Vim Commands (Vim Cheat Sheet)

Global

:h[elp] keyword - open help for keyword
:sav[eas] file - save file as
:clo[se] - close current pane
:ter[minal] - open a terminal window
K - open man page for word under the cursor

Tip Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.

Cursor movement

h - move cursor left
j - move cursor down
k - move cursor up
l - move cursor right
gj - move cursor down (multi-line text)
gk - move cursor up (multi-line text)
H - move to top of screen
M - move to middle of screen
L - move to bottom of screen
w - jump forwards to the start of a word
W - jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
e - jump forwards to the end of a word
E - jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
b - jump backwards to the start of a word
B - jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
ge - jump backwards to the end of a word
gE - jump backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
% - move cursor to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
0 - jump to the start of the line
^ - jump to the first non-blank character of the line
$ - jump to the end of the line
g_ - jump to the last non-blank character of the line
gg - go to the first line of the document
G - go to the last line of the document
5gg or 5G - go to line 5
gd - move to local declaration
gD - move to global declaration
fx - jump to next occurrence of character x
tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x
Fx - jump to the previous occurrence of character x
Tx - jump to after previous occurrence of character x
; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
, - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
} - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
{ - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
zz - center cursor on screen
zt - position cursor on top of the screen
zb - position cursor on bottom of the screen
Ctrl + e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + b - move screen up one page (cursor to last line)
Ctrl + f - move screen down one page (cursor to first line)
Ctrl + d - move cursor and screen down 1/2 page
Ctrl + u - move cursor and screen up 1/2 page

Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.

Insert mode - inserting/appending text

i - insert before the cursor
I - insert at the beginning of the line
a - insert (append) after the cursor
A - insert (append) at the end of the line
o - append (open) a new line below the current line
O - append (open) a new line above the current line
ea - insert (append) at the end of the word
Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + j - add a line break at the cursor position during insert mode
Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + rx - insert the contents of register x
Ctrl + ox - Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x.
Esc or Ctrl + c - exit insert mode

Editing

r - replace a single character.
R - replace more than one character, until ESC is pressed.
J - join line below to the current one with one space in between
gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between
gwip - reflow paragraph
g~ - switch case up to motion
gu - change to lowercase up to motion
gU - change to uppercase up to motion
cc - change (replace) entire line
c$ or C - change (replace) to the end of the line
ciw - change (replace) entire word
cw or ce - change (replace) to the end of the word
s - delete character and substitute text (same as cl)
S - delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)
u - undo
U - restore (undo) last changed line
Ctrl + r - redo
. - repeat last command

Marking text (visual mode)

v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
V - start linewise visual mode
o - move to other end of marked area
Ctrl + v - start visual block mode
O - move to other corner of block
aw - mark a word
ab - a block with ()
aB - a block with {}
at - a block with <> tags
ib - inner block with ()
iB - inner block with {}
it - inner block with <> tags
Esc or Ctrl + c - exit visual mode

Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

Visual commands

> - shift text right
< - shift text left
y - yank (copy) marked text
d - delete marked text
~ - switch case
u - change marked text to lowercase
U - change marked text to uppercase

Registers

:reg[isters] - show registers content
"xy - yank into register x
"xp - paste contents of register x
"+y - yank into the system clipboard register
"+p - paste from the system clipboard register

Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.

Tip Special registers:

0 - last yank
" - unnamed register, last delete or yank
% - current file name
# - alternate file name
* - clipboard contents (X11 primary)
+ - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard)
/ - last search pattern
: - last command-line
. - last inserted text
- - last small (less than a line) delete
= - expression register
_ - black hole register

Marks and positions

:marks - list of marks
ma - set current position for mark A
`a - jump to position of mark A
y`a - yank text to position of mark A
`0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited
`" - go to the position when last editing this file
`. - go to the position of the last change in this file
`` - go to the position before the last jump
:ju[mps] - list of jumps
Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list
Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list
:changes - list of changes
g, - go to newer position in change list
g; - go to older position in change list
Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor

Tip To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe ('). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-blank) of the line holding the mark.

Macros

qa - record macro a
q - stop recording macro
@a - run macro a
@@ - rerun last run macro

Cut and paste

yy - yank (copy) a line
2yy - yank (copy) 2 lines
yw - yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
yiw - yank (copy) word under the cursor
yaw - yank (copy) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
y$ or Y - yank (copy) to end of line
p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
P - put (paste) before cursor
gp - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor and leave cursor after the new text
gP - put (paste) before cursor and leave cursor after the new text
dd - delete (cut) a line
2dd - delete (cut) 2 lines
dw - delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
diw - delete (cut) word under the cursor
daw - delete (cut) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
:3,5d - delete lines starting from 3 to 5

Tip You can also use the following characters to specify the range:
e.g.

:.,$d - From the current line to the end of the file
:.,1d - From the current line to the beginning of the file
:10,1d - From the 10th line to the beginning of the file

:g/{pattern}/d - delete all lines containing pattern
:g!/{pattern}/d - delete all lines not containing pattern
d$ or D - delete (cut) to the end of the line
x - delete (cut) character

Indent text

>> - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth
<< - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth
>% - indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
<% - de-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
>ib - indent inner block with ()
>at - indent a block with <> tags
3== - re-indent 3 lines
=% - re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
=iB - re-indent inner block with {}
gg=G - re-indent entire buffer
]p - paste and adjust indent to current line

Exiting

:w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
:w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo
:wq or :x or ZZ - write (save) and quit
:q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
:q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes
:wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

Search and replace

/pattern - search for pattern
?pattern - search backward for pattern
\vpattern - 'very magic' pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
n - repeat search in same direction
N - repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
:noh[lsearch] - remove highlighting of search matches

Search in multiple files

:vim[grep] /pattern/ {`{file}`} - search for pattern in multiple files

e.g. :vim[grep] /foo/ **/*

:cn[ext] - jump to the next match
:cp[revious] - jump to the previous match
:cope[n] - open a window containing the list of matches
:ccl[ose] - close the quickfix window

Tabs

:tabnew or :tabnew {page.words.file} - open a file in a new tab
Ctrl + wT - move the current split window into its own tab
gt or :tabn[ext] - move to the next tab
gT or :tabp[revious] - move to the previous tab
#gt - move to tab number #
:tabm[ove] # - move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
:tabc[lose] - close the current tab and all its windows
:tabo[nly] - close all tabs except for the current one
:tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q - closes all opened tabs)

Working with multiple files

:e[dit] file - edit a file in a new buffer
:bn[ext] - go to the next buffer
:bp[revious] - go to the previous buffer
:bd[elete] - delete a buffer (close a file)
:b[uffer]# - go to a buffer by index #
:b[uffer] file - go to a buffer by file
:ls or :buffers - list all open buffers
:sp[lit] file - open a file in a new buffer and split window
:vs[plit] file - open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
:vert[ical] ba[ll] - edit all buffers as vertical windows
:tab ba[ll] - edit all buffers as tabs
Ctrl + ws - split window
Ctrl + wv - split window vertically
Ctrl + ww - switch windows
Ctrl + wq - quit a window
Ctrl + wx - exchange current window with next one
Ctrl + w= - make all windows equal height & width
Ctrl + wh - move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wl - move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wj - move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
Ctrl + wk - move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)
Ctrl + wH - make current window full height at far left (leftmost vertical window)
Ctrl + wL - make current window full height at far right (rightmost vertical window)
Ctrl + wJ - make current window full width at the very bottom (bottommost horizontal window)
Ctrl + wK - make current window full width at the very top (topmost horizontal window)

Diff

zf - manually define a fold up to motion
zd - delete fold under the cursor
za - toggle fold under the cursor
zo - open fold under the cursor
zc - close fold under the cursor
zr - reduce (open) all folds by one level
zm - fold more (close) all folds by one level
zi - toggle folding functionality
]c - jump to start of next change
[c - jump to start of previous change
do or :diffg[et] - obtain (get) difference (from other buffer)
dp or :diffpu[t] - put difference (to other buffer)
:diffthis - make current window part of diff
:dif[fupdate] - update differences
:diffo[ff] - switch off diff mode for current window

Tip The commands for folding (e.g. za) operate on one level. To operate on all levels, use uppercase letters (e.g. zA).

Tip To view the differences of files, one can directly start Vim in diff mode by running vimdiff in a terminal. One can even set this as git difftool.

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