Posted: May 1, 2019
Submitted by: https://www.256kilobytes.com
The Beginner’s Vim Cheat Sheet
All of the Vim commands and tricks that you actually need to know. Hotkeys, tips, and tricks for beginners of all types.
What Is Vim?
Vim is a powerful text editor that allows you to edit text using only the keyboard – no mouse required. This helps to improve efficiency, particularly for software engineers, programmers and developers.
Vim comes with an array of default shortcuts, but you can also edit/add new commands to customize it using the .vimrc file.
Vim Commands Cheat Sheet, Copy-Pasteable
Exiting Vim
:w - Write (Save)
:wq - Write and quit
:q - Quit, fails if unsaved
:q! - Quit, even if unsaved
Modes
ESC - Return to normal mode
i - Insert at cursor position
a - Insert after cursor position
o - Insert on line below cursor
v - Enter visual mode
ctrl+v - Enter visual mode (vertical)
V - Enter visual mode (full lines)
Toggling Case
u [in visual mode] - To lowercase
U [in visual mode] - To uppercase
Undo/Redo
u - Undo
ctrl+r - Redo
Movement
$ - Jump to end of line
^ - Jump to start of line
h - Move left
j - Move down
k - Move up
l - Move right
H - Move to top of screen
M - Move to middle of screen
L - Move to bottom of screen
gg - Move to start of file
G - Move to end of file
420gg - Move to line 420
w - Jump to start of next word
b - Jump to start of prev word
Search
/something - Search for string
n - Jump to next match
N - Jump to prev match
/something\c - Case insensitive search
Copy-Pasting
y [in visual mode] - Copy highlighted text
yy - Copy the current line
d [in visual mode] - Cut highlighted text
dd - Cut the current line
Ctrl+Shift+V - Paste from external clipboard
Find-and-Replace
- Find and Replace All in Document
:%s/find/replace/g
- Find and Replace All on Current Line
:s/find/replace/g [in visual mode]
- Find and Replace All in Highlighted Section
:'<,'>s/find/replace/g [in visual mode]
- Find and Replace All in Document
:%s/address/replace/g
Important Regular Expression (REGEX) Characters
. - Any single character
* - Up to unlimited characters
Original Post: The Beginner’s Vim Cheat Sheet
