vim-tips.md

I love vim

Vim Visual Mode

• v% if the cursor is on the starting/ending parenthesis
• vib if the cursor is inside the parenthesis block
• vi" for double quotes
• vi' for single quotes
• vi{ / viB for curly block
• gv reselect last visual selection

Indenting

• == reselect last visual selection
• = in visual mode, indents the selected block
• gg=G go to beginning of the buffer (gg) and indents (=) until the end of buffer (G)
• < and > indents a block (in visual mode) to left or right. Press '.' to repeat last indenting and 'u' to undo

Smart movements

• * and # search for the word under the cursor forward/backward
• w to the next word
• W to the next space-separated word
• b / e to the begin/end of the current word. (B / E for space separated only)
• gg / G jump to the begin/end of the file
• % jump to the matching { .. } or ( .. ), etc...
• { / } jump to next paragraph
• '. jump back to last edited line
• nG jump to line n
• L jump to the bottom of the screen ("low")
• H jump to the top of the screen ("high")
• M jump to the middle of the screen ("middle")
• C-o jump back
• C-i jump forward
• zt move this line to the top of the screen ("top")
• zb move this line to the bottom of the screen ("bottom")
• zz move this line to the middle of the screen ("ziddle?")

Smart Finding and Replacing

• /search_pattern find next match. Examples "/function" or "/\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}" to locate some date like "1981-06-13"
• ?search_pattern find match backward
• n repeat the next '/' or '?' command
• N same as 'n' but in reverse direction
• %s/text/other/ replace 'text' by 'other' in the whole document (some commands accepts ranges and % stands for the whole document range - see ':h range')
• :s/text/other/ replace 'text' by 'other' in the current line. Actually, any character can be used instead of '/', like 's.7/11/2010.11/7/2010.'
• :'<,'>s/text/other/ replace 'text' by 'other' in the last visual selection. '< and '> are the markers for the beginning and ending of the visual selection. Pressing ':' while on visual mode, these markers are automatically inserted in the command line.
• & repeat last substitution command
• Multiple files

# bad
arr = Array.new
hash = Hash.new

# good
arr = []
hash = {}

Quick editing commands

• I insert at the begin
• a / A append to next / append to end
• o / O open a new line after/before the current
• v / V visual mode (to select text!)
• Shift+R replace text
• C change remaining part of line
• dd delete current line (actually, moves it to Vim internal clipboard)
• D delete until the end of the line
• dw delete from current cursor until the end of the word under cursor
• diw delete inner word (the entire word under the cursor)
• db delete until the beginning of the word or a word backward if the cursor is already in the beginning of some word
• ds', ds", ds{, ds[, ds( delete surrounds ('', "", {}, (), [])
• dst delete surrounding tag
• di', di", di{, di[, di( delete content inside the given surround
• da', da", da{, da[, da( delete all content of the given surround, including the surround characters
• dit delete inner tag content
• cs work like ds but replacing the surround instead of deleting them. For instance, ci"' will turn "text" into 'text'
• yss* apply surround around the entire line. Ex. yss' will apply an apostrophe around the line, while yss will surround the line with a div tag.
• s* adds a surround while on visual mode (click and drag with mouse or press 'v' to ender visual mode and use the movement commands)
• ys applies surround around the region described by the movement command. Ex. With cursor under "word" ysiw results in word
• c, cw, ciw, cb, ci* works like the delete commands but finish the command on insert mode (c stands for change)
• c, cw, ciw, cb, ci* works like the delete commands but finish the command on insert mode (c stands for change)
• \c toggle line (or block in visual mode) commenting
• ggdG [d]eletes entire buffer - from beginning [gg] to end [G] of the document

Combining Commands

• cW change till end of word
• 3cW change 3 words
• BcW to begin of full word, change full word
• ciW change inner word
• ci" change inner between ".."
• ci( change text between ( .. )
• 4dd delete 4 lines
• 3x delete 3 characters
• 3s substitute 3 characters

Folding

• :set foldmethod=syntax fold by syntax definitions
• :set foldmethod=indent old by indentation
• zc close the current fold
• zo open the current fold
• zM close all folds
• zr open one level of folds
• zR open all folds
• zj move to the next fold
• zk move to the previous fold
• zm close one level of folds
• zn disable folding
• zN re-enable folding

Useful Programmer Commands

• r replace one character (e.g. rd replaces the current char with d)
• ~ changes case
• Ctrl+A / Ctrl+X increments/decrements a number
• . repeat last command (a simple macro)
• = indent line (specify a range, or use visual mode)

Buffers

• bufdo refresh all files in buffer from disk

Write File Readonly

• w !sudo tee %

Macro Recording

• Press q[ key ] to start recording
• Then hit q to stop recording
• The macro can be played with @[ key ]

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• http://vimcommands.github.io/