Vim in not so short

Preliminaries

• When vim is not available, you can temporarily use cat or nano as alternatives

• When using a new IDE, you should first learn or configure:
• save
• copy / paste
• duplicate line
• delete word / delete line
• line movement
• navigate forward / back
• undo / redo
• page navigation (page down, page up, center to middle, etc.)
• indent / unindent
• multi-cursor
• search / content search
• input commands (Ctrl + P in VSCode, double Shift in IntelliJ, : in vim…)
• completion, suggestion, parameter hint, hover hint
• go to / peek definition, type, declaration, reference, implementation
• rename symbol / refactor (if available)
• AI controlling: toggle chat box, trigger inline chat…
• tabs / windows management

• Use the :help command to query anything you don’t understand

• :set option? can view current settings

Windows and Tabs

1. Use commands starting with b in Ex (command line) mode for buffer operations:
• bd buffer delete; bwipeout clears more thoroughly
• bn or bnext switch to next buffer
• bp or bprevious switch to previous buffer
• ctrl + ^ switch to the last buffer

1. Ctrl + W + w cycle windows, Ctrl + W + hjkl switch focus left/down/up/right (move cursor)

2. Ctrl + W + = (make window panes equal size)

3. Ctrl + W + + Ctrl + W + Ctrl + W + < Ctrl + W + > (fine-tune window size)

4. :vsp performs vertical split, dividing into two sides

5. :resize 20 sets height to 20 lines; :vertical resize 80 sets width to 80 columns

1. :tabnew opens a new tab, :tabe (edit) opens a tab for editing. Can be followed by filename.

2. :tabn :tabp switch tabs, or use gt gT to switch

3. Display current buffer in new tab: :tab split

4. :tabmove move tab, for example :tabmove 2

5. Batch execution:
• :tabdo {cmd} execute on all tabs, e.g., :tabdo set nocursorline
• :windo {cmd} execute on each window in current tab, e.g., :windo diffthis

1. Type :close :only directly to manage windows

2. Type :tabclose :tabonly to manage tabs

Key Remapping

• <Backspace>

• <C-c> -> Ctrl + C

• <A-c> -> Alt + C

• <Shift>

• <CapsLock>

• <Tab>

• <Enter>

• <Esc>

• <Cmd-> Mac specific

• <Up>

• <Down>

• <Left>

• <Right>

vim Configuration File

Unbound Keys

• Ctrl + D scroll down

• Ctrl + Z suspend Vim

• Ctrl + X decrease number at cursor by 1, in insert mode it’s completion, decrease by 1 is quite useful

• Ctrl + C can be considered

• Ctrl + F scroll forward, in insert mode used to view command history

• Ctrl + W window command, delete one word before cursor

• Ctrl + P completion

• Ctrl + S pause output

• Ctrl + Q same as Ctrl + V, only q alone is for recording macros, VSCode defaults to Add cursor below, multi-cursor editing tool

• Ctrl + Y / E scroll window up/down by 1 line

• Ctrl + T depends on situation

Quick Reference

1. w -> word

2. b -> back

3. e -> end

4. H -> page head; L -> low; M -> middle

5. zz move current line to the middle position

6. Ctrl + U & Ctrl + D half screen move up & down
• Ctrl + F & Ctrl + B full screen move forward & back

7. g -> go (sometimes obviously more than that)
• gn go to next (matched), commonly used
• gi go to (last) insert
• gd go to definition
• gf go to file

8. d -> delete (actually puts deleted content into register); sometimes means down
• dd delete one line

9. x -> dl; X -> dh
• s -> (x + i)
• c -> change (d + i)

10. y -> yank

11. p -> do paste | as paragraph

12. { } -> paragraph

13. f -> find occurrence (char)
• ; -> next occurrence
• , -> last occurrence
• t -> till next occurrence
• F -> backward to occurrence

14. / -> search item with pattern
• n -> next item
• ? -> back search

15. u -> undo; Ctrl + R redo

16. 123… -> as line number / do multiple times

17. i -> do insert | as inner (inside); o -> open a line below; a -> append | around

18. s -> as sentence | do substitute

19. q -> record macro

20. v -> visual

21. s -> surrounding. cs{old}{new}. plugin command
• v S{desire pair} -> surrounding by.

22. J join

23. r replace

Special Characters

1. @ -> execute register content

2. . > as current line | do repeat last change, very commonly used, for repeating edit operations

3. % -> as all lines(all contents); in normal mode represents matching symbols like {[(

4. 0 -> beginning of line
• $ -> end of line
• ^ first meaningful character
• _ first meaningful character (can be operated by g etc.)
• g_ last meaningful character

5. ; repeat last f, F, t, T command. For example, if you used f to find a character, pressing ; will continue to find the next matching character.
• , reverse repeat

6. ' for mark navigation. For example, pressing 'a jumps to the beginning of line of mark ‘a’.

7. ` (backtick) for mark navigation. For example, pressing `a jumps to the exact position of mark ‘a’.

8. ~ change char case.

9. & repeat last substitution command

Modes

1. Normal mode: Enter normal mode when first starting, press i (insert) to enter insert mode, press : to enter command input mode

2. Insert mode: Edit file, press Esc to exit.

3. Command input mode: Input commands, press Esc to exit.

4. Press v to enter visual mode, generally used for selecting paragraphs

Command Structure

1. Normal mode commands are almost based on the verb + adj(count) + obj(motion, text-object) pattern, e.g.: d3j, ca(
• Omitting verb means cursor movement, which can actually be understood as a type of verb.
• Example: 3j, move down 3 lines
• Example: 0, $, these are special characters
• Example: v3w, v only switches mode, doesn’t count as verb, but subsequent behavior without verb is treated as cursor movement
• Special case: Omitting adj. means based on current position, or only operating on one object.
• Example: cw, f{
• Special case: Omitting both adj. and obj. generally means some single character/line shortcuts
• Example: dd, yy, gg
• Example: s, x, ~, u

2. Command line mode has almost no pattern. If anything, they can almost all be categorized as command-like modes.
• verb + obj pattern: :set number, :r file (read file)
• adj + verb pattern: :3,5 d
• adj + verb + obj: :3,5 d0
• obj pattern: :map
• verb pattern: :w, :q
• Special pattern (can be viewed as mode switching): :!command (execute external command)
• Command-like pattern: :s/foo/bar/gc

Repeat Operations

• . for modifications.

• ; for f, etc.

• r means replace

• f sth -> r -> ; -> . -> ; -> . -> … : guess what will happen?

• gn for / etc. Need to operate on current search content once first, then use . to repeat.

Tips

• verb is almost never absent, omitting verb generally means movement (v provides selection function, but still needs to move to some position to trigger)

• At the same time, obj is also almost never absent, omitting obj generally means current position

Commonly used Commands

• :w save

• :q quit

• :q! force quit without saving

• :w filename save file as filename

• :w! filename force save to filename

• :set nu :set number display line numbers, commonly used

• /word search downward (note, no :, when pressing /, command line becomes / mode)
• Press n, N to search next/previous
• ?word search upward

• u and :u undo

• Ctrl + R redo

• x = dl, X = dh

• s = ch

Compound Commands

• :5 d delete line 5, commonly used

• :3,5 d delete lines 3 to 5

• :$ d delete last line of document

• :% d delete all content in document

• :n move m move line n to after line m, commonly used

• :n,n+3 t m copy lines n to n+3 to after line m, commonly used
• Summary: :n,m generally means from line n to line m

• :%s/hello/nihao/g replace all hello with nihao, similar to sed operation
• :s/hello/nihao/g only replace in current line

• :5,8s/hello/nihao/g replace hello with nihao in lines 5-8

Common Shortcuts

Movement

1. Ctrl + O previous position, Ctrl + I next position

2. If you have Home End PageUp and PageDown keys, you can use them directly, adding Ctrl is more convenient
1. PgUp PgDown behavior varies, specifically use with Ctrl and Shift

3. Ctrl + U and Ctrl + D half screen scroll; Ctrl + F and Ctrl + B full screen scroll

4. Ctrl + Up to beginning of line, vice versa

Normal Mode

Cursor Movement

Character-based Movement

• h l move left/right, k j move up/down, arrow keys also work

• Use f to find next character, uppercase for reverse search; using t stops before that character
• Use ; and , to repeat forward/backward search

• ^ move to first non-whitespace position

• g_ find first non-whitespace position from end of line

• Use $ to move to end of line

• Use % to match brackets like ( { [

Word-based Movement

• w move to next word, commonly used, remember as word

• b move to beginning of current/previous word, commonly used, remember as back

• e move to end of current/next word, commonly used, remember as end
• Uppercase W, B, E, gE for including characters after words
• ge move to end of previous word
• 3w can move 3 times

• Use / and ? to search for pattern, use n and N to jump to next/previous

Line-based Movement

• g is the most basic line movement command

• 0 move cursor to beginning of line, $ move cursor to end of line

• Home key to beginning of line, End key to end of line

• G (Shift+G)/gg move cursor to end/beginning of file

• Actually G is go, so you can input 500G or 500gg to locate to line 500, commonly used
• Or directly use :line_number to locate
• gi return to last insert location, commonly used

Block or Screen-based Movement

• { } move by paragraph

• H move to top line of screen; L move to bottom line of screen; M move to middle of screen

Mark-based Movement

• ma set mark a

• 'a jump to beginning of line of mark a

• `a jump to exact position of mark a

• '' jump to beginning of line of previous position, commonly used

• `` jump to exact position of previous position, commonly used

Operation Commands

• c change, d delete, y yank (copy), p paste
• change means delete corresponding content and directly enter insert mode

• gu gU or directly press ~ to change char’s case (commonly used)

• = format, for formatting, need to set code standards in advance, e.g.:

• Use >> for indentation, use > when target is provided

Text Objects (delete content of specific patterns)

• Generally used with c, d

• a -> around, i -> inside

• text-object identifiers:
• w word
• s sentence
• p paragraph
• '"[{< ` corresponding to respective special blocks
• t tag, commonly used in html language, between ><

Copy and Delete

• yy copy current line, commonly used

• dd cut current line, commonly used

• 3dd delete 3 lines, commonly used

• p/P paste content after/before cursor, commonly used

• x delete character at cursor, X delete previous character

• r modify character at cursor

• R enter replace mode

Undo

• u undo, commonly used

• Ctrl + R redo, commonly used

Enter Insert Mode

• i enter insert mode at current position

• a enter insert mode at next character

• A enter insert mode at end of line

• o enter insert mode on next line, often used with G and End, commonly used

• s delete current character and enter insert mode

• S delete current line and enter insert mode

• cw delete next word and enter insert mode

• cb delete previous word and enter insert mode

Insert Mode

Cursor Movement

1. Ctrl + A move cursor to beginning of line, uppercase moves to beginning of document

2. Ctrl + E move cursor to end of line

Text Operations

1. Ctrl + W: Delete one word before cursor.

2. Ctrl + U: Delete all content from current cursor position to beginning of line.

3. Ctrl + T increase indentation to the right

4. Ctrl + D decrease indentation to the left

5. Ctrl + R: Insert register content. After pressing, need to input register identifier, e.g., Ctrl + R, 0 inserts content of register 0.

Completion Features

1. Ctrl + N: Auto-complete next matching word. commonly used

2. Ctrl + P: Auto-complete previous matching word.

3. Ctrl + X, Ctrl + L: Full line completion, shows dropdown menu

4. Ctrl + X, Ctrl + N/P: Word completion based on current file.

5. Ctrl + X, Ctrl + F: Filename completion.

6. Ctrl + X, Ctrl + K: Dictionary lookup completion.

Others

1. Ctrl + C: Exit input mode. Replace Esc, commonly used

2. Ctrl + O: Temporarily switch to normal mode to execute one command, then return to input mode. commonly used

3. What if you press wrong key? In normal mode use Ctrl + O to return to previous position, meaning in input mode press Ctrl + O x2

Visual Mode

• Press v for character selection, V for line selection, Ctrl + V for block selection

• Generally only used for copy-paste, operation speed is slow

: Command Mode

Batch Processing (delete, move, copy, paste)

1. :2,5d a: Delete lines 2 to 5 and save in register a

2. 0 line 0; `# Vim in a Nutshell

3. :.,+3d delete current lint & plus 3 lines

4. In visual mode，:'<,'>d means “delete selected content”

5. @: repeat last : command
• After using q for macro recording we can use @@ repeat it
• After @: , @@ is still available

6. :'<,'>move .
• :m 10 move (current line) to 10 line after

7. :/ looking for last found pattern

Quick Reference

Find and Replace

• :%s/old/new/g: In entire file range, replace all strings matching old with new. Add c to ask before each replacement.

• :s/old/new/g: Replace all old with new in current line.

• :g/pattern/d: Delete all lines matching pattern.

• :'<,'>s/old/new/g: In visual mode selected range, replace all old with new.

• :'<,'>normal command: Execute normal mode command on each line selected in visual mode.

Line Operations

• :d: Delete current line (similar to dd).

• :t .+1: Copy current line and paste to next line.

• :m .+1: Move current line down one line.

• :m .-2: Move current line up two lines.

• :-3,. m .+1: Move 3 lines above current line to below current line

• :-3,.y | :.+1put: Copy above three lines, paste to next line. put creates new line, p pastes at cursor position

sed-like Command Usage

1. Replace all matching patterns at once: :%s/pattern/replacement/gc for entire file range (%), substitute (s) pattern with replacement

2. gc are flags, common flags include:
• g: Global replacement (apply command to all lines)
• c: Ask before each command execution.
• i: Ignore case
• n: Maximum number of replacements
• p: Print results
• v: Invert results
• !: Pass to external tool -> %!sort will sort entire text

3. Explicitly use normal commands in Ex mode. Use norm
• Very useful with v mode
• Example: :'<,'>norm A!, will for content selected in v mode (‘<,’>), uniformly add a “!” at the end of lines (A)

Tips

• Accidentally pressed Ctrl + S? Use Ctrl + Q to release

• It’s best not to use the right numeric keypad for editing, there might be key conflicts

Copy-Paste Issues

Paste Mode

• :set mouse-=a

Register Overview

Basic Registers

• "" - Default register, if you don’t know where copied content went, look here

• "0 - Number 0 register. Stores content of your last yank (copy).

• "- - Small delete register. Stores content of your last delete or change that’s less than one line.

• "1 to "9 - Number registers. Store your recent delete or change history ("1 is most recent, "9 is oldest).

• "a to "z or "A to "Z - Named registers. You can use lowercase letters to store text, uppercase letters to append text to corresponding lowercase register.

Special Registers

• "* and "+ - Clipboard registers. In Vim with clipboard support (usually GUI version Vim or Vim with +clipboard feature), these two registers communicate with system clipboard:
• "* register corresponds to X11’s PRIMARY clipboard (usually the select-to-copy one).
• "+ register corresponds to CLIPBOARD clipboard (usually used with Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V key combinations). Most commonly used.

Using Registers

• Copy to register: You can use "ay to copy to register a, where a is the register name, y is the yank command.
• Almost the same in visual mode

• Paste from register: To paste from register, you can use "ap to paste content of register a, where a is the register name, p is the paste command.

• In insert mode: Use Ctrl + R to call up " symbol

Using Registers in Insert Mode

Using Registers in Terminal

• Use "*y to copy to system’s PRIMARY clipboard.

• Use "+y to copy to system’s CLIPBOARD clipboard.

• Use "*p or "+p to paste from corresponding system clipboard to Vim.

External Commands

Using :! to Execute External Commands

Using :r to Read External Command Output

Using :%! to Process Entire File Content Through External Command

Partial Usage

Macro Recording

1. Use q for macro recording in normal mode
• Give register a name, say a, the full name of this register is @a
• Press q again to end recording after recording is complete
• Type @a to execute macro, @@ to execute last macro, 9@a to execute macro 9 times

2. +1 operation on numbers. <C-a>, can be used with macro recording to write ordered lists:
• 1. sth, then yyp, perform <C-a> on 1, repeat

Other Features

1. Spell check. :set spell! spelllang=en_us

2. :set rnu set relative line numbers. Convenient for jumping