats the last change made in normal mode
5.	Repeats 5 times The last change made in normal mode

Move around in a 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 line
Gg	Move the cursor to the begining of the file
L	Move the cursor to the end of the file
: 59	Move cursor to line . Replace the desired line number.
20|	Move cursor to column .
%	Move cursor to matching parenthesis
[[	Jump to function start
[{	Jump to block start

Cut, copy, and 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	Search word from top to bottom
? word	Search word from bottom to top
*	Search the word under cursor
/\cstring	Search string or string, case insensitive
/jo[ha]n	Search John or Joan
/\< the	Search the, theatre or then
/the\>	Search The or breathe
/\< the\>	Search the
/\<¦.\>	Search all words of 4 letters
/\/	Search Fred but not Alfred or Frederick
/fred\|joe	Search Fred or Joe
/\<\d\d\d\d\>	Search exactly 4 digits
/^\N\{3}	Find 3 Empty lines
: bufdo/searchstr/	Search in all open files
Bufdo%s/something/somethingelse/g	Search something in all the open buffers and replace it withSomethingElse

Replace

:%s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences of the old by new in file
:%s/onward/forward/gi	Replace onward by forward, case unsensitive
:%S/OLD/NEW/GC	Replace all occurences with confirmation
: 2,35s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences between lines 2 and 35
: 5, $s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences from line 5 to EOF
:%s/^/hello/g	Replace the begining by Hello
:%s/$/harry/g	Replace the end of each line by Harry
:%s/onward/forward/gi	Replace onward by forward, Case unsensitive
:%s/*$//g	Delete All white spaces
: g/string/d	Delete all lines containing string
: v/string/d	Delete all lines containing which didn ' t contain string
: s/bill/steve/	Replace the first occurence of Bill by Steve
: s/bill/steve/g	Replace Bill by Steve
:%s/bill/steve/g	Replace Bill by Steve in all the file
:%s/^m//g	Delete DOS Carriage Returns (^M)
:%s/\r/\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 + A	Increment number under the cursor
Ctrl+x	Decrement number under cursor
Ggvgg?	Change Text to Rot13

Uppercase and lowercase

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 excepted if a 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 all line to uppercase
:%s/.*/\l&	Sets first letter of all line to lowercase

Read and write files

: 1,10 w outfile	Saves lines 1 to ten in outfile
: 1,10 W >> outfile	Appends lines 1 to outfile
: R infile	Insert the content of infile
: 23r infile	Insert the content of infile under line 23

File browser

E.	Open Integrated File explorer
: Sex	Split window and open integrated File explorer
: sex!	Same as : Sex but 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 contening expression
Gf	Open file name under cursor

Interacting with Unix systems

:!pwd	Execute the pwd Unix command, then returns to Vi
!! Pwd	Execute the pwd Unix command and insert output in file
: SH	Temporary returns to Unix
$exit	Retourns to Vi

Snap To

:%!fmt	Align All Lines
!} Fmt	Align all lines on 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	Edit abc.txt in New window

Split screen Display

: E filename	Edit filename in current window
: Split filename	Split the window and open filename
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
Ten ctrl-w+	ADD ten lines to the current window
: Vsplit File	Split window vertically
: Sview File	Same as : Split in readonly mode
: Hide	Close Current Window
: nly	Close all windows, excepted current
: B 2	Open #2 in this window

Auto-complete

CTRL + N ctrl+p (in insert mode)	Complete Word
Ctrl+x ctrl+l	Complete line
: Set Dictionary=dict	Define dict as a dictionnary
Ctrl+x ctrl+k	Complete with Dictionnary

Marks

m {A-Z}	Marks Current position as {A-Z}
' {A-Z}	Move to position {A-Z}
‘‘	Move to previous position

Abbreviation

: AB Mail [email protected]

Define Mail as abbreviation of [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

More than 130 VIM commands you need to know