Vim Learning Notes
Today I decided to learn Vim from the official help files. So I started to follow the official help files.
There are two parts of the documentation, the user manual can be read like a book from start to finish, the reference manual is more technical and has precise descriptions of how Vim works.
I started off by reading the user manual which is very easy to understand. A lot of important concepts are well explained there, if you are a beginner definitely start from the user manual to get a better understanding of Vim.
By the time I got to chapter 4 user_04.txt, I started liking to use Vim to type my text, and using the quick reference started to become helpful.
Below is my learning notes typed in Vim, as a practice.
Move around the cursor
" move left down up right
k
h l
jw move to the start of the next word
W move to the start of the next WORD (white-space separated)
b move to the start of the previous word
B move to the start of the previous WORD (white-space separated)
e move to the end of the next word
E move to the end of the next WORD (white-space separated)
ge move to the end of the previous word
gE move to the end of the previous WORD (white-space separated)
0 HOME move to the start of the line
^ move to the first non-blank character of the line
$ END move to the end of the line
f{ch} find forward a single character within the line
F{ch} find backward a single character within the line
t{ch} find forward a single character within the line, stop to the position 1 character ahead
T{ch} find backward a single character within the line, stop to the position 1 character ahead
; repeat the last f F t T command
, repeat the last f F t T command in the opposite direction
% move to the matching parenthesis, bracket, or brace
gg move to the beginning of the file
G move to the end of the file
{number}G move to the line number
{number}% move to the percentage of the file
H M L move to the home, middle, or last line of the current visible screen
`` go back to the position before the jump. However, the j k are not considered to be a jump even preceded with a number.
CTRL-O CTRL-I jump to the older, or newer position
:jumps show a list of positions jumped
Marks
m{ch} `{ch} place a mark, or go to a mark by the character
:marks show a list of marks
Look at the user manual for more marks info.
Scroll
CTRL-D CTRL-U scroll down, or up N lines, default half a screen
CTRL-E CTRL-Y scroll down, or up N lines, default 1 line
CTRL-F CTRL-B scroll down (forward), or up (backward) N screens, default 1 screen
CTRL-B scroll up (backward) N screen, default 1 screen
zt zz zb scroll so that the current cursor position is at the top, middle, or bottom
Search
/{string} ?{string} search forward, or backward for the string
n N move to the next match, or the opposite direction
* # search the whole word under the cursor in the forward, or backward direction
g* g# search the partial word under the cursor in the forward, or backward direction
\< \> special marker for the beginning, or the end of a word
:set ignorecase :set noignorecase turn on, or off the case insensitivity for search
To access the search history, type / and then use the UP or DOWN arrow keys. Type /{string} and then use the UP or DOWN arrow keys for search history with auto-completion. The arrow keys also works with : commands.
:nohlsearch :noh turn off the search highlight for the current search only, future searches will turn the highlight back on, including the n N.
:set incsearch enable incremental search, it will highlight the matches as you type the search pattern
The search also works with regular expressions. I won't leave too much notes here, take a look at the user manual for simple search patterns as a starting point.
File status
CTRL-G show the current file name, file path, and cursor position
Insert text
i insert before the character under the cursor
a append after the character under the cursor
A start insert mode after moving the cursor to the end of the line
I start insert mode after moving the cursor to the first non-blank in the line
o start a new line below the cursor and go into insert mode
Delete
x dl delete a character under the cursor
X dh delete a character left of the cursor
dw de delete a word to the beginning, or the end of last word
df{ch} delete to a found character
dd delete a line
D d$ delete from the cursor to the end of the line
J delete a line break (join the current line with the line below)
Change
cw ce do the same thing, delete a word and put you in insert mode
r and type a character to replace, does not go to insert mode
s cl change one character and go to insert mode
C c$ change to end of the line
S cc change one line
. repeat last change, except for u, CTRL-R, and commands started with a :
~ change case of the character under the cursor
Visual mode
v to go to visual mode, then use operators
V visual mode for selecting whole lines
CTRL-V visual mode for selecting rectangular blocks
o when in visual mode, change the cursor to the other end
Move text
p P put the text after, or before the cursor, if it's a line, then put it under, or above the cursor
Copy text
y yank is copy
yy Y yank a whole line
"*yy copy the selected text in visual mode to the system's clipboard to use in other programs, or the line in normal mode
"*p put (paste) from the system's clipboard
Text objects
daw delete a word, if the cursor is not in the very first letter of the word, because dw only deletes from the cursor
aw is a text object for a word
as a sentence
is inner sentence
Replace mode
R go to replace mode
Count
An interesting note about where to put the COUNT
The commands "3dw" and "d3w" delete three words. If you want to get really picky about things, the first command, "3dw", deletes one word three times; the command "d3w" deletes three words once. This is a difference without a distinction. You can actually put in two counts, however. For example, "3d2w" deletes two words, repeated three times, for a total of six words.
Undo and redo
u undo
U undo line
CTRL-R redo
Repeat
You can precede many commands with a number, to repeat that number of time. For example, 9k moves up 9 lines.
Mapping
A mapping enables you to bind a set of Vim commands to a single key.
User Manual 05.4 Simple mappings
Tag
For Vim, tag is a hyperlink.
CTRL-] jump to tag
CTRL-T pop tag, go back to the preceding position
Indent
== indent the current line
=a{ indent the current {} block
gg=G indent the whole file, gg goes to the first line, = indent till the G last line
Quit
ZZ write the file and quit
:q quit
:q! quit without writing the file (without saving)
:e! reload the file, discard all changes, continue editing
Help
:help generic help
:help {subject} get help on a command or a subject
:help CTRL-{ch} type literally CTRL for control commands
Setting
For the Vim startup script file ~/.vimrc, see my other note.