Notes On Vim

vi, short for visual editor, is a very useful pre-installed standard text editor in most systems. (A joke: vi is not the six editor.) And vim is a clone of vi, which is short for vi improved.

Open, Save, and Close a file

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# open a file
vim <path to file> # open a specific file
vim # open a new file without a name yet
vim -d <file1> <file2> ... <filen> # diff mode

# save changes
:w # write changes to the file
:sav # save the changed file as other file

# close a file
:e! # back to the last saved version of the file
:q! # close without saving changes
:q # close the file, assuming there is no change

Move in a file

  • move by character, can be combined with number argument
    • h: left one space
    • j: down one line
    • k: up one line
    • l: right one space
  • move in a line
    • 0: head of line
    • ^: first non-blank character of line
    • $: end of line
    • <num>|: <num>-th column of line
  • move by word, can be combined with number argument
    • w: forward by a word
    • W: forward by a word, ignore punctuation
    • b: backward by a word
    • e: forward by a word, at the end of word
    • E: forward by a word, at the end of word, ignore punctuation
    • (: head of current sentence
    • ): end of current sentence
    • {: head of current paragraph
    • }: end of current paragraph
    • [[: head of current section
    • ]]: end of current section
  • move to line
    • <num>G: go to <num>-th line
    • gg: go to top line of file
    • :<num>: go to <num>-th line
    • C-g: display total line number

Screen movement

  • scroll screen:
    • C-f: scroll full screen forward
    • C-b: scroll full screen backward
    • C-d: scroll half screen forward
    • C-u: scroll half screen backward
  • reposition
    • z<Enter>: scroll current line to top
    • z.: scroll current line to middle of screen
    • z-: scroll current line to bottom
  • redraw the screen
    • C-l: redraw the screen
  • move in screen
    • H: move to top of screen
    • M: move to middle of screen
    • L: move to bottom of screen
    • <num>H: move <num> line below top line of screen
    • <num>L: move <num> line above bottom line of screen
  • /<pattern>: search <pattern> forward
  • ?<pattern>: search <pattern> backward
  • n: search next in the same direction
  • N: search next in the opposite direction

Mark

  • m<mark>: mark current position with <mark>
  • '<mark>: move to head of the line which is marked by <mark>
  • <Backquote><mark>: move to the character marked by <mark>
  • <Backquote><Backquote>: return to previous mark
  • '': return to the head of line of previous mark

Edit

  • i: start inserting at current caret position
  • I: insert at head of the current line
  • a: append after the current caret position
  • A: append after the end of current line
  • o: open a blank line below caret
  • O: open a blank line above caret
  • c: change text
    • c<num>w|b: change <num> words, forward or backward
    • c0|$: change to the head or end of the line
    • cc: change the whole line
  • C: change from current caret position to the end of line
  • r: replace current caret position character, no need to press ESC after typing
  • R: replace in overstrike mode
  • s: substitute current caret position character
    • <num>s: substitute <num> characters from current caret position
  • S: substitute the entire line
    • <num>S: substitute <num> line
  • ~: change case

Join

  • J: join current line with the line below it
    • <num>J: join <num> lines

Delete

  • d: delete current caret position character
    • d<num><action>: delete <num> movement actions
    • dd: delete the entire line
  • D: delete to the end of the line
  • x: delete current caret position character

Paste

  • p: paste after current caret position
    • "<num>p: paste from buffer <num>
    • "<name>p: paste from a named buffer
  • P: paste before current caret position

Yank

  • y: yank the selected text
    • y<num><action>: yank <num> movement actions
    • "<name>y: yank to a named buffer
    • yy: yank the entire line
  • Y: yank the entire line

Replace

  • :s/old/new/: replace first occurrence of pattern old with new, on current line
  • :s/old/new/g: replace all occurrence of pattern old with new, on current line
  • :<n1>,<n2>s/old/new/[g]: replace between line <n1> and <n2>, i.e., 1,$ denotes full file
  • :%s/old/new/[g]: replace for every line in the file
  • :s/old/new/c: confirmation
  • :g/pattern/s/old/new/g: limit replacement by pattern, first g denotes for all lines in the file, last g denotes replacement happens globally in the filtered line

Actually, :g denotes for repeating command.

Repeat and Undo

  • .: repeat the last edit command
  • u: undo the last edit command
  • U: undo all edits on the current line

Fold

To preserve folds between sessions, use :mkview and :loadview.

  • zA: toggle state of folds, recursively
  • za: toggle state of one fold
  • zC: close folds, recursively
  • zc: close one fold
  • zO: open folds, recursively
  • zo: open one fold
  • zD: delete folds, recursively
  • zd: delete one fold
  • zE: eliminate all folds
  • zf: create fold from current line to the line denoted by move action
  • <num>zF: create fold covering <num> lines from current line
  • zM: set foldlevel to 0
  • zm: decrement foldlevel
  • zr: increment foldlevel
  • zi: toggle foldenable
  • zN: set foldenable
  • zn: reset foldenable
  • zj: move cursor to start of next fold
  • zk: move cursor to end of previous fold

Other

:set spell
:set spelllang=en,da,de,it
:set spellsuggest=5

To show the suggestions, press z-=