Vim

Record some usages about Vim.

Platform: macOS

Modal editing

Vim has the following operation modes:

• Normal for moving around a file and making edits
• Insert for inserting text
• Replace for replacing text
• Visual (plain, line, or block) for selecting blocks for text
• Command-line for running command

Keystrokes have different meanings in different operating modes. For example, the letter x in insert mode will just insert a literal character x, but in Normal mode, it will delete the character under the cursor, and in Visual mode, it will delete the selection.

Command-Line

Command mode can be entered by typing : in Normal mode.

• :q quit (close window)
• :w save
• :wq save and quit
• :ls show open buffers
• :help {topic} open help
  • :help :w opens help for the :w command
  • :help w opens help for the w movement

Movement

• Basic movement:
  • h (move left)
    • {number}h move cursor to left {number} steps
  • l (move right)
    • {number}l move cursor to right {number} steps
  • j (move down line)
    • {number}j move cursor to down {number} lines
  • k (move up line)
    • {number}k move cursor to up {number} lines
• Words
  • w (jump to next word)
    • {number}w move cursor to next {number} words
  • b (jump to beginning of word)
  • e (jump to end of word)
• Lines
  • 0 (jump to the begin of the line)
  • ^ (jumpt to first non-blank character)
  • & (jump to end of the line)
• Screen
  • H (jump to top of the screen)
  • M (jump to middle of the screen)
  • L (jump to the bottom of the scree)
• Scroll
  • Ctrl+u (scroll up)
  • Ctrl+d (scroll down)
• File
  • gg (jump to the begin of the file)
  • G (jump to the end of the file)

Selection

Visual model:

• Visual: v
• Visual Line: V
• Visual Block: Ctrl-V

Can use movement keys to make selection.

Edit

• i enter Insert mode

  • o insert line below
  • O insert line above

• x delete character (equal to dl)

• u to undo

• Ctrl+r to redo

• Copy (must in Normal model)

  • yy to copy entire line
  • {number}yy to copy up {number} lines (include current line)
  • yaw to copy a word with it's trailing whitespace
  • yiw to copy a word without its trailing withspace
  • y$ to copy everying right of the cursor to the end of the line
  • y^ to copy everying left of the cursor to the start of the line

• Past

  • p to paste

• Delete

  • d {motion} delete {motion}

    • dw delete word
    • d& delete to the end of the line
    • d0 delete to the beginning of the line
    • {number}dd delete the following {number} lines (e.g 3dd will delete the following 3 lines include the current line)
    • dl delete the current selected charcter

  • Delete multiple lines

  Deleting multiple lines on a specific pattern is as follows:

  :g<pattern>/d

  The global command ( g ) tells the delete command ( d ) to delete all lines containing the <pattern> .

  use the exclamation mark ! to delete the lines not matching the pattern:

  :g!<pattern>/d

  • :g/foo/d - Delete all lines containing the stirng foo.

  • :g!/foo/d - Delete all lines not containing the string foo.

  • :g/^\s*$/d - Remove all blank lines. Remove the blank lines that have zero or more whitespace characters (\s*).

Insert mode

• i insert before the cursor
• a insert after the cursor
• I insert at the beginning of the line
• A insert at the end of the line

Search

The basic steps to perform a search in Vim are as follows:

• Type / (to search backward) or ? (to search forward) to start search

• Type the search pattern

• Press Enter to persorm search

• Press n to find the next occurrence or N to find the previous occurrence.

To ignore the case sensitive, append the \c at the search pattern.

To browse the search history ,type / or ? and use the arrow up/down keys to search history.

Replace

The substitute command has the following syntax:

😒/<old>/<new>/options

1. In a Single Line

😒/<old>/<new>/g

This replace the <old> with <new> in the current line.

2. All Occurrence

:%s/<old>/<new>/g

This replace the <old> with <new> in the every line of the file.

3. Case-Insensitive

:%s/<old>/<new>/gi

We can perform case-insensitive search by adding the i option at the end.

4. With Specific Lines

The basic syntax:

:start_line_number, end_line_number s/<old>/<new>g

For example:

:2, 3 s/hello//gi

The above command will replace hello (case-insensitive) with empty string between 2 to 3 lines.

Practices

1. How to insert a string insert- before each line?

The original file test has the following content:

2.3.4.5
12.3.4.6
99.3.44.55
4.5.5.3

The steps are as follows:

• Type vim test at your command line
• Type Ctrl+v to enter Visual block mode
• Type G to jumpt the first character at the end of the file
• Type I to enter the insert mode
• Type insert-
• Type ESC to exit the Visual block mode

How to insert a string -insert after each line?

The original file test has the following content:

2.3.4.5
12.3.4.6
99.3.44.55
4.5.5.3

The steps are as follows:

• Type vim test at your command line
• Type Ctrl+v to enter Visual block mode
• Type G to jumpt the first character at the end of the file
• Type $ to select all the content
• Type A to enter the insert mode (insert at the end)
• Type -insert
• Type ESC to exit the Visual block mode

Reference

Messing Semester- Editors (Vim)

Vim Cheat Sheet

Search and Replace in Vim