Vim Cheat Sheet

The mode of Meaning column is the NORMAL mode if not specified otherwise

Key binding	Meaning
:set some_option?	COMMAND show current value of this option
:echo &some_var	COMMAND show current value of this variable
, ;	repeat the last f F t T
.	repeat the last editing command
- Enter	go to beginning of previous, next line
C-c	back to normal mode from insert mode
q<char> + commands + q	macro (chains of commands) record
@<char> @@	play the macro specified; replay the last macro
%	go to matching brackets
$%	at the beginning of for loop, go to the closing braces (work with Java-style braces)
b e w ge	recommended way to move horizontally
w W	next word, next big word (big word are only separated by white spaces)
zt zz zb	position window such that cursor at top, middle, bottom of screen
H M L	position cursor inside window at head, middle last of screen
'.	jump back to last edited line
`.	jump to the last edited position
gi	jump to the last edited position and switch to insert
g; g,	cycle to the previous / next edited position.
`[ `]	beginning/ ending char of changed or yanked text
'[ ']	beginning/ ending line of changed or yanked text
`` ''	jump to previous position / line (work after executing a jump)
R	replace text
^ _	go to the first non-whitespace in line (the latter supports count)
()	beginning of previous, next sentence (separated by dot)
{}	beginning of prev, next paragraph (separated by blank lines)
vaw viw	select word with (without) trailing spaces
viwp	replace word with yanked text
viw"0p	replace word with first yanked text
w s p t	word, sentence, paragraph, tag
vib	select inner block
viB vi{	select curly block
<C-a> <C-x>	increase, decrease number
<C-x><C-D>	complete predifined C preprocessor (rarely used)
zo zc	open close fold
do dp	DIFF take diff from, put diff to other window
:diffu	DIFF update change inside line
<< >>	NORMAL indent, unindent
< >	VISUAL indent, unindent
<C-d> <C-t>	INSERT indent, unindent
~ u U	VISUAL toggle uppercase - lowercase
:123 123G 123gg	COMMAND NORMAL go to line 123
C-f C-b C-d C-u C-e C-y	scroll up down
C-e C-y	INSERT Insert the character which is below/above the cursor. see :h i_CTRL-E :h i_CTRL-Y
m<char> '<char> `<char>	set mark, go to beginning of mark line, go to mark
* # g* g#	find current word forward/backwards; whole word/not whole word
:127,215 s/foo/bar	COMMAND change the first occurrence of foo into bar on each line between 127 and 215
:3,/foo/ ........	COMMAND change apply from line 3 to the occurence of foo
23:	enter line range and enter command mode: from current line to the next 23 lines
:.,/foo/+1 .......	COMMAND change apply from current line to the line after the line containing foo
. , $	COMMAND represent current and last lines respectively
:.,$j	COMMAND from the current line to the last line, join them all into one line
:%	COMMAND same as :1,$ (all the lines)
:.,+21g/foo/d	COMMAND delete any lines containing the string foo from the current one through the next 21 lines"
:.,$v/bar/d	COMMAND from here to the end of the file, delete any lines which DON'T contain the string 'bar'
:....s/foo/bar/g :....s/foo/bar/gc	COMMAND replace foo with bar globally/ globally and ask for each occurence
:.....g/pattern/..... :.....v/pattern/.....	COMMAND apply to lines which match/ not match a pattern
:... d p m j s	COMMAND delete, print, move , join, substitute
:g/re/p	COMMAND globally print lines containing a regular expression (re) (this is grep)
:% g/foo/m$	COMMAND all the foo lines will have been moved to the end of the file. (Note the other tip about using the end of your file as a scratch space). This will have preserved the relative order of all the foo lines while having extracted them from the rest of the lis
:%g/foo/s/bar/zzz/g	COMMAND for every line containing foo substitute all bar with zzz
:'a,'bg/foo/j	COMMAND join any line containing the string foo to its subsequent line, if it lies between the lines between the a and b marks.
:r <filename>	COMMAND inserts the contents of the file named filename at the current line
ma + move to the other end + y`a or d`a	copy or cut an arbitrary selection of text
"add "ap	cut the line into a register and paste from that register
y/foo	copy text from here too the next occurence of foo
/\cfoo /foo\c	match foo, Foo, fOO, FOO, etc
/\Cfoo /foo\C	only match foo.
3J	join the next 3 lines
d2}	delete from here to the end of the 2nd paragraph from here
:! ls ~/Desktop/	COMMAND execute command (list all files on the desktop)
:! subl %	COMMAND open the current file by sublime text
1G!Gsort :1,$!sort	NORMAL COMMAND execute the external sort command on all the lines of this file
:r! ls ~/Desktop/	COMMAND print the results of this command to the text
:so ~/.vimrc :source ~/.vimrc	COMMAND execute all lines of this file (called by default at the beginning)
<C-r> +	INSERT COMMAND print those things
	a - z the named registers
	" the unnamed register, containing the last delete or yank
	0 the yank register
	1-9 the delete register (>= a line)
	- the small delete register (less than a line)
	% the current file name
	# the alternate file name
	* the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
	+ the clipboard contents
	/ the last search pattern
	: the last command-line
	. the last inserted text
	=5*5 insert 25 into text (mini-calculator)
:%s/foo(/foo(bar,/	COMMAND add bar parameter to function foo
:normal dd	COMMAND execute the following text as if it was typed in in normal mode, here we delete line
q: :<C-f> q/	NORMAL COMMAND command, search history
<C-x> <C-u> <C-n> <C-p>	NORMAL INSERT completion (not tried yet)
<C-w>= + count + > < + -	change window size
<C-w><C-o>	make this window the only window
<C-u>	INSERT delete to beginning of line
:verbose set tw? wm?	find out where textwidth and wrapmargin were set last
C-]	Jump to tags
C-O C-I Tab	Jump back / forward in the place list
<C-g> g<C-g>	print current column, line, bytes, %, word count... information
<S-pageUp/Down>	move up/down after seeing the output of an external program (e.g. make, fugitive log, etc)
count + @:	COMMAND execute last ex command
gx	open url

Vim regex

• s/match/subsitute/g: substitute command, replace all matches in a line
• \[ and \]: match square brackets
• \( and \): create matched pattern for reuse later
• \1: the first matched pattern
• .\{-}: shortest match. For longest match use .*
• "\1": substitute with the first matched pattern surrounded with quotes
• \(foo\)\@!: Search everything that is not followed by foo. This is called a negative look-ahead assertion.

Example: change all [XXX], [YYY] into "XXX", "YYY"

Solution: s/\[\(.\{-}\)\]/"\1"/g

Vimscript note

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3776117/what-is-the-difference-between-the-remap-noremap-nnoremap-and-vnoremap-mapping
• https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/9455/why-should-i-use-augroup
• https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/3388/call-a-vim-function-silently
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26708822/why-do-vim-experts-prefer-buffers-over-tabs
• String list syntax:
  • -= removes the value from a string list.
  • += appends the value to a string list.
  • ^= prepends the value to a string list.
• Never put an inline comment to the right of mapping commands, because the " character can be considered to be part of the right hand side of the mapping
• Difference map and noremap:

map j gg
map Q j
noremap W j

j will be mapped to gg. Q will also be mapped to gg, because j will be expanded for the recursive mapping. W will be mapped to j (and not to gg) because j will not be expanded for the non-recursive mapping.

• <expr> means the right hand side should be evaluated. Try removing it to see the effect