Vim Advanced Cheatsheet

Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks inspired by http://vimcasts.org

Table of contents

1. Search and Replace
2. Registers
3. Navigation
4. NORMAL mode
5. INSERT mode
6. VISUAL mode
7. Spelling
8. History
9. Commands

Search and Replace

Search in current buffer

:set hlsearch :set nohlsearch to toggle search highlighting

• Use * to search for the word under the cursor - like /word but without typing
• Use # to search for the word under the cursor in reverse order
• Use /word otherwise

Replace in current buffer

• :%s/\s\+$//e - strip trailing white spaces
  • replace in the whole file :%s
  • the spaces till the end of the line /\s\+$/
  • with nothing //
  • and suppress any errors if no matches found e
• :s/\%V#/ /g - replace # character with whitespace only within the VISUAL selection \%V

Search in multiple files

Vimgrep is a very powerful search tool that allows searching not only in the current file but in any provided targets.

Results will appear in the quickfix.

:vimgrep/{pattern}/{target} - search for pattern where {target} can be:

• % current file
• *.rb wildcards or file list
• `find . -type f` backtick expression
• ## special symbol that represents the args (set by :args <expr>)

Also :vimgrep can be shorted as :vim

Replace in multiple files

• :vimgrep /{patter}/ {target} search for a pattern
• :cdo s/{pattern}/{replacement}/ge replace for each file in the quickfix - e will ignore errors if not matches found
• :cdo w or :cdo update to write the changes

Multiple repeats

• :g/monkey/d - delete all lines containing "monkey"
• :g/^monkey/d - delete all lines starting with "monkey"
• :v/monkey/d - delete all lines that do not match "monkey" (like grep -v)
• :g/^$/d - delete blank lines

All commands above consist in the composition of 3 subcommands:

1. grep the document globally :g
2. to find blank lines /^$/
3. and delete them d

Registers

• "ayy yanks current line into register "a"
• "ap pastes from register "a"
• "Ayy appends yanked line to register "a"
• :reg a inspects register "a"
• qaq resets register "a"
• :g/monkey/yank A yanks all lines containing "monkey" and append them into register "a"

Navigation

• Ctrl-w g f while being with the cursor on a word (e.g. "file.txt") opens the file with that name on a new window

• from terminal: vim -p file1 file2 file3 opens Vim and the 3 files on separate tabs (panels)

• Ctrl-^ alternates between 2 buffers

  • type :ls to see the open buffers
  • switch between active buffer (marked as %a) and the previous one (marked as #h) where "h" stands for "hidden"

• :only closes all windows leaving only the current one open

• Ctrl-w _ maximizes the current window vertically

• Ctrl-w | maximizes the current window horizontally

• Ctrl-w = equalizes/restores original sizes

• Ctrl-w r rotates windows clockwise (R for inverse)

• Ctrl-w HJKL moves the window to the far side direction

• Ctrl-w T extracts the current window in a new tab

• :tabclose closes current tab

• :tabonly closes all tabs leaving the current one open

• :tabmove <number> moves the current tab to the N position

• <number>gt goes to the N-th tab

File explore window

• :Explore opens an interactive file explorer - same as :e.
  • % creates a file
  • d creates a directory
• :sp. opens the file explorer in an horizontal split
• :vs. opens the file explorer in a vertical split

NORMAL mode

• :r! <system cmd> >> runs a command on the system shell and reads the output into the current position of the current buffer

Motions

• t for "tag": cit as "change inner html tag"

• / for "search" term: c/term as "change until 'term' is found"

• ? is like / but searches backwards

• r for "replace": select line + r# will replace all characters with #

• a goes to INSERT mode "after" the current character

• A goes to INSERT mode at the end of the line ("after ALL characters in line")

• Y yanks entire line

• P pastes above the cursor while p pastes after the cursor

• g; goes to the last INSERT mode position - using it multiple times jumps backwards in the changelist history

  • use g, to move forward in the changelist

• % jumps between parenthesis or line block delimiters (E.g. Ruby's begin-end)

• s deletes "character" under cursor and goes into INSERT mode

• S deletes "line" and goes into INSERT mode

• With lines that wrap on multiple "visible" lines, prefix commands with g to move through visible lines

  • gj moves to the next visible line
  • g$ moves at the end of the visible line

• :-7t. copy line from 7 lines above (with relative numbers) "to" (t) "this" (.) location

  • use :+10t. to copy the 10th line below.
  • without +/- sign it consider the "actual" line number
  • t is the short for copy command

INSERT mode

Suggestions

• Ctr-p and Ctr-n opens a list of suggestions for auto-completion
• Ctr-x Ctr-f opens a list of "suggestions based on the files/directories" in the current directory
• Ctr-x Ctr-l opens a list of "suggestions based on the lines" in the current file
• Ctr-x Ctr-p will suggest similar patterns - also repeating the same commands will continuously add the next line

Paste commands

• Ctr-r 0 pastes content of register "0 - Like "0p in NORMAL mode
• Ctr-r = evaluates an expression and inserts the result inline

VISUAL mode

• Ctrl-v to enter in Visual select mode
  • o to control the "opposite" corner for selection

Spelling

• :set spell enables the spell checker (:set nospell to turn off) - alternatively :set spell! to toggle on/off
• ]s goes to the next misspelled word - or previous one with [s
• z= opens a list of suggestions
• 1z= tries to autocorrect using the "first" (more likely) occurrence
• zg marks word as good - whitelist word
• zw marks word as bad - blacklist word
• zug and zuw to undo
• :set spelllang=en sets the language for the dictionary

History

• :earlier 1h reverts to version of 1 hour ago
• :later 1h goes forward to 1 hour ahead

Commands

• :!% runs current file in shell

Argdo

• :argdo <command> runs the command for all files in the :args list
  • :argdo %s/monkey/gorilla/ge replaces "monkey" with "gorilla" and ignores errors if no matches found
  • :silent argdo %s/Bob/Alice/ge hides details of the substitutions
• :bufdo <command> does the same for all files in open buffers
• :argdo update saves the changes on all modified files