15-131 : Great Practical Ideas for Computer Scientists
vim cheat sheet Allison McKnight (aemcknig@andrew.cmu.edu)
Navigation
hMove left HTop line on screen
jMove down MMiddle line on screen
kMove up LBottom line on screen
lMove right
10j Move down 10 lines
gg First line of the file eThe end of the current word
GLast line of the file bBeginning of current word
:20 Line 20 of the file wBeginning of next word
0Beginning of current line
^First non-whitespace character of current line
$End of current line
%Move to matching parenthesis, bracket or brace
The left, right, up and down arrow keys can also be used to navigate.
Editing
iInsert before current character
aInsert after current character
IInsert at the first non-whitespace character of the line
oInsert a line below the current line, then enter insert mode
OInsert a line above the current line, then enter insert mode
rOverwrite one character and return to command mode
UUndo
Ctrl+R Redo
Opening, closing and saving files
:w Save the current file
:wq Save the current file and close it; exits vim if no open files remain
:w newname Save a copy of the current file as ‘newname,’ but continue editing the original
file
:sav newname Save a copy of the current file as ‘newname’ and continue editing the file
‘newname’
:q! Close a file without saving
:e somefile Opens file in the current buffer
:x Write any changes to the file and close the file
Mode switching
iEnter insert mode
:Enter command mode
REnter replace mode
vEnter visual mode (highlighting)
VEnter visual line mode (highlighting lines)
esc Return to normal mode from insert or replace mode
esc+esc Return to normal mode from command or visual mode
Copy/pasting
Within vim
yYank
c‘Change’; cut and enter insert mode
CChange the rest of the current line
dDelete; cut but remain in normal mode
DDelete the rest of the current line
pPaste after the cursor
PPaste before the cursor
xDelete characters after the cursor
XDelete characters before the cursor
Copy/paste commands operate on the specified range. If in visual mode, that range is the
highlighted text. If in normal mode, that range is specified by a series of modifiers to the
commands:
cw Change one word
c4w Change four words
c4l Change four letters
cc Change current line
4x Change four characters after the cursor
4p Paste five times after the cursor.
Modifiers work similarly for cut, delete, yank and paste.
From system clipboard
:set paste Enter paste mode
:set nopaste Exit paste mode
Ctrl+Shift+V Paste into file, if in paste mode; Command+Shift+V for Mac
