Vim cheat sheet

Cursor movement

h - move cursor left
j - move cursor down
k - move cursor up
l - move cursor right
H - move to top of screen
M - move to middle of screen
L - move to bottom of screen
w - jump forwards to the start of a word
W - jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
e - jump forwards to the end of a word
E - jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
b - jump backwards to the start of a word
B - jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
ge - jump backwards to the end of a word
gE - jump backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
% - move cursor to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
0 - jump to the start of the line
^ - jump to the first non-blank character of the line
$ - jump to the end of the line
g_ - jump to the last non-blank character of the line
gg - go to the first line of the document
G - go to the last line of the document
5gg or 5G - go to line 5
gd - move to local declaration
gD - move to global declaration
fx - jump to next occurrence of character x
tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x
Fx - jump to the previous occurrence of character x
Tx - jump to after previous occurrence of character x
; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
, - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
} - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
{ - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
zz - center cursor on screen
zt - position cursor on top of the screen
zb - position cursor on bottom of the screen
Ctrl + e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + b - move screen up one page (cursor to last line)
Ctrl + f - move screen down one page (cursor to first line)
Ctrl + d - move cursor and screen down 1/2 page
Ctrl + u - move cursor and screen up 1/2 page

Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.

Insert mode - inserting/appending text

i - insert before the cursor
I - insert at the beginning of the line
a - insert (append) after the cursor
A - insert (append) at the end of the line
o - append (open) a new line below the current line
O - append (open) a new line above the current line
ea - insert (append) at the end of the word
Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + j - add a line break at the cursor position during insert mode
Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode
Ctrl + rx - insert the contents of register x
Ctrl + ox - Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x.
Esc or Ctrl + c - exit insert mode

Editing

r - replace a single character.
R - replace more than one character, until ESC is pressed.
J - join line below to the current one with one space in between
gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between
gwip - reflow paragraph
g~ - switch case up to motion
gu - change to lowercase up to motion
gU - change to uppercase up to motion
cc - change (replace) entire line
c$ or C - change (replace) to the end of the line
ciw - change (replace) entire word
cw or ce - change (replace) to the end of the word
s - delete character and substitute text (same as cl)
S - delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)
u - undo
U - restore (undo) last changed line
Ctrl + r - redo
. - repeat last command

Marking text (visual mode)

v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
V - start linewise visual mode
o - move to other end of marked area
Ctrl + v - start visual block mode
O - move to other corner of block
aw - mark a word
ab - a block with ()
aB - a block with {}
at - a block with <> tags
ib - inner block with ()
iB - inner block with {}
it - inner block with <> tags
Esc or Ctrl + c - exit visual mode

Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

Visual commands

> - shift text right
< - shift text left
y - yank (copy) marked text
d - delete marked text
~ - switch case
u - change marked text to lowercase
U - change marked text to uppercase

Registers

:reg[isters] - show registers content
"xy - yank into register x
"xp - paste contents of register x
"+y - yank into the system clipboard register
"+p - paste from the system clipboard register

Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.

Tip Special registers:

0 - last yank
" - unnamed register, last delete or yank
% - current file name
# - alternate file name
* - clipboard contents (X11 primary)
+ - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard)
/ - last search pattern
: - last command-line
. - last inserted text
- - last small (less than a line) delete
= - expression register
_ - black hole register

Marks and positions

:marks - list of marks
ma - set current position for mark A
`a - jump to position of mark A
y`a - yank text to position of mark A
`0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited
`" - go to the position when last editing this file
`. - go to the position of the last change in this file
`` - go to the position before the last jump
:ju[mps] - list of jumps
Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list
Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list
:changes - list of changes
g, - go to newer position in change list
g; - go to older position in change list
Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor

Tip To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe ('). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-blank) of the line holding the mark.

Macros

qa - record macro a
q - stop recording macro
@a - run macro a
@@ - rerun last run macro

Cut and paste

yy - yank (copy) a line
2yy - yank (copy) 2 lines
yw - yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
yiw - yank (copy) word under the cursor
yaw - yank (copy) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
y$ or Y - yank (copy) to end of line
p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
P - put (paste) before cursor
gp - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor and leave cursor after the new text
gP - put (paste) before cursor and leave cursor after the new text
dd - delete (cut) a line
2dd - delete (cut) 2 lines
dw - delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
diw - delete (cut) word under the cursor
daw - delete (cut) word under the cursor and the space after or before it
:3,5d - delete lines starting from 3 to 5

Tip You can also use the following characters to specify the range:
e.g.

:.,$d - From the current line to the end of the file
:.,1d - From the current line to the beginning of the file
:10,1d - From the 10th line to the beginning of the file

:g/{pattern}/d - delete all lines containing pattern
:g!/{pattern}/d - delete all lines not containing pattern
d$ or D - delete (cut) to the end of the line
x - delete (cut) character

Indent text

>> - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth
<< - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth
>% - indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
<% - de-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
>ib - indent inner block with ()
>at - indent a block with <> tags
3== - re-indent 3 lines
=% - re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)
=iB - re-indent inner block with {}
gg=G - re-indent entire buffer
]p - paste and adjust indent to current line

Exiting

:w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
:w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo
:wq or :x or ZZ - write (save) and quit
:q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
:q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes
:wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

Search and replace

/pattern - search for pattern
?pattern - search backward for pattern
\vpattern - 'very magic' pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
n - repeat search in same direction
N - repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
:noh[lsearch] - remove highlighting of search matches