Vim Cheat Sheet

Table of Contents

• Misc Commands
• Editor Actions
  • Single Letter Actions
  • Multiple Letter Actions
  • Multiple Line Actions
• Ctrl Actions
  • Moving Around
  • Insert Mode
  • Window Actions
• Editing Mode
  • Inserting and appending text
  • General Editing
• Marking text via visual mode
• Visual commands
• Registers
  • Special registers
• Marks and positions
• Macros
• Cut and paste
• Indent text
• Exiting and Saving files
• Searching
  • Search and replace
  • Search in multiple files
• Tabs
• Working with multiple files
• Diff Operations

Misc Commands

• :h[elp] <keyword> - open help for <keyword> (don't use "<>")
• :sav[eas] <file> - save <file> as
• :clo[se] - close current pane
• :ter[minal] - open a terminal window

Editor Actions

Single Letter Actions

• K - open man page for word under the cursor

• Tip: - Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.

• 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)

• % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)

• 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

• ; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement

• , - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards

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

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

Multiple Letter Actions

• 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
• 5gg or 5G- go to line 5
• gd - move to local declaration
• gD - move to global declaration
• fx - jump to next occurrence of character x
• tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x
• Fx - jump to previous occurence of character x
• Tx - jump to after previous occurence of character x
• zz - center cursor on screen

Multiple Line Actions

• gh - move cursor up to the pevious editor line
• gj - move cursor down to the next editor line
• g0 - jump to the beginning of the editor line
• g^ - jump to the first non-blank character in the editor line
• g$ - jump to the end of the editor line

Ctrl Actions

Moving Around

• Ctrl + e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor)

• Ctrl + y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor)

• 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

• Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + j - begin new line during insert mode
• Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
• Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
• Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + rx - insert the contents of register x

Window Actions

• Ctrl + ws - split window
• Ctrl + wv - split window vertically
• Ctrl + ww - switch windows
• Ctrl + wq - quit a window
• Ctrl + wx - exchange current window with next one
• Ctrl + w= - make all windows equal height & width
• 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)

Editing Mode

Inserting and appending text

• 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

General Editing

• r - replace a single character
• J - join line below to the current one with one space in between
• gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between
• gwip - reflow paragraph
• g~ - switch case up to motion
• gu - change to lowercase up to motion
• gU - change to uppercase up to motion
• cc - change (replace) entire line
• C - change (replace) to the end of the line
• c$ - change (replace) to the end of the line
• ciw - change (replace) entire word
• cw - change (replace) to the end of the word
• s - delete character and substitute text
• S - delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
• xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)
• u - undo
• U - restore (undo) last changed line
• Ctrl + r - redo
• . - repeat last command

Marking text via visual mode

• v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
• V - start linewise visual mode
• gv - start visual mode, recalling the previous selection
• o - move to other end of marked area
• Ctrl + v - start visual block mode
• O - move to other corner of block
• aw - mark a word
• ab - a block with ()
• aB - a block with {}
• at - a block with <> tags
• ib - inner block with ()
• iB - inner block with {}
• it - inner block with <> tags
• Esc - exit visual mode
• Tip: - Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

• ---

Visual commands

• > - shift text right
• < - shift text left
• y - yank (copy) marked text
• d - delete marked text
• ~ - switch case
• u - change marked text to lowercase
• U - change marked text to uppercase

Registers

• :reg[isters] - show registers content

• "xy` - yank into register x

• "xp` - paste contents of register x

• "+y` - yank into the system clipboard register

• "+p` - paste from the system clipboard register

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

Special registers

•  0 - last yank
•  " - unnamed register, last delete or yank
•  % - current file name
•  # - alternate file name
•  * - clipboard contents (X11 primary)
•  + - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard)
•  / - last search pattern
•  : - last command-line
•  . - last inserted text
•  - - last small (less than a line) delete
•  = - expression register
•  _ - black hole register

Marks and positions

• :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

• `0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited

• `" - go to the position when last editing this file

• `. - go to the position of the last change in this file

• `` -go to the position before the last jump

• :ju[mps] - list of jumps

• Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list

• Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list

• :changes - list of changes

• g, - go to newer position in change list

• g; - go to older position in change list

• Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor

• Tip - To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe ('). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-black) of the line holding the mark.

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

Indent text

• >> - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth
• << - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth
• >% - indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
• >ib - indent inner block with ()
• >at - indent a block with <> tags
• 3== - re-indent 3 lines
• =% - re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
• =iB - re-indent inner block with {}
• gg=G - re-indent entire buffer
• ]p - paste and adjust indent to current line

Exiting and Saving Files

• :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
• :wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

Searching

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[lsearch] - remove highlighting of search matches

Search in multiple files

• :vim[grep] /pattern/ {`{file}`}**** - search for pattern in multiple files ** e.g. :vim[grep] /foo/ **/*
• :cn[ext] - jump to the next match
• :cp[revious] - jump to the previous match
• :cope[n] - open a window containing the list of matches
• :ccl[ose] - close the quickfix window

Tabs

• :tabnew or :tabnew {page.words.file} - open a file in a new tab
• Ctrl + wT - move the current split window into its own tab
• gt or :tabn[ext] - move to the next tab
• gT or :tabp[revious] - move to the previous tab
• #gt - move to tab number #
• :tabm[ove] # - move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
• :tabc[lose] - close the current tab and all its windows
• :tabo[nly] - close all tabs except for the current one
• :tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q - closes all opened tabs)

Working with multiple files

• :e[dit] file - edit a file in a new buffer
• :bn[ext] - go to the next buffer
• :bp[revious] - go to the previous buffer
• :bd[elete] - delete a buffer (close a file)
• :b[uffer]# - go to a buffer by index #
• :b[uffer] <file> - go to a buffer by <file> (_remove the "<>")
• :ls or :buffers - list all open buffers
• :sp[lit] <file> - open a <file> in a new buffer and split window
• :vs[plit] <file> - open a <file> in a new buffer and vertically split window
• :vert[ical] ba[ll] - edit all buffers as vertical windows
• :tab ba[ll] - edit all buffers as tabs

Diff Operations

• zf - manually define a fold up to motion
• zd - delete fold under the cursor
• za - toggle fold under the cursor
• zo - open fold under the cursor
• zc - close fold under the cursor
• zr - reduce (open) all folds by one level
• zm - fold more (close) all folds by one level
• zi - toggle folding functionality
• ]c- jump to start of next change
• [c - jump to start of previous change
• do or :diffg[et] - obtain (get) difference (from other buffer)
• dp or :diffpu[t] - put difference (to other buffer)
• :diffthis - make current window part of diff
• :dif[fupdate] - update differences
• :diffo[ff] - switch off diff mode for current window
• Tip - The commands for folding (e.g. za) operate on one level. To operate on all levels, use uppercase letters (e.g. zA).
• Tip - To view the differences of files, one can directly start Vim in diff mode by running vimdiff in a terminal. One can even set this as git difftool.

• Last,but not least, for more VIM goodies checkout VIM-Galore on Github