Vim

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General

Commands and actions are extended with modifiers and repeated using counts

<action><modifier>
<count><modifier>

Modifiers can be combined with counts to duplicate the modified action

<action><count><modifier>

Example: Delete three words (d delete action, 3 count, w word modifier)

d3w

Example: Move forward three words (3 count, w word modifier)

3w

Navigation

Move cursor Up / Down, Left / Right

j = Up
k = Down
h = Left
l = Right

h (Left) j (Up) k (Down) l (Right)

Move by a number of lines or characters (eg. up 4 lines)

<count>j
4j

Move cursor to top / middle / bottom (High / Middle / Bottom) of page

H
M
L

Go to start of file

gg

Go to end of file

G

Page down / up (f = forward, b = back) and half page (d = down, u = up)

CTRL + f
CTRL + b

CTRL + d
CTRL + u

Go to line number

<line> SHIFT + G
<line> gg
:<line> ENTER

Move to start, start (whitespace) and end of line

^
0
$

Move by word boundary to start of word forward / backward (delimiter / whole word)

w
W
b
B

Move by word boundary to end of word (delimiter / whole word)

e
E

Edit

Insert text under / after the cursor

i
a

Insert text at the beginning / end of the current line

I
A

Insert a line above / below and insert text

o
O

Insert text at the end of the word

ea

Repeat the last action or edit

.

Join line below to the current one

J

Transpose two letters (performs forward delete/cut then paste)

xp

Complete current partial word based on existing word list (cycle through next / previous entries)

CTRL + N
CTRL + P

Delete

Delete text in front / behind cursor

x
X

Delete current line (also cuts text to clipboard)

dd

Delete to beginning / end of current word or start of next word

db
de
dw

Delete to start / end of line

d^
d$

Apply modifier to delete command (eg. Delete three words)

d<modifier><command>
d3w

Change

Change entire line (combines delete and insert)

cc

Change a word to beginning / end or start of next work

cb
ce
cw

Delete to start / end of line

c^
c$

Change from the cursor to the end of the line

C

Delete character / line at cursor and substitute text

s
S

Replace a single character (without triggering insert mode)

r<character>

Replace multiple characters in replace mode

R<type>

Search

Search forward / backwards for text

/<search-string>
?<search-string>

Next / previous search result

n
N

Next / previous word under cursor

*
#

Replace

Replace all instances of string old with string new in current file

:%s/old/new/g

Replace all instances with per item confirmation

:%s/old/new/gc

Cut, Copy, Paste

Cut current line

dd

Copy the current line

yy

Copy to beginning / end of current word or start of next word

ye
yw
yb

Copy to start / end of line

y^
y$

Paste buffer after / before cursor

p
P

Paste multiple instances of the copied text

<num>p
5p

Visual Mode

Visual selection mode by character / line (to apply commands to)

v
V

Exit visual selection mode

ESC

Move visual marker to opposite end of selection

o

Visual section with block select

CTRL + v

Cut text visually marked

d

Copy text visually marked (yank)

y

Replace selected text

c

Undo / Redo

Undo edits and changes

u

Redo edits and changes

CTRL+R

Revert last change to original state

U

Save / Quit

Save file

:w

Quit vim (normal, without saving / no prompt)

:q
:q!

Write and quit

:wq

Editing Multiple Files

Edit a file in a new view/buffer (Tab key to display filenames in current directory)

:e <file-name>

Go to next file (buffer next)

:bnext
:bn

Go to previous file (buffer previous)

:bprev
:bp

Remove file from editor view/buffer (buffer delete)

:bd

Open file in a new split view of the current window

:sp <file-name>

Configuration

Enable / disable line numbers

:set number
:set nu
:set nonumber
:set number!
:set nonu
:set nu!

Set editor to paste mode (to retain pasted formatting)

:set paste

Set highlight search results or disable highligh

:set hlsearch
:set nohlsearch

Split Windows

Split window horizontally

ctrl + ws

Split window vertically

ctrl + wv

Switch between windows

ctrl + ww

Quit active window

ctrl + wq