The Vim Reference

#vim #programming #productivity

Recently I decided to learn vim after hearing how much Ben Awad loves it. I though maybe it could boost my productivity too. I am still getting use to it, but right now it seems pretty fun.

Now to the reference. Here are some useful commands and what they do:

Using Vim

Open Vim: vim filename
Closing Vim:
- :wq -> save and quit
- :q -> quit and not save
- :w -> save and not quit

Movements

Hitting gg will take you to the top of file
G takes you to the bottom
} and { navigate code blocks
o adding a new line and put into insert mode
O adding a new line above and put into insert mode
w will jump to next word b will take you back
:number will take you to line number
0 will take you to the start of the line
0 + w or ^ will take you to the first word of a line
h j k l to move up down left and right
a move over by 1 and set insert mode
A jump to end and set insert mode

Editing

Hitting "i" in command mode lets you insert
Hitting shift + i will set insert mode at the beginning of the line
Then esc puts you back into command mode
Hitting dd will delete a line and copy to clip board
Hitting d + } will delete a whole block of code
Hitting 10 dd will delete 10 lines
Hitting u will undo
Hitting ctrl + r will redo
Hitting yy will copy a line
p to paste bellow P to paste above
x remove a letter where the cursor is
number x remove number letters before cursor
~ swap the case of the letter prefix with number for multiple characters
. redo
$ will take you to the end of a line
W will jump spaces and B reverses that
f + char find and place cursor on char
t + charfind and place cursor before char
% take you to and from closing brackets
d + % remove code between brackets
c + w change mode and word will remove a word and set insert mode
D remove everthing from cursor onwards
c + t + char edit from cursor to char
C change whole line
d + t + char delete from cursor to char
* take you to occurances of the word where your cursor is
; take you to next instance after using a find command
r + char replace letter at cursor with char prefix with number for multiple replaces
R allow to replace lots of letters into replace mode
/word highlight all occurances of word

Macros

Press q to start recording then select a hotkey. Now run some commands and hit q to end. Then hit @ hotkey to replay a command. Prefix @ with a number to replace that many times

Visual Mode: `V`

Select text with movement commands then you can hit:
- d to delete
- After selected > or < to indent code.
shift + v selects the whole line and puts you into visual mode.
v + move select from cursor while move

Visual Block Mode

ctrl + v enter visual block mode. Now you can select columns and hit r to replace things.
In visual block mode hitting shift i will allow you to type and then after you hit esc the text will appear in all places selected.

Thank you for referring to this guide, I hope you found it useful.