yy - Copies a line
yw - Copies a word
y$ - Copies from where your cursor is to the end of a line
v - Highlight one character at a time using arrow buttons or the h, k, j, l buttons
V - Highlights one line, and movement keys can allow you to highlight additional lines
p - Paste whatever has been copied to the unnamed register
d - Deletes highlighted text
dd - Deletes a line of text
dw - Deletes a word
D - Deletes everything from where your cursor is to the end of the line
d0 - Deletes everything from where your cursor is to the beginning of the line
dgg - Deletes everything from where your cursor is to the beginning of the file
d$ – Delete from the current cursor position till the end of the line
dG - Deletes everything from where your cursor is to the end of the file
x - Deletes a single character
u - Undo the last operation; u# allows you to undo multiple actions
Ctrl + r - Redo the last undo
. - Repeats the last action
0 - always moves the cursor to the "first column"
^ - moves the cursor to the first non-blank character of a line
:%s/[pattern]/[replacement]/g - This replaces all occurrences of a pattern without confirming each one
:%s/[pattern]/[replacement]/gc - Replaces all occurrences of a pattern and confirms each one
:tabedit file - opens a new tab and will take you to edit "file"
gt - move to the next tab
gT - move to the previous tab
#gt - move to a specific tab number (e.g. 2gt takes you to the second tab)
:tabs - list all open tabs
:tabclose - close a single tab
You can also ‘vi -p file1 file2’ to start off in tab mode with two files
VIM
File management
| :e | reload file |
|---|---|
| :q | quit |
| :q! | quit without saving changes |
| :w | write file |
| :w {file} | write new file |
| :x | write file and exit |
Navigation
| k | up |
|---|---|
| h | left |
| l | right |
| j | down |
| w | next start of word |
| W | next start of whitespace-delimited word |
| e | next end of word |
| E | next end of whitespace-delimited word |
| b | previous start of word |
| B | previous start of whitespace-delimited word |
| 0 | start of line |
| $ | end of line |
| gg | go to first line in file |
| G | go to end of file |
| gk | move down one displayed line |
| gj | move up one displayed line |
Insertion
| a | append after the cursor |
|---|---|
| A | append at the end of the line |
| i | insert before the cursor |
| I | insert at the beginning of the line |
| o | create a new line under the cursor |
| O | create a new line above the cursor |
| R | enter insert mode but replace instead of inserting chars |
| :r {file} | insert from file |
Editing
| u | undo |
|---|---|
| yy | yank (copy) a line |
| y{motion} | yank text that {motion} moves over |
| p | paste after cursor |
| P | paste before cursor |
| delete a character | |
| dd | delete a line |
| d{motion} | delete text that {motion} moves over |
Search and replace
| :s/foo/bar/ | replace the first match of 'foo' with 'bar' on the current line only |
|---|---|
| :s/foo/bar/g | replace all matches (`g` flag) of 'foo' with 'bar' on the current line only |
| :%s/foo/bar/g | replace all matches of 'foo' with 'bar' in the entire file (`:%s`) |
| :%s/foo/bar/gc | ask to manually confirm (`c` flag) each replacement |
Multiple windows
| :e filename | edit another file |
|---|---|
| :split filename | split window and load another file |
| ctrl-w up arrow | move cursor up a window |
| ctrl-w ctrl-w | move cursor to another window (cycle) |
| ctrl-w_ | maximize current window |
| ctrl-w= | make all equal size |
| 10 ctrl-w+ | increase window size by 10 lines |
| :vsplit file | vertical split |
| :sview file | same as split, but readonly |
| :hide | close current window |
| :only | keep only this window open |
| :ls | show current buffers |
| :b 2 | open buffer #2 in this windo |