schnittchen/vim_survival_cheat.md

## vim_survival_cheat.md

      
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              vim_survival_cheat.md
            
          
    VIM survival and beyond cheatsheet

To brush up beginner knowledge: run vimtutor
Bare minimum

a.k.a. I hate vim but I'm forced to use it:
Everything here starts in "normal mode"!

some commands bring you in "insert mode"

Press i to insert text before cursor, insert some text, finish with ESC


colon brings you to "command mode"

enter :w<enter> to save file
:q<enter> to quit without saving
:q!<enter> to quit, abandoning changes


If unsure which mode your're in, ESC brings you back to normal mode

Essential movements


hjkl character-by-character
^f ^b page-wise up/down
G gg bottom/top line

Poisoned fruit: you can use arrow keys instead of hjkl. Avoid them!
Basic editing


we have already seen i


To insert at the end of line: A


x and X to delete char after/before cursor


dd to delete whole line


J to join line to next one


That's it, the bare minimum to get things done.

Beyond survival

This + that (1)


u and C^R are undo/redo, but only one step unless configured

:help undo


D/C deletes/changes from cursor to end of line

Yanking and pasting

This feature is closest to the "clipboard":
Yanking saves text in a "register". Deleting saves the deleted text in a register.

y + motion, d + motion.
yy and dd yank/delete a line
p / P paste the yanked/deleted text

before/after the cursor
when yanked/deleted line-wise, on previous/next line


Visual modes


v, V (linewise), C^V (block-wise)
then motions to move the boundary
o (and O in block-wise) to switch boundary
finally, a command like c, d, y (insert/delete/yank). Or ESC.

More movements

:help motion.txt will blow your mind!

"find": f<letter> and F<letter> move to next/prev <letter> on line
"till": same with t and T, but stop right before letter
w b move to beginning of next /end of previous word
W B same fo WORDs (white-space separated text)
H M L jump to top/middle/bottom of current screen of text
% jumps to matching bracket (of any kind)
<number>G go to this line
0 and $ go to beginning (non-whitespace) and end of line
( ) sentence forward/back
[ ] paragraph forward/back
/ regular-expression search (vim has its own flavour!)

Regularities and grammar


yy cc dd are line-wise

visual_editing_operation: v (motion)* operator
editing-operation: ([register] [repetition] operator [force] [repetition] (motion | text-object)) | visual-editing-operation
text-object: object | (a or i)


Register: for yanking and pasting, which register to use instead of default. :help registers
Repetition: how many times
Force: v V C^V force character-, line-, blockwise mode
a is "around", i "inside" mode

for text objects defined by delimiters: with vs. without them
for all others: with or without trailing whitespace


Editing operations can be repeated with the powerful and simple ..
Typical:

do a search
do editing operation
repeat search
decide whether to apply op here too
repeat at (2) or (3)

(Text) objects

:help text-objects
These are the objects (without leading a/i)

w W s p words WORDs sentences paragraphs
text quoted in single, double quotes or backticks
brackets (all four kinds)

SUPER USEFUL in programming b/c nesting aware


t HTML/XML tags

In visual mode, text objects (with a/i) extend the selection.
This + that (2)

:set [no]<feature> sets/unsets flags:

feature=number: line numbering
feature=hls|hlsearch search result highighting
feature=paste past mode: disables some syntax rules for pasting as-is from clipboard

Insert mode goodies


C^R" paste previous yank (unless line-wise)

example: ce(C^R")ESC wraps word in brackets


C^N auto-completion from several sources

C^N/C^P ... then <enter> if menu pops up


C^XC^L completes line: massive time-saver!
C^XC^O "omni-completion" (needs language integration)
C^XC^F complete file path

Where to go from here


to get a comprehensive understanding of vim: :help user-manual
to get a good overview of features and discover more motions and bindings, check out this awesome cheat sheet