- Basic Vim commands
The most simple commands allow you to open and close documents as well as saving them. As with most other text editors, there are protections in place to help you avoid exiting the editor without having saved what you’re working on.
:help [keyword] - Performs a search of help documentation for whatever keyword you enter
:e [file] - Opens a file, where [file] is the name of the file you want opened
:w - Saves the file you are working on
:w [filename] - Allows you to save your file with the name you’ve defined
:wq - Save your file and close Vim
:q! - Quit without first saving the file you were working on
- Vim commands for movement
When using movement commands, you can put a number in front of them to make Vim complete a command multiple times. For example, 5h will move your cursor five spaces to the left, and 90j will put your cursor at the beginning of the 90th line down from where your cursor currently is.
h - Moves the cursor to the left
l - Moves the cursor to the right
j - Moves the cursor down one line
k - Moves the cursor up one line
H - Puts the cursor at the top of the screen
M - Puts the cursor in the middle of the screen
L - Puts the cursor at the bottom of the screen
w - Puts the cursor at the start of the next word
b - Puts the cursor at the start of the previous word
e - Puts the cursor at the end of a word
0 - Places the cursor at the beginning of a line
$ - Places the cursor at the end of a line
) - Takes you to the start of the next sentence
( - Takes you to the start of the previous sentence
} - Takes you to the start of the next paragraph or block of text
{ - Takes you to the start of the previous paragraph or block of text
Ctrl + f - Takes you one page forward
Ctrl + b - Takes you one page back
gg - Places the cursor at the start of the file
G - Places the cursor at the end of the file
# - Where # is the number of a line, this command takes you to the line specified
- Vim commands for editing
Those who use Vim tend to use the term “yank” where most people would use the terms copy and paste. Therefore, the command for copying a word is yw, which stands for yank word, and the command for pasting whatever has been copied is p, meaning put. If you look up additional commands in the future, it can be confusing if you don’t know what yank and put mean when using Vim.
You also have two options for how to select text. You can either use commands like dd, which deletes a single line, and yy, which copies a single line, or you can highlight text and then copy it to the unnamed register. The paste commands work the same whether you’ve highlighted text or used a command to automatically copy it.
As with movement commands, putting a number in front of the command can increase the number of times a task is completed. For instance, putting a number in front of yy will increase the number of lines copied, so 5yy will copy five lines.
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
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
- Vim commands for searching text
Like many other text editors, Vim allows you to search your text and find and replace text within your document. If you opt to replace multiple instances of the same keyword or phrase, you can set Vim up to require or not require you to confirm each replacement depending on how you put in the command.
/[keyword] - Searches for text in the document where keyword is whatever keyword, phrase or string of characters you’re looking for
?[keyword] - Searches previous text for your keyword, phrase or character string
n - Searches your text again in whatever direction your last search was
N - Searches your text again in the opposite direction
:%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
- Vim commands for working with multiple files
You can also edit more than one text file at a time. Vim gives you the ability to either split your screen to show more than one file at a time or you can switch back and forth between documents. As with other functions, commands make going between documents or buffers, as they’re referred to with Vim, as simple as a few keystrokes.
:bn - Switch to next buffer
:bp - Switch to previous buffer
:bd - Close a buffer
:sp [filename] - Opens a new file and splits your screen horizontally to show more than one buffer
:vsp [filename] - Opens a new file and splits your screen vertically to show more than one buffer
:ls - Lists all open buffers
Ctrl + ws - Split windows horizontally
Ctrl + wv - Split windows vertically
Ctrl + ww - Switch between windows
Ctrl + wq - Quit a window
Ctrl + wh - Moves your cursor to the window to the left
Ctrl + wl - Moves your cursor to the window to the right
Ctrl + wj - Moves your cursor to the window below the one you’re in
Ctrl + wk - Moves your cursor to the window above the one you’re in
- Marking text (visual mode)
Visual mode allows you to select a block of text in Vim. Once a block of text is selected you can use visual commands to perform actions on the selected text such as deleting it, copying it, etc.
v - starts visual mode, you can then select a range of text, and run a command
V - starts linewise visual mode (selects entire lines)
Ctrl + v - starts visual block mode (selects columns)
ab - a block with ()
aB - a block with {}
ib - inner block with ()
iB - inner block with {}
aw - mark a word
Esc - exit visual mode
Once you’ve selected a particular range of text, you can then run a command on that text such as the following:
d - delete marked text
y - yank (copy) marked text
> - shift text right
< - shift text left
~ - swap case (upper or lower)
- Tab pages
Just like any browser, you can also use tabs within Vim. This makes it incredibly easy to switch between multiple files while you’re making some code changes instead of working in one single file, closing it, and opening a new one. Below are some useful Vim commands for using tab pages:
: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
Simple Vim workflow example
If you haven’t had a chance to play around with Vim much yet, you might be wondering what a simple workflow looks like when using it. It’s relatively simple:
- Open a new or existing file with
vim filename. - Type
ito switch into insert mode so that you can start editing the file. - Enter or modify the text with your file.
- Once you’re done, press the escape key
Escto get out of insert mode and back to command mode. - Type
:wqto save and exit your file.
Of course, there is so much more you can do with Vim, however as a beginner, the above steps are what a simple Vim workflow looks like.