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Vim - 101 hacks

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Tips & Tricks from Vim 101 Hacks

Scroll line

  • Ctrl + E: Scroll down one line
  • Ctrl + Y: Scroll up one line

word vs WORD

  • word consists of a sequence of letters, digits and underscores.
  • WORD consists of a sequence of non-blank characters, separated with white space.

For example: 192.168.1.3 contains 7 words. But the whole 192.168.1.3 is considered as one WORD.

Position cursor at specific location within a line

0 ^ line_content g_ $

  • 0: Go to the starting of current line.
  • $: Go to the end of current line.
  • ^: To to the first non-blank char of current line.
  • g_: Go to the last non blank character of current line.

Screen Navigation

  • H: First line of current screen. (H is “home”)
  • M: Middle line of current screen.
  • L: Last line of current screen.

Redraw screen with current line on Top/Bottom/Middle

Navigation Key Description
z Redraw the screen with current line under the cursor at the top of the screen
z- Redraw the screen with current line under the cursor at the bottom of the screen
z. Redraw the screen with current line under the cursor at the middle of the screen

Go to Top/Bottom of the File

  • Go to the top: :0, gg, 1G.
  • Go to the bottom: :$, G

Vim command line navigation

Command line Description
vim +143 Go to the 143rd line of file
vim +/search-term Go to the first match of the specified search term from top
vim +?search-term Go to the first match of the specified search term from
vim -t TAG Go to the specific tag

Basic Text Manipulation

Insert or Append Text

Key Description
:r FILENAME Insert another file content into current file after the current line
:r! COMMAND Insert output of a command into current file after the current line

Paste before or affter the copied Line/Word/Others

:reg => Show all recent register

Recent deleted content will appear in 0 - 9 register. If you would like to paste the word from the register number 3, execute the following:

"3p

Or paste clipboard content to editor in normal mode:

"*p

Expert Text Manipulation

Sort File Content

:sort

# sort visual block
:'<,'>!sort

:sort! # Sort in descending order
:sort i # Ignore case while sorting
:sort u # Remove duplicate lines. U stands for unique

Vim Command Line Hacks

# Open file in Readonly mode
vim -R filename.txt

# Skip loading Plugins Temporarily
vim --noplugin filename.txt

# Edit multiple files in Tabs
vim -p file1 file2 file3

Encrypt File in Vim

:X

Enter encryption key. Next time you open that file, Vim will prompt for the encryption key.

Review the Differences between Files using Vimdiff

vimdiff file1 file2

Default registers and their users

Key Description
% Name of the current file
# Name of the alternate file
: Most recent executed command line
/ Last search pattern
“ Last used registers

Search across Multiple Files using vimgrep

:vimgrep jason *.txt

# Use :cn to jump to the next match
# Use :clist to view all the files that matched the vimgrep search keyword
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