Vim Cheat Sheet - Modes, Motions, Edits, Plugins

Modes

Esc

Return to Normal mode (the home base)

i

Insert mode at cursor

a

Insert mode after cursor

I

Insert at start of line

A

Insert at end of line

o

New line below, enter Insert

O

New line above, enter Insert

v

Visual (character) mode

V

Visual Line mode

Ctrl+v

Visual Block mode (column selection)

R

Replace mode (overwrites)

:

Ex command mode (e.g. :w, :q)

Save & Quit

:w

Write (save)

:w <file>

Write to a different file

:q

Quit (fails if unsaved changes)

:q!

Quit, discarding changes

:wq

Write and quit

:x

Write (only if changed) and quit

ZZ

Same as :x (Normal mode shortcut)

ZQ

Same as :q! (Normal mode shortcut)

:wa

Write all open buffers

:qa

Quit all

Cursor Motion

h j k l

Left, down, up, right

w

Forward to next word start

b

Back to previous word start

e

Forward to word end

0

Start of line

^

First non-blank char on line

$

End of line

gg

Top of file

G

Bottom of file

42G

Jump to line 42

:42

Same: jump to line 42

{ }

Previous/next paragraph (blank-line separated)

%

Jump to matching bracket / paren

Ctrl+u

Half page up

Ctrl+d

Half page down

Ctrl+f

Full page down (forward)

Ctrl+b

Full page up (back)

f<c>

Forward to next occurrence of char on line

F<c>

Backward to previous occurrence

t<c>

Forward UNTIL char (stops one before)

;

Repeat last f/F/t/T

Editing

x

Delete char under cursor

X

Delete char before cursor (backspace)

dd

Delete (cut) line

5dd

Delete 5 lines

dw

Delete word

d$

Delete to end of line (same as D)

d0

Delete to start of line

dG

Delete to end of file

cc

Change (delete and enter Insert) line

cw

Change word

C

Change to end of line

r<c>

Replace single char with c

~

Toggle case of current char

yy

Yank (copy) line

yw

Yank word

y$

Yank to end of line

p

Paste after cursor

P

Paste before cursor

u

Undo

Ctrl+r

Redo

.

Repeat last change

J

Join current line with next

>>

Indent line right

<<

Indent line left

==

Auto-indent line

Text Objects (combine with d, c, y, v)

iw

Inner word (diw = delete word)

aw

A word (with surrounding whitespace)

i" or i'

Inside quotes (ci" = change inside quotes)

i( or i)

Inside parentheses

i[ or i]

Inside brackets

i{ or i}

Inside braces

it / at

Inside / around HTML/XML tag

ip / ap

Inside / around paragraph

Pattern to internalize: {operator}{count}{motion}. d2w = delete 2 words. y3j = yank 3 lines down. c$ = change to end of line. Once this clicks, every other Vim trick gets cheap.

Search

/pattern

Search forward

?pattern

Search backward

n

Next match

N

Previous match

*

Search forward for word under cursor

#

Search backward for word under cursor

:noh

Clear search highlights

:set hlsearch

Highlight search results

:set incsearch

Incremental (live) search

Search & Replace

:s/foo/bar/

Replace first match on current line

:s/foo/bar/g

Replace all on current line

:%s/foo/bar/g

Replace all in file

:%s/foo/bar/gc

Replace all with confirmation

:%s/foo/bar/gi

Replace all, case-insensitive

:5,15s/foo/bar/g

Replace on lines 5-15

:'<,'>s/foo/bar/g

Replace in visual selection (auto-filled if selected first)

Splits & Tabs

:split

Horizontal split

:vsplit

Vertical split

Ctrl+w h/j/k/l

Move between split panes

Ctrl+w =

Equal-size all panes

Ctrl+w q

Close current pane

Ctrl+w o

Close all but current pane

:tabnew

New tab

gt

Next tab

gT

Previous tab

Buffers (open files)

:e file

Open file in current window

:ls

List open buffers

:bn

Next buffer

:bp

Previous buffer

:b 3

Switch to buffer 3 (use :ls to see numbers)

:bd

Close current buffer

Registers

"ay

Yank into register a

"ap

Paste from register a

"+y

Yank into system clipboard (if compiled with +clipboard)

"+p

Paste from system clipboard

:reg

Show all register contents

"_d

Delete into the "black hole" (don't pollute paste register)

Marks

ma

Set mark a at cursor

'a

Jump to line of mark a

`a

Jump to exact position of mark a

''

Jump back to position before last jump

`.

Jump to last edit position

:marks

Show all marks

Macros

qa

Start recording macro into register a

q

Stop recording

@a

Replay macro a

@@

Replay last macro

100@a

Replay macro 100 times (handy for batch transforms)

Visual Mode Operations

d

Delete selection

y

Yank selection

c

Change selection

>

Indent right

<

Indent left

u / U

Lowercase / Uppercase selection

~

Toggle case

o

Move to other end of selection

Useful Settings (~/.vimrc)

:set number

Show line numbers

:set relativenumber

Relative line numbers (great with motions)

:set tabstop=4

Tab width

:set expandtab

Use spaces instead of tabs

:set ignorecase

Case-insensitive search

:set smartcase

Case-sensitive when search has uppercase

:set clipboard=unnamedplus

Use system clipboard by default (Linux)

:syntax on

Syntax highlighting