Essentials

Steps

Copy and Paste a Whole Line

Detailed

This is a brief summary of the key shortcuts and acts as a reference. It is taken from the contents of the file when running the below command in the terminal:

$ vimtutor

Text Editing - Deletion

x: Delete the character under the cursor

Text Editing - Insertion

i: Insert text

Text Editing - Append

a: Append text

Deletion Commands

d$ : Delete to the end of the line, INCLUDING the last character

de : Delete to the end of the current word, INCLUDING the last character

db : Delete to the beginning of the current word, EXCLUDING the first character

dw : Delete until the start of the next word, EXCLUDING its first character

Motions

$ : Move the cursor to the end of the line, INCLUDING the last character

e : Move the cursor to the end of the current word, INCLUDING the last character

b: Move the cursor to the beginning of the current word, EXCLUDING the first character

w : Move the cursor until the start of the next word, EXCLUDING its first character

Count For A Motion

N$ : Move the cursor N lines to the end of the line, INCLUDING the last character

Ne : Move the cursor N words forward to the end of the current word, INCLUDING the last character

Nb : Move the cursor N words forward to the beginning of the current word, EXCLUDING the first character

Nw : Move the cursor N words forward until the start of the next word, EXCLUDING its first character

Count For A Deletion

dN$ : Delete N lines to the end of the line, INCLUDING the last character

dNe : Delete N words to the end of the current word, INCLUDING the last character

dNb : Delete N words to the beginning of the current word, EXCLUDING the first character

dNw : Delete N words until the start of the next word, EXCLUDING its first character

Operating On Lines

dd : Delete a whole line

dNd : Delete N whole lines

Undo Command

u: Undo last command

Nu: Undo last N commands

U: Fix a whole line

ctrl-r: Redo command

Put Command

p: Put previously deleted text after the cursor

Replace Command

rX: Replace the character at the cursor with X

Change Operator

ce: Change until the end of the word. Deletes the word and places us in Insert mode.

The change operator is used with the same motions as delete (d).

Cursor Location And File Status

ctrl-g: Show location in the file and the file status

NG: Move to N line in the file

G: Move to the bottom of the file

gg: Move to the start of the file

Search Command

/: Followed by a phrase to search for the phrase

n: Search for the same phrase again

N: Search for the same phrase again in the opposite direction

?: Followed by a phrase to search for the phrase in the backward direction

ctrl-o: Go back where you come from

ctrl-i: Go forward where you come from

Matching Parenthesis Search

%: Find a matching ),], or }

Substitute Command

:s/old/new: Substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’ only for the first occurrence

:s/old/new/g: Substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’ globally in the line

:#,#:s/old/new: Substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’, where #,# are the line numbers of the range of lines where the substitution is to be done

:%s/old/new/g: Substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’ for every occurrence in the whole file

:%s/old/new/gc: Substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’ for every occurrence in the whole file with a prompt whether to substitute or not

How To Execute An External Command

:!COMMAND: Followed by an external command to execute that command

Writing Other Files

:w FILENAME: Save the changes made to the text into a file named FILENAME

Selecting Text To Write

TODO: VIM Checkpoint

Resources

• https://vim.rtorr.com/