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
• 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
• :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 😡 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)