Eliot's Vim Cheat Sheet

vimcheatsheet.txt

vimcheatsheet.txt
Eliot's Vim Cheat Sheet
Last Updated 2011-08-11

Pick up on vimtutor line 805.

[#] is a placeholder for a number, so an example of [#]w is 2w
[CHAR] is a placeholder for a character, so and example of t[CHAR] is te

invoking vim from the shell:
vim FILE - edit a file in vim
vim FILE1 FILE2 FILE3... - open several files in multiple buffers inside of a single vim instance
gvim -p FILE1 FILE2... - open files in multiple tabs in GVim
vimdiff FILE1 FILE2 - split-open two files showing only changes (highlighted)
view - open vim in read-only mode (useful for reading from STDIN, i.e. "somecommand|view -" )
vimtutor - open the vim interactive tutorial

operators:
d - delete
c - change (delete and switch to insert mode)
i - switch to insert mode before selected character
a - append (switch to insert after character)
A - append at end of line (switch to insert after line)
r - replace character
R - switch to REPLACE MODE (like INSERT mode but you REPLACE characters instead of inserting them)
y - yank (copy) text into the "clipboard"
p - put/paste text AFTER the cursor or, BELOW the current line if you deleted a whole line. The text is either the last thing you deleted or yanked
P - put/paste text BEFORE the cursor or ABOVE the current line
]p - paste after but adjust indent
]P - paste before but adjust indent

movement
w - to beginning of next word
e - to end of current word
0 - to beginning of line
$ - to end of line
t[CHAR] - to just before the next occurance of [CHAR]
T[CHAR] - to just after the previous occurrence of [CHAR]
f[CHAR] - to the next occurrence of [CHAR]
F[CHAR] - to the previous occurrence of [CHAR]
% - to matching parentheses - ), ], or }.
gg - top of file
G - end of file
[#]G or [#]gg - jump to line in file
[#]% - jump to line at percentage length of file
^ - first non-blank character of the line
<CR> (carraige return/enter) - first non-blank character on the next line
- - first non-blank character on previous line
gi - Go to the last place you had inserted and switch to insert mode.

append a # to the movement command to repeat the movement # times, ex:
2w

append an operator to perform that action, eg:
d2w (delete 2 words)
ct< (change the text up until the next < character)
dt% (delete the text in between the matching parentheses

recording keystrokes:
q[CHAR] - begin recording keystrokes to buffer [CHAR]
q - end recording (if in recording mode)
@[CHAR] - refers to commands in recorded buffer, for instance:
10@[CHAR] - repeat the commands stored in (recording) across the next 10 lines

text objects:
Use after a command for movement, or in visual mode.
(try either THIS, or THAT command listed side-by-side for compactness)
aw, aW - ambient word or WORD (see docs)
iw, iW - inner word or WORD (see docs)
as, is - ambient or inner sentence
ap, ip - ambient or inner paragraph
a{, i{ - whole {..} block or text inside it
a(, i( - whole (..) block or just text inside it
a<, i< - whole <..> block or just text inside it
a’, i’ - single-quoted string or just the text inside
a”, i” - double-quoted string or just the text inside. note that these are smart about escaped quotes inside strings
at, it - whole tag block or just text inside (HTML and XML tags)

shortcuts:
dd - delete line
[#]dd - delete # lines
[#]r[CHAR] - replace characters with [CHAR], # times
o - insert a line BENEATH cursor and drop into INSERT mode
O - insert a line ABOVE cursor and drop into INSERT mode
u - undo a change
U - revert an entire line
CTRL+R - redo (why the hell is this one of the only commands in vim that requires a key chord? sigh.)
[#]G - go to line # in the file
CTRL+g - print info about file, current line, etc.
CTRL+o - Navigate backwards in jump history
CTRL+i - Navigate forwards in jump history

misc:
ga - Print the ascii value of the character under the cursor

visual mode:
v - enter visual mode (default - characterwise, single characters at a time)
V - enter linewise visual mode (select whole lines at once)
move cursor to select text.
enter any operator to perform that operation on the selected block of text.
: - enter command mode and auto-append '<,'> which represents the currently selected text
:'<,'>w FILENAME - write selection to any arbitrary file
= - Beautify selected code according to currently loaded syntax rules

visual blockwise mode:
CTRL-v - enter visual block selection mode (a rectangle)
I - insert mode. Type a string and then press ESC. The string will be inserted before each line of the beginning of the blockwise selection
A - append mode. Similar to insert mode, but start by appending a character, especially useful for mass appends to the end of a line.
Use any operator when in visual blockwise mode...

ex commands:
type : to enter a command quickly.
type q: to enter command-line mode which has a command history and is editable like a normal text buffer
combine commands on the same line with a | character

:help - open manual (in a horizontal split view)
:close - close a window (in a split view)
:[#] - go to line # in the file
:w - write (save) changes
:w FILENAME - save as to any arbitrary file
:wq - write changes and quit
SHIFT+ZZ - same as :wq
:q - quit (prompt if there are changes)
:q! - quit without saving
:e - open a file (in a new buffer) for editing
:r FILENAME - retrieve contents of FILENAME and insert BELOW the cursor
:r !command - retrieve the output of command and insert BELOW the cursor - fuckin' cool
:buffers - show open file buffers (think of them like old school tabbed windows)
:bn - switch to next buffer
:bp - switch to previous buffer
:b[#] - switch to buffer number #
:bd - delete (close) current buffer
:marks - view marks in file (file jump history, manual marks)
:!command - execute any arbitrary shell command, ex: ":!php myfile.php"
:syntax on - Enable syntax highlighting
:set syntax=[LANGUAGE] - Set programming language for syntax highlighting
CTRL-b - Beginning of line in command mode
CTRL-e - End of line in command mode
CTRL-r CTRL-w - Copy word under the cursor into the command line - see :help c_CTRL-R_CTRL-W
CTRL-r - Paste word from register. Type a number after to use a numbered register. See :help c_CTRL-R 


window:
CTRL-W _ (set window to max height)

tabs:
vim -p - From the command line, -p opens all files in tabs instead of buffers
gt     - Next tab
gT     - Previous tab
:qa    - Quit all tabs
:wqa   - Save and quit all tabs
:tabdo - Run ANY command across ALL open tabs! ex ":tabdo w" to save all tabs, ":tabdo normal @a" to run macro A on all tabs, etc.


search:
type / to begin entering a search (that will look forwards from the cursor position)
type ? to begin entering a search that will look backwards from the cursor position
type a search term & enter to start the search
append \c for a case insensitive search, ex: /searchterm\c 
append \C for a case sensitive search
* - find next instance of whole world under cursor
# - find previous instance of whole word under cursor
g* - find next instance of partial word under cursor
g# - find previous instance of partial word under cursor
:set ignorecase - set case-insensitive search as default
:vimgrep /pattern files - use vim to search over the specified files and display results in the quickfix window (see :help quickfix)
:grep /pattern files - use system rep to search, works the same as vimgrep except that it expects grep-style searches, etc.

commands for after starting a search:
n - snap the cursor to the next result.
N - snap the cursor to the previous result
CTRL-o - go back to where you last came from
CTRL-i - go forwards in history

search and replace:
:s - substitute command
:s/old/new - replace the first occurance of "old" with "new" on the current line
:s//new - replace the first occurance of whatever you last searched for with "new"
:s/old/new/g - replace all occurances of "old" with "new" on the current line ('global' replace)
:#,#s/old/new/g - replace all occurances of "old" with "new" in the line number range between #,#, ex: 10,25
:'<,'>s/old/new - replace all occurances of "old" with "new" in the range selected in visual mode (this gets entered automatically when going into command mode from visual mode)
:%s/old/new/g - replace all occurances of "old" with "new" across the ENTIRE FILE
:%s/old/new/gc - replace all occurances of "old" with "new" across the ENTIRE FILE and prompt to CONFIRM each change
:%s'\(<old>\)'\1<new>'gc - the stuff between \( and \)  (the "atom") gets grouped as a backreference you can use in your replace by number, eg. \1 will be replaced with atom 1.
CTRL-r / - Copy text from the last search into the command buffer! Whooooo!

Regex:
\%d[NUM] - Also x, o, u.. Match a character code, see :help /\%x and ga
\r - use in replace to insert a return character, regardless of file encoding

Global ex commands:
These can be used to run macros and all sorts of shit
:g/old/d - remove all lines matching pattern old
:%g/old/normal [somecommand] - run some normal vim keystrokes on all occurrences
:%g/.../normal @[CHAR] - run recorded macro in register [CHAR] on all occurrences
:v/old/ - like g, but execute command on all lines that DON'T match old

if the sequence you need to perform is complex, go ahead and make a macro, and to run it in the desired spots, do :%g/.../normal @q  (assuming q is the macro register)

Plugins:
NERDTree:
fn-F2 - open NERDTree (custom shortcut)
o - open the file in a new buffer or open/close directory
t - open the file in a new tab
i - open the file in a new horizontal split
s - open the file in a new vertical split
p - go to parent directory
r - refresh the current directory
NERDTreeFind - Ex command to select current file in NERDTree

Other resources:
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialAdvanced_vi.html
http://www.slideshare.net/ZendCon/vim-for-php-programmers-presentation
http://mwop.net/blog/134-exuberant-ctags-with-PHP-in-Vim

Tips:
http://dailyvim.blogspot.com/2008/03/delete-lines-matching-keyword.html
http://vim.1045645.n5.nabble.com/copy-paste-in-command-line-td1176926.html
http://durgaprasad.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/find-replace-non-printable-characters-in-vim/