[NEW] Vim cheatsheet | vim – Pickpeup

Vim is a very efficient text editor. This reference was made for Vim 8.0. For shortcut notation, see :help key-notation .

Getting started

Exiting

Shortcut
Description

:qa
Close all files

:qa!
Close all files, abandon changes

:w
Save

:wq / :x
Save and close file

:q
Close file

:q!
Close file, abandon changes

ZZ
Save and quit

ZQ
Quit without checking changes

Navigating

Shortcut
Description

h j k l
Arrow keys

<C-U> / <C-D>
Half-page up/down

<C-B> / <C-F>
Page up/down

Words

Shortcut
Description

b / w
Previous/next word

ge / e
Previous/next end of word

Line

Shortcut
Description

(zero)
Start of line

^
Start of line (after whitespace)

$
End of line

Character

fc
Go forward to character c
Fc
Go backward to character c

Document

Shortcut
Description

gg
First line

G
Last line

:n
Go to line n
nG
Go to line n

Window

Shortcut
Description

zz
Center this line

zt
Top this line

zb
Bottom this line

H
Move to top of screen

M
Move to middle of screen

L
Move to bottom of screen

Search

Shortcut
Description

n
Next matching search pattern

N
Previous match

*
Next whole word under cursor

#
Previous whole word under cursor

Tab pages

Shortcut
Description

:tabedit [file]
Edit file in a new tab

:tabfind [file]
Open file if exists in new tab

:tabclose
Close current tab

:tabs
List all tabs

:tabfirst
Go to first tab

:tablast
Go to last tab

:tabn
Go to next tab

:tabp
Go to previous tab

Editing

Shortcut
Description

a
Append

A
Append from end of line

i
Insert

o
Next line

O
Previous line

s
Delete char and insert

S
Delete line and insert

C
Delete until end of line and insert

r
Replace one character

R
Enter Replace mode

u
Undo changes

<C-R>
Redo changes

Exiting insert mode

Shortcut
Description

Esc / <C-[>
Exit insert mode

<C-C>
Exit insert mode, and abort current command

Clipboard

Shortcut
Description

x
Delete character

dd
Delete line (Cut)

yy
Yank line (Copy)

p
Paste

P
Paste before

"*p / "+p
Paste from system clipboard

"*y / "+y
Paste to system clipboard

Visual mode

Shortcut
Description

v
Enter visual mode

V
Enter visual line mode

<C-V>
Enter visual block mode

In visual mode

Shortcut
Description

d / x
Delete selection

s
Replace selection

y
Yank selection (Copy)

See Operators for other things you can do.

Operators

Usage

Operators let you operate in a range of text (defined by motion). These are performed in normal mode.

d
w

Operator
Motion

Operators list

Shortcut
Description

d
Delete

y
Yank (copy)

c
Change (delete then insert)

>
Indent right

<
Indent left

=
Autoindent

g~
Swap case

gU
Uppercase

gu
Lowercase

!
Filter through external program

See :help operator

Examples

Combine operators with motions to use them.

Shortcut
Description

dd
(repeat the letter) Delete current line

dw
Delete to next word

db
Delete to beginning of word

2dd
Delete 2 lines

dip
Delete a text object (inside paragraph)

(in visual mode) d
Delete selection

See: :help motion.txt

Text objects

Usage

Text objects let you operate (with an operator) in or around text blocks (objects).

v
i
p

Operator
[i]nside or [a]round
Text object

Text objects

Shortcut
Description

p
Paragraph

w
Word

s
Sentence

[ ( { <
A [], (), or {} block

' " `
A quoted string

b
A block [(

B
A block in [{

t
A XML tag block

Examples

Shortcut
Description

vip
Select paragraph

vipipipip
Select more

yip
Yank inner paragraph

yap
Yank paragraph (including newline)

dip
Delete inner paragraph

cip
Change inner paragraph

See Operators for other things you can do.

Diff

Shortcut
Description

gvimdiff file1 file2 [file3]
See differences between files, in HMI

Misc

Folds

Shortcut
Description

zo / zO
Open

zc / zC
Close

za / zA
Toggle

zv
Open folds for this line

zM
Close all

zR
Open all

zm
Fold more (foldlevel += 1)

zr
Fold less (foldlevel -= 1)

zx
Update folds

Uppercase ones are recursive (eg, zO is open recursively).

Navigation

Shortcut
Description

%
Nearest/matching {[()]}
[( [{ [<
Previous ( or { or <
])
Next

[m
Previous method start

[M
Previous method end

Jumping

Shortcut
Description

<C-O>
Go back to previous location

<C-I>
Go forward

gf
Go to file in cursor

Counters

Shortcut
Description

<C-A>
Increment number

<C-X>
Decrement

Windows

z{height}<Cr>
Resize pane to {height} lines tall

Shortcut
Description

:tag Classname
Jump to first definition of Classname

<C-]>
Jump to definition

g]
See all definitions

<C-T>
Go back to last tag

<C-O> <C-I>
Back/forward

:tselect Classname
Find definitions of Classname

:tjump Classname
Find definitions of Classname (auto-select 1st)

Case

Shortcut
Description

~
Toggle case (Case => cASE)

gU
Uppercase

gu
Lowercase

gUU
Uppercase current line (also gUgU)

guu
Lowercase current line (also gugu)

Do these in visual or normal mode.

Marks

Shortcut
Description

`^
Last position of cursor in insert mode

`.
Last change in current buffer

`"
Last exited current buffer

`0
In last file edited

''
Back to line in current buffer where jumped from

``
Back to position in current buffer where jumped from

`[
To beginning of previously changed or yanked text

`]
To end of previously changed or yanked text

`<
To beginning of last visual selection

`>
To end of last visual selection

ma
Mark this cursor position as a
`a
Jump to the cursor position a
'a
Jump to the beginning of the line with position a
d'a
Delete from current line to line of mark a
d`a
Delete from current position to position of mark a
c'a
Change text from current line to line of a
y`a
Yank text from current position to position of a
:marks
List all current marks

:delm a
Delete mark a
:delm a-d
Delete marks a, b, c, d
:delm abc
Delete marks a, b, c

Misc

Shortcut
Description

.
Repeat last command

]p
Paste under the current indentation level

:set ff=unix
Convert Windows line endings to Unix line endings

Command line

Shortcut
Description

<C-R><C-W>
Insert current word into the command line

<C-R>"
Paste from “ register

<C-X><C-F>
Auto-completion of path in insert mode

Text alignment

:center [width]
:right [width]
:left

See :help formatting

Calculator

Shortcut
Description

<C-R>=128/2
Shows the result of the division : ‘64’

Do this in insert mode.

Exiting with an error

:cq
:cquit

Works like :qa, but throws an error. Great for aborting Git commands.

Spell checking

Shortcut
Description

:set spell spelllang=en_us
Turn on US English spell checking

]s
Move to next misspelled word after the cursor

[s
Move to previous misspelled word before the cursor

z=
Suggest spellings for the word under/after the cursor

zg
Add word to spell list

zw
Mark word as bad/mispelling

zu / C-X (Insert Mode)
Suggest words for bad word under cursor from spellfile

See :help spell

Also see