VIM QUICK REFERENCE CARD
Basic movement
h l k j . . . . . . . . . . . . character left, right; line up, down
b w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . word/token left, right
ge e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . end of word/token left, right
{ } . . . . . . . . . . . . . beginning of previous, next paragraph
( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . beginning of previous, next sentence
0 ^ $ . . . . . . . . . . . . beginning, first, last character of line
nG ngg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . line n, default the last, first
n%. . . . . . . .percentage n of the file (n must be provided)
n| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . column n of current line
%. . . . .match of next brace, bracket, comment, #define
nH nL . . . . . . . . . . . . line n from start, bottom of window
M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . middle line of window
Insertion & replace → insert mode
i a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . insert before, after cursor
I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . insert at beginning, end of line
gI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . insert text in first column
o O. . . . . . open a new line below, above the current line
rc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . replace character under cursor with c
grc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . like r, but without affecting layout
R . . . . . . . . . . . . . replace characters starting at the cursor
gR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . like R, but without affecting layout
cm . . . . . . . . . . . . . change text of movement command m
cc or S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . change current line
C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . change to the end of line
s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . change one character and insert
~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . switch case and advance cursor
g~m . . . . . . . . . . . . switch case of movement command m
gum gUm . . . lowercase, uppercase text of movement m
<m >m . . . . . . . . . . shift left, right text of movement m
n<< n>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . shift n lines left, right
Deletion
x X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete character under, before cursor
dm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete text of movement command m
dd D . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete current line, to the end of line
J gJ . . . . . . . . join current line with next, without space
:rd←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete range r lines
:rdx←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete range r lines into register x
Insert mode
ˆVc ˆVn . . . . . . . . . insert char c literally, decimal value n
ˆA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . insert previously inserted text
ˆ@. . . . . . .same as ˆA and stop insert → command mode
ˆRx ˆRˆRx . . . . . . . . . insert content of register x, literally
ˆN ˆP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . text completion before, after cursor
ˆW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . delete word before cursor
ˆU . . . . . . . . . . delete all inserted character in current line
ˆD ˆT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . shift left, right one shift width
ˆKc
1
c
2
or c
1
←c
2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . enter digraph {c
1
, c
2
}
ˆOc . . . . . . . . . . . . execute c in temporary command mode
ˆXˆE ˆXˆY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . scroll up, down
hesci or ˆ[ . . . . . . . . . abandon edition → command mode
Copying
"x . . . . . . . . . . . . use register x for next delete, yank, put
:reg←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . show the content of all registers
:reg x←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . show the content of registers x
ym . . . . . . . . . . . yank the text of movement command m
yy or Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yank current line into register
p P . . . . . . . . . . . put register after, before cursor position
]p [p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . like p, P with indent adjusted
gp gP . . . . . . . . . . . like p, P leaving cursor after new text
Advanced insertion
g?m . . . . . . . . . . perform rot13 encoding on movement m
nˆA nˆX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +n, −n to number under cursor
gqm . . . . . . . format lines of movement m to fixed width
:rce w←- . . . . . . . . . . . center lines in range r to width w
:rle i←- . . . . . . . left align lines in range r with indent i
:rri w←- . . . . . . right align lines in range r to width w
!mc←- . filter lines of movement m through command c
n!!c←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . filter n lines through command c
:r!c←- . . . . . . . . . filter range r lines through command c
Visual mode
v V ˆV . . start/stop highlighting characters, lines, block
o . . . exchange cursor position with start of highlighting
gv . . . . . . . . . . . start highlighting on previous visual area
aw as ap . . . . . . . select a word, a sentence, a paragraph
ab aB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . select a block ( ), a block { }
Undoing, repeating & registers
u U . . . . . . undo last command, restore last changed line
. ˆR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .repeat last changes, redo last undo
n. . . . . . . repeat last changes with count replaced by n
qc qC . . . .record, append typed characters in register c
q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . stop recording
@c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . execute the content of register c
@@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . repeat previous @ command
:@c←- . . . . . . . . . . . execute register c as an Ex command
:rg/p/c←-. . . . . . . . . . execute Ex command c on range r
b where pattern p matches
Complex movement
- + . . . . . . . . . line up, down on first non-blank character
B W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . space-separated word left, right
gE E . . . . . . . . . . . end of space-separated word left, right
n . . . . . . . . down n − 1 line on first non-blank character
g0 gm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . beginning, middle of screen line
g^ g$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . first, last character of screen line
gk gj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . screen line up, down
fc Fc . . . . . . . . . . next, previous occurence of character c
tc Tc . . . . . . . . . . . . . before next, previous occurence of c
; , . . . . . . . . . . . . . repeat last fFtT, in opposite direction
[[ ]] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . start of section backward, forward
[] ][ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . end of section backward, forward
[( ]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . unclosed (, ) backward, forward
[{ ]} . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . unclosed {, } backward, forward
[m ]m . . . . . . . . start of backward, forward Java method
[# ]#. unclosed #if, #else, #endif backward, forward
[* ]* . . . . . . . . . . start, end of /* */ backward, forward
Search & substitution
/s←- ?s←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . search forward, backward for s
/s/o←- ?s?o←- . . . . . search fwd, bwd for s with offset o
n or /←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . repeat forward last search
N or ?←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . repeat backward last search
# * . . . search backward, forward for word under cursor
g# g* . . . . . . . . . . . . . same, but also find partial matches
gd gD . . . local, global definition of symbol under cursor
:rs/f/t/x←- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . substitute f by t in range r
b x : g—all occurrences, c—confirm changes
:rs x←- . . . . . . . . . . . repeat substitution with new r & x