Vim basic commands

Cheat sheet
https://vim.rtorr.com/

Vim’s Automatic Marks

` `` ` Position before the last jump within current file
‘. Location of last change
‘^ Location of last insertion
‘[ Start of last change or yank
‘] End of last change or yank
‘< Start of last visual selection
‘> End of last visual selection

Changing mode

• Insert mode: i
• Replace mode: R
• Visual mode: v
• Line visual mode: V
• Block mode: <C-v> or <C-V>
• Command line mode: :

Movement

• Basic movement: hjkl (left, down, up, right)
• Words: w (next word), b (beginning of word), e (end of word)
• Lines: 0 (beginning of line), ^ or _ (first non-blank character), $ (end of line)
• Screen: H (top of screen), M (middle of screen), L (bottom of screen)
• Scroll: Ctrl-u (up), Ctrl-d (down)
• File: gg (beginning of file), G (end of file)
• Line numbers: :{number}<CR> or {number}G (line {number})
• Misc: % (corresponding item)
• Find: f{character}, t{character}, F{character}, T{character}
  • find/to forward/backward {character} on the current line
  • , / ; for navigating matches
• Search: /{regex}, n / N for navigating matches

Edits

• i enter Insert mode
  • but for manipulating/deleting text, want to use something more than backspace
• o / O insert line below / above
• d{motion} delete {motion}
  • e.g. dw is delete word, d$ is delete to end of line, d0 is delete to beginning of line
• c{motion} change {motion}
  • e.g. cwis change word
  • like d{motion} followed by i
• x delete character (equal do dl)
• s substitute character (equal to xi)
• Visual mode + manipulation
  • select text, d to delete it or c to change it
• u to undo, <C-r> to redo
• y to copy / “yank” (some other commands like d also copy)
• p to paste
• Lots more to learn: e.g. ~ flips the case of a character
• dG will delete all lines until end of file.

Count

• 3w move 3 words forward
• 5j move 5 lines down
• 7dw delete 7 words

Modifiers

You can use modifiers to change the meaning of a noun. Some modifiers are i, which means “inner” or “inside”, and a, which means “around”.

• ci( change the contents inside the current pair of parentheses
• ci[ change the contents inside the current pair of square brackets
• da' delete a single-quoted string, including the surrounding single quotes
• yiw copy the current word

Shell

Open shell from vim

• :shell open shell window
• :ter[minal] will open shell in a separated window(Neovim)

Etc

• To turn off highlighting until the next search:
  :noh

• Or turn off highlighting completely:
  set nohlsearch

• Search replace in an interactive mode

  • adding the flag c in command prompt

  :%s/foo/bar/gc
  

• Indent multiple lines
  select lines with visual mode then type >

• Repeat last changes
  The . command repeats the last change made in normal mode.

  • dw can be repeated

  The @: command repeats the last command-line change

  • :s/old/new/ can be repeated

• Replacing a word with a copied word

  • yiw -> move cursor to another location -> ciw<C-r>0<Esc>: replacing a word with a copied word.
  • we can repeat with . command

• Search the current word

  • * to search the word
  • # to search the word in backward direction

• Adding double quotes for selected text with a visual mode

  • If vim support the surround, select text with a visual mode then press S"
  • surround mode, :set surround

• Display searching a result in the middle of screen

  • after search, type zz will display in the middle of screen
  • :set scrolloff=10 will always have 10 lines before and after.
  • :set so=10 is shortcut
  • https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Make_search_results_appear_in_the_middle_of_the_screen

• Copy in a different buffer

  • "ayy: copy the current line in buffer a.
  • "ap: paste the contents in a buffer a at the cursor.

• Add indentation from the current line until the end of the file

  • >G

• Show search history

  • q\

• Scroll off 8 lines

  • set scrolloff=8

• Do not lose the yanked buffer on visual mode

  • vnoremap <leader>p "_dP

• Always copy into system clipboard

  • vnoremap <leader>y "+y

• Moving selected text up/down

  • vnoremap J :m '>+1<CR>gv=gv
  • vnoremap K :m '<-2<CR>gv=gv