VIM Notes

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VIM Notes

Writing down about all my vim tips here. It will be updated regularly

Modes

Vim has different modes to manipulate the text. Normal Insert and Visual are the main modes.

Normal Mode

Default or natural resting state. All the commands are running there to manipulate the text.

Insert Mode

Mode to edit add and correct text. Where you can type.

  • Ctrl + h Delete back one char.
  • Ctrl + w Delete a word.
  • Ctrl + u Delete to beginning of the line.
  • Ctrl + [ Change to normal mode.
  • Ctrl + o Insert Normal mode.
  • Ctrl + r, {register} is used to paste the in insert mode from register specified.

Insert Normal Mode

Just one command we can execute from the Insert mode.
Ctrl + o, zz will move the current line to the center.

Visual Mode

Easy to manipulate in character level, line level and rectangular blocks. Many operations and commands will be work similar to Normal mode.
v will change in to the visual mode char level.
V will change in to the visual mode line level.
Ctrl + v will change in to the visual mode block level. But in windows Ctrl + q will make it to block visual mode.
o will toggle the free end in the visual mode.

Basic Actions

  • hjkl - for moving around
  • w - jump a word.
  • $ - at the end of line
  • ^ - beginning of the line.

Advanced Movements

  • . ` - jump to last change position.
  • ma - Mark the current curser location as “a”.
  • a` - Jump to mark named as “a”.
  • :marks - List all marks.

Append

  • a is used for appending.
  • A for appending to the end of the line. $a is another way to achieve this.

Insert

  • i is used for inserting.
  • I is used for inserting in the first of line. ^i is equivalent to this.

Dot to repeat

  • . will repeats last executed action. Will repeating the last action VIM will consider all changes inside an insert mode to exit as single action.
  • It will repeat every keystroke inside the insert mode.

Undo

  • u for undoing. From the moment we enter Insert mode until we return to Normal mode, everything we type (or delete) counts as a single change.

Delete

  • d id used for deleting a character.
  • dd will delete the whole line.
  • dw will delete a word.
  • daw will delete a word including the space around it.
  • diw will delete a word not without the space.

Finding a char using f and t

  • fx will find the char x in the line to find the next match use ;
  • , will use the last character search.

Indentation

  • > is used for indentation.
  • < left shift
  • = Auto indentation.
  • >G will increases the indentation from the current line until the end of the file.

Yank

  • copy from current line to the n’th line
    1. y20G this will yank from current line to 20th line.
    2. :.,20y same with range, :[range]y[ank] [x].
    3. "[register]y will copy to the register specified. eg : "*y - Will copy to system clipbord(register *).

Simple increment and Decrement

  • Ctrl + a will increment the number under the cursor.
  • Ctrl + x will decrement the number under the cursor.

Search and Replace

:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags] [count] format for the search and replace command.

Flags

  • c confirm on each substitution.
  • g replace all occurrences.
  • i ignore case for pattern.

:%s\old\new\g : will replace the “old” with “new” in all document.

AutoComplete in vim

  • Auto word completion
  • Auto line completion
  • Auto file completion

Registers

Registers are essentially the names memory spaces in VIM to save and re-use the texts. Registers are being accessed by ".

  • "ry - will yank the selected text to register named “r”.
  • "rp - will paste the content in register “r” in normal mode.
  • Ctrl + r - will paste the data from register “r”.

Common registers

  1. * - System clipboard.

Macro

Sessions

Sessions are used to save the current state of vim and restore it when you needed.

  • :mks is used to create a session for your vim editor.
    eg: :mks ~\vimsessions\bar.vim
  • :source is used to restore the session which you saved.
    eg: :source ~\vimsessions\bar.vim

VIM plugins

Vim-OrgMode

Plain List:

  • <localleader> cl or <CR> - insert plainlist item below
  • <localleader> cL or <C-S-CR> - insert plainlist item above

Checkboxes:

  • <localleader> cc - toggle status
  • <localleader> cn or <CR> - insert checkbox below
  • <localleader> cN or <C-S-CR> - insert checkbox above

Dates:

  • <localleader> sa - insert date
  • <localleader> si - insert inactive date

<localleader> is \ for by default.

Split Screen

with the <C-w> key

  • <Ctrl-w>n - :new horizontal split (editing a new empty buffer)
  • <Ctrl-w>s - :split window horizontally (editing current buffer)
  • <Ctrl-w>v - :vsplit window vertically (editing current buffer)
  • <Ctrl-w>c - :close window
  • <Ctrl-w>o - close all windows, leaving :only the current window open
  • <Ctrl-w>w - go to next window
  • <Ctrl-w>p - go to previous window
  • <Ctrl-w><Up> - go to window above
  • <Ctrl-w><Down> - go to window below
  • <Ctrl-w><Left> - go to window on left
  • <Ctrl-w><Right> - go to window on right
  • <C-w> <C-r> - To swap the two parts of a split window

Window size commands

  • Ctrl+W +/- - increase/decrease height (ex. 20+)
  • Ctrl+W >/< - increase/decrease width (ex. 30<)
  • Ctrl+W _ - set height (ex. 50_)
  • Ctrl+W | - set width (ex. 50|)
  • Ctrl+W = - equalize width and height of all windows
    Resizing will happen only by one characters.

Buffer

  • :new will create a split window with an unnamed buffer.
  • :badd filename will add the file to the bufferlist.
  • :enew will open one in the current window.
  • :vnew will open one in a vertically split window.
  • :tabnew will open one in a new tab.
  • :bn will change to next buffer.
  • :bp will change to previous buffer.
  • :br will change to starting buffer list.
  • :bf will change to first buffer.
  • :ls will list all the buffers.
  • :bd will Delete the buffer , also we can specify the buffer id too.

Random hacks

  • :r !date /t will add the current date.
  1. http://www.rayninfo.co.uk/vimtips.html