Skip to content
knowledge

VIM: Cheat Sheet

I started with:

The basics

  • Movement h - j - k -l

Hard mode:

map('n', '<left>', '<cmd>echo "Use h to move!"<CR>')
map('n', '<right>', '<cmd>echo "Use l to move!"<CR>')
map('n', '<up>', '<cmd>echo "Use k to move!"<CR>')
map('n', '<down>', '<cmd>echo "Use j to move!"<CR>')

  • Insert i and a. Also with capital to beginning and end of line I A

  • o new line below and go in insert mode

  • O new line above and go in insert mode

  • Activate relative line numbers and use counts: C<hjkl>

  • w word forwards and b word backwards

  • d delete

    1. Combine with words: dw
    2. Combine with movement 5dj

  • y to yank/copy and p to past

  • ciw [c]hange [i]nner [w]ord

  • ciW [c]hange [i]nner [W](contiguous piece of text)

Stop here. Spend a lot of time just on these. Don’t do more for min 2 weeks.

Horizontal movements

These took me a while to get used to, more than vertical movements.

  • _/0 beginning of line, $ end of line
  • f<char> [f]orward to the character
  • t<char> forward to just before the character
  • F<char> backwards to the character
  • T<char> backwards to just before the character
  • For all f and t: ; next one - , previous one

Combinations:

  • dt": [d]elete un[t]il [”]
  • vt$: [d]elete un[t]il [“]

Vertical movements

Move quickly:

  • <C-d> half page up and <C-u> help page up
-- better move page up and down (keep cursor in the middle)
map("n", "<C-d>", "<C-d>zz")
map("n", "<C-u>", "<C-u>zz")

  • G all the way to the bottom gg all the way top

    • I usually confuse them

  • / search forward ? search backwards

    • Move to n next and N previous
-- Remove search highlights
map("n", "<Esc>", ":noh<return><esc>")
map("n", "<C-c>", ":noh<return><esc>")
  • * on top of a word makes it search that word forwards and # backwards. Just do * and N to go backwards

Advanced

  • Select inside something
    • Select a word viw - You can be anywhere in the word
    • Select everything inside {} = vi{
    • Select everything inside {} (including them)= va{
    • Works with yank as well: yi{ Copy everything inside {}
  • o in Visual mode toggles the position from top to bottom