Vim Cheats

These are a handful of helpful cheats I’ve learned along the way from going through Zed Shaw’s Learn Code the Hard Way stuff. This is from the Vim course he has on the website. Just a small list of cheats that have helped me navigate Vim a little better than before.

Motion

G == go to line
`` == go back to where I was
f == find char back
F == find char forward
$ end of line, ^ beginning of line
/ search for thing
? backward search for thing
n go to next search result
m for mark. ma == mark a, mb == mark b. `a == go to mark a

Change

i – inserting
c – change a thing, cw or any motion
A – append to the end of line
I – insert at beginning
d – delete, and can combine with any motion (dw, d$)

Search

/ – find a regex
n – next search

Buffers

:b file – tab through files by chars in them
ctrl-w – slitting windows
- s – split horizontally
- v – split vertically
- arrows – go left, right, etc.
- c – close it

Saving

:wa – save everything

Repitition by count

Add count (number) followed by command

5w goes forward 5 words
. – do that thing again
10 – do this next thing 10 times (5dw, delete the next 5 words)

Recovery

u – undo
:earlier TIME – go back in time
:later TIME – go forward in time

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s gotten me in the right direction of what I want to do with Vim. Hopefully I can grow on this list and add more to it later.