Vim - Cheat Sheet

We know that learning all Vim'ss keybinds takes time, so here is a small Cheat Sheet that may help you in this journey of learning Vim.

Commands

Command	Description
:q	Quit, fails if unsaved
:q!	Quit, even if unsaved
:w	Write (Save)
:wq	Write (Save) and quit

Movement

Command	Description
$	Jump to the end of line
^	Jump to the start of the line (First non-blank character
h	Move left
j	Move down
k	Move up
l	Move right
H	Move to the top of screen
M	Move to the middle of screen
L	Move to the bottom of screen
gg	Move to the start of file
G	Move to the end of file
20G	Move to line 20
w	Jump to the start of the next word
b	Jump to the start of the previous word

Modes

Key	Description
ESQ	Return to Normal mode
i	Insert at cursor position
a	Insert after cursor position
o	Insert on the line below cursor position
v	Enter Visual mode
Ctr-v	Enter Visual mode (block)
V	Enter Visual Line mode

Undo/Redo

Key	Description
u	Undo
Ctr-r	Redo

Search/Replace

Key	Description
/{string}	Search for string
n	Jump to next match
N	Jump to previous match
~	switch case
/{string}	c
?pattern	search backward for pattern
:%s/old/new/g	replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc	replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

Copy and Pasting

Key	Description
y [in Visual Mode]	Copy highlighted text
yy	Copy current line
d [in Visual Mode]	Cut highlighted text
dd	Cut current line
Ctr-Shift-V	Paste from external clipboard
P	Paste before the cursor
p	Paste after the cursor

Split Screen (Working with multiple files)

Key	Description
:vs {file name}	vertical split, if there is no file name, vim will split the current screen
:sp {file name}	horizontal split, if there is no file name, vim will split the current screen
:e filename	Edit a file in a new buffer
:bn	go to next buffer
:bp	go to the previous buffer
:bd	delete a buffer
ctrl+w h	Move to the left window from current window
ctrl+w j	Move to the bottom window from current window
ctrl+w k	Move to the top window from current window
ctrl+w l	Move to the right window from current window
ctrl+w r	Swap bottom/top if split horizontally
ctrl+w R	Swap top/bottom if split horizontally
ctrl+w r	Rotates the windows from left to right - only if the windows are split vertically
ctrl+w R	Rotates the windows from right to left - only if the windows are split vertically
ctrl+ws	Split windows
ctrl+ww	switch between windows
ctrl+wq	Quit a window
ctrl+wv	Split windows vertically

Modifiers

Modifiers	Description
ci{	change the contents inside the current pair of curly brackets
ci[	change the contents inside the current pair of square brackets
ca(	change a single-quoted string, including the surrounding curve brackets
da'	delete a single-quoted string, including the surrounding single quotes

Increment/Decrement

Key	Description
ctrl+a	increments the number
ctrl+x	decrements the number

Note: An octal number starts with 0, and a hex number starts with 0x or 0X.

Marking text (visual mode)

Marking	Descritpion
o	move to another end of marked area
O	move to another corner of block
aw	mark a word
ab	a () block (with braces)
aB	a {} block (with brackets)
ib	inner () block
iB	inner {} block