Vim Cheat Sheet

Global

:help keyword – open help for keyword

:o file – open file

:saveas file – save file as

:close – close current window

Cursor Movements

h – move cursor left

j – move cursor down

k – move cursor up

l – move cursor right

H – move to top of screen

M – move to middle of screen

L – move to bottom of screen

w – jump forwards to the start of a word

W – jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)

e – jump forwards to the end of a word

E – jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)

b – jump backwards to the start of a word

B – jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)

0 – jump to the start of the line

^ – jump to the first non-blank character of the line

$ – jump to the end of the line

g_ – jump to the last non-blank character of the line

gg – go to the first line of the document

G – go to the last line of the document

5G – go to line 5

fx – jump to next occurrence of character x

tx – jump to before next occurrence of character x

} – jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

{ – jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

zz – center cursor on screen

Ctrl + b – move back one full screen

Ctrl + f – move forward one full screen

Ctrl + d – move forward 1/2 a screen

Ctrl + u – move back 1/2 a screen

Tip: Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.

Insert Mode

i – insert before the cursor

I – insert at the beginning of the line

a – insert (append) after the cursor

A – insert (append) at the end of the line

o – append (open) a new line below the current line

O – append (open) a new line above the current line

ea – insert (append) at the end of the word

Esc – exit insert mode

Editing

r – replace a single character

J – join line below to the current line

cc – change (replace) entire line

cw – change (replace) to the end of the word

c$ – change (replace) to the end of the line

s – delete character and substitute text

S – delete line and substitute text (same as cc)

xp – transpose two letters (delete and paste)

u – undo

Ctrl + r – redo

. – repeat last command

Marking Text (Visual Mode)

v – start visual mode, mark lines, then perform an operation (such as d-delete)

V – start linewise visual mode

Ctrl + v – start blockwise visual mode

o – move to the other end of marked area

O – move to other corner of block

aw – mark a word

ab – a block with ()

aB – a block with {}

ib – inner block with ()

iB – inner block with {}

Esc – exit visual mode

Visual Commands

> – shift text right

< – shift text left

y – yank (copy) marked text

d – delete marked text

~ – switch case

Registers

:reg – show registers content

"xy – yank into register x

"xp – paste contents of register x

Tip: Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.

Tip: Register 0 contains always the value of the last yank command.

Marks

:marks – list of marks

ma – set current position for mark A

`a – jump to position of mark A

y`a – yank text to position of mark A

Macros

qa – record macro a

q – stop recording macro

@a – run macro a

@@ – rerun last run macro

Cut and Paste

yy – yank (copy) a line

2yy – yank (copy) 2 lines

yw – yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word

y$ – yank (copy) to end of line

p – put (paste) the clipboard after cursor

P – put (paste) before cursor

dd – delete (cut) a line

2dd – delete (cut) 2 lines

dw – delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word

D – delete (cut) to the end of the line

d$ – delete (cut) to the end of the line

x – delete (cut) character

Exiting

:w – write (save) the file, but don’t exit

:w !sudo tee % – write out the current file using sudo

:wq or :x or ZZ – write (save) and quit

:q – quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)

:q! or ZQ – quit and throw away unsaved changes

Search and Replace

/pattern – search for pattern

?pattern – search backward for pattern

\vpattern – ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)

n – repeat search in same direction

N – repeat search in opposite direction

:%s/old/new/g – replace all old with new throughout file

:%s/old/new/gc – replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

:noh – remove highlighting of search matches

Search in Multiple Files

:vimgrep /pattern/ {file} – search for pattern in multiple files

e.g.

:vimgrep /foo/ **/*

:cn – jump to the next match

:cp – jump to the previous match

:copen – open a window containing the list of matches

Working With Multiple Files

:e file – edit a file in a new buffer

:bnext or :bn – go to the next buffer

:bprev or :bp – go to the previous buffer

:bd – delete a buffer (close a file)

:ls – list all open buffers

:sp file – open a file in a new buffer and split window

:vsp file – open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window

Ctrl + ws – split window

Ctrl + ww – switch windows

Ctrl + wq – quit a window

Ctrl + wv – split window vertically

Ctrl + wh – move cursor to the left window (vertical split)

Ctrl + wl – move cursor to the right window (vertical split)

Ctrl + wj – move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)

Ctrl + wk – move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)

Tabs

:tabnew or :tabnew file – open a file in a new tab

Ctrl + wT – move the current split window into its own tab

gt or :tabnext or :tabn – move to the next tab

gT or :tabprev or :tabp – move to the previous tab

#gt – move to tab number #

:tabmove # – move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)

:tabclose or :tabc – close the current tab and all its windows

:tabonly or :tabo – close all tabs except for the current one

:tabdo command – run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q – closes all opened tabs)