If you’re reading this, you’re probably eager to unlock the power of Vim and rejoice in all the milliseconds saved! And of course impress your friends with your newfound keyboard wizardry. So without further ado, here’s a few tips to get started.
Back to Basics
There’s a million resources on core Vim commands out there so I’ll just quickly cover the absolute essentials here. Don’t forget, Vim commands are case sensitive!
Cursor Navigation
h, j, k, l: Move left, down, up, right
0, $: Jump to the beginning, end of the line
^: Jump to the first non-blank character of the line
w, e: Jump to start, end of the word
b: Jump backwards to the start of the word
gg: Jump to the first line
G: Jump to the last line
}, {: Jump to the next, previous paragraph
Pro tip – The capitalized versions of the w, e, b commands will jump through punctuations.
Common Commands
x: Delete character under cursor
s: Delete character under cursor and enter into insert mode
dd: Delete line
cc: Delete line and enter into insert mode
yy: Yank (copy) line
p: Paste text
I, A: Jump to the start, end of the line and enter into insert mode
u: Undo
^r: Redo
.: Repeat last command
>>: Add indentation to the line
Userful Command Sequences
Now for a few of my most frequently used command sequences. Keep in mind nearly all commands can be preceded with a # to dictate a repeat count. For example, 8dd will delete 8 lines and 4> will add 4 indents to the current selection. There are many variations that can do the same thing, so play around with these! You might discover a combination more to your liking.
ggVG | Select the entire file. Follow it up with d to delete it, c to change it, or y to yank it. |
yi" | Yank the text between the "" quotes. Use ya" if you want to include the quotation marks in the yank. Or da" to delete. |
ci" | Change the text between the "" quotes. |
V}> | Add an indent to the paragraph. Execute V}4> to add 4 indents. |
viWU | Uppercase a word. Use viWu to lowercase. |
d4j | Delete 4 lines. |
