vim.md

Most Used Vim Commands

Navigation Essentials

• h, j, k, l - left, down, up, right
• H, M, L - move to top, middle, bottom of screen
• w - jump to start of next word
• b - jump to start of previous word
• 0 - jump to start of line
• ^ - jump to first non-blank character of line
• $ - jump to end of line
• g_ - jump to last non-blank character of line
• gg - go to top of file
• 5gg - go to line 5
• G - go to bottom of file
• 4j - move down 4 lines / 4k - move up 4 lines
• Ctrl+b - page up / Ctrl+f - page down
• Ctrl+d - move half page down / Ctrl+u - move half page up

Insert Mode

• i - insert before cursor / a - insert after cursor
• o - insert new line below / O - insert new line above
• A - insert at end of line / I - insert at start of line
• Esc - exit insert mode

Editing

• u - undo
• Ctrl+r - redo
• dd - delete line
• s - delete character and enter insert mode
• 5dd - delete 5 lines
• yy - copy line
• p - paste after cursor
• P - paste before cursor
• x - delete character
• r - replace character
• cw - change word
• cc - change entire line
• ci" - change text inside quotes
• ci' - change text inside single quotes
• ci( - change text inside parentheses
• ci{ - change text inside curly braces
• ci< - change text inside tags
• . - repeat last command
• J - join current line with next line

Visual Mode

• v - start visual mode
• V - start line-wise visual mode
• Ctrl+v - start block-wise visual mode
• aw - mark a word
• a( - a block with ()
• a{ - a block with {}
• a< - a block with <> tags
• i( - inner block with ()
• i{ - inner block with {}
• i< - inner block with <> tags
• y - copy selected text
• d - cut selected text
• p - paste selected text
• yaw - copy a word
• > - indent selected text
• < - unindent selected text
• ~ - toggle case of selected text
• u - change marked text to lowercase
• U - change marked text to uppercase

Search

• / - search forward
• ? - search backward
• n - next search result
• N - previous search result
• :%s/old/new/g - replace all occurrences
• :noh - remove search highlighting

File Operations

• :w - save file
• :q - quit
• :wq or :x - save and quit
• :q! - quit without saving

Multiple Files

• :e filename - edit a file
• :sp filename - open file in horizontal split
• :vsp filename - open file in vertical split
• Ctrl+w h/j/k/l - navigate between splits

Other Useful Commands

• zz - center cursor on screen
• >> - indent line
• << - unindent line
• ci" - change text inside quotes
• % - jump to matching bracket