Vim tips & tricks

Save and exit

Just hit ZZ.

Undo | redo

Un-do with u. Re-do with CTRL r.

Type . in command mode to repeat last executed command.

Moving faster

• Move to start of previous paragraph or code block: {.

• Move to end of next paragraph or code block: }.

• Move upwards: CTRL u.

• Move downwards: CTRL d.

• Move forward one screenful: CTRL f.

• Move backward one screenful: CTRL b.

• Jump back to the previous buffer (file): CTRL ^.

• Jump back to the previous (older) location: CTRL o.

• Jump forward to the next (newer) location: CTRL i.

• Move to the first line in a file: gg.

• Move to the last line in a file: G.

• Move to start of line: 0.
• Move to first character of line: ^.

• Move to end of line: $.

• Move to start of next word: w.
• Move backward to beginning of word: b.
• Move to end of word: e.

Wrap lines

It is ok to wrap lines, add to your vim config

set wrap

Then just use gj or gk to move on a wrapped line.

Sort lines

Select the lines you want to sort, for example do:

1. Place cursor on the first line and start selection with SHIFT V.
2. Go down to the last line, for example using J.

Then sort lines with : sort.

To sort and remove duplicates to : sort u.

Registers

Hey, multiple clipboards are available: to see them type ESC :reg. Let’s say you want to copy a line into a specific register: "kyy will yank the current line into register “k. If you later want to paste register “k you can do this: "kp. Easy, huh?

Marks

Create a mark labeled as a: ma.

Go to mark a: 'a.

Usually I create a mark labeled as m: typing mm and then 'm is faster.

Use capital letters to create marks across files, e.g. mA.

List marks with command :marks.

Macros

1. Start recording a macro labeled as a: qa.
2. Execute a sequence of commands you want to repeat.
3. Stop recording macro: q.

Invoke your macro labeled as a: @a.

Usually I create a macro labeled as q, so I just type qq to start recording, q to stop recording and @q to invoke it.

Note also that you can launch macro n times, for example to execute my macro ten times, I do 10@q.

Split window

Split window and open another file: :split path/to/file.

Split window and open current directory: :split .

Split window to a file relative to current open file. This will expand to current file directory: :split %:p:h TAB. You can also add this map to your config map ,s :split <C-R>=expand("%:p:h") . "/" <CR> (credits here[https://stackoverflow.com/a/1708936]).

Tabs

To open a new tab you can do :tabnew but it is more common to open a new tab moving the cursor on a file name and pressing t (for example with NERDTree or Ack).

Go to next tab: gt.

Buffers

See listed buffers with :ls, the for example to open buffer number 2, do :b2. Go to previous or next buffer with :bprev and :bnext. Adding the following to your vim config

:nnoremap gb :bnext<CR>

let you cycle throw buffers with gb.

Change or delete inside

The command logic is, c(hange)i(inside)x(something) or d(delete)i(inside)x(something). For example:

• ciw change inside word; diw delete inside word.
• cip change inside paragraph; diw delete inside paragraph.
• cit change inside tag; dit delete inside tag.

Place cursor on a word, then ciw to change it or diw to delete it.

Place a cursor inside a paragraph, then cip to change it or dip to delete it.

Place a cursor inside an HTML tag, for example

<ul>
  <li>place cursor here</li>
</ul>

then cit to change it or dit to delete it.

Move inside single quotes and type ci', for example if you have

some 'quoted content'

then you move cursor inside the 'quoted content' and type ci' you will get

some ''

and you can start typing to replace previous 'quoted content' with something else.

It also work with other enclosing characters, for example, to change content inside square brackets, do ci[.

If you want just to delete content use d instead of c, for example if you have

function (parameter) {
  // some code
}

and you place the cursor inside parenthesis and type di(, or also di) you will get

function () {
  // some code
}