The Vim Commands I Used

Vim is an awesome editor and you can find the Vim simlulator in lots of popular editors(such as Intellij Idea, Atom, Sublime Text). it will make your life more easy if you familiar with the common Vim commands.

Basic Knowledge

Not like the normal editor, Vim group the text operations into three common modes: Normal, Insert, Visual.¹

When we open a document using Vim, we are in Normal mode. In this mode we can browse the content of document and do some delete and paste operations. We can always go back to this mode by Esc

If we want to add some text, we need to switch to Insert mode, there are multiple keys which can lead us to this mode, such as i, a, o, O.

If we want to copy some text, we need to switch to Visual mode. the key v can lead us to this mode.

The common pattern of command in Vim is mode+motion, we will see how it works in next section.

Normal mode is the main mode, we always need to go back this mode and then switch to another mode.

Commands

Navigation

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Go to the next character of current line	Normal	l
Go to the previous character of current line	Normal	h
Go to the beginning of current line	Normal	0
Go to the ending of current line	Normal	$
Go to the next nth character of current line	Normal	<n>l
Go to the previous nth character of current line	Normal	<n>h
Find the next position of given character in current line	Normal	f<c>
Find the previous position of given character in current line	Normal	F<c>

Word

Scenario	Mode	Command
Go to the next ending of word	Normal	e
Go to the next beginning of word	Normal	w
Go to the previous beginning of word	Normal	b
Go to the previous ending of word	Normal	ge
Go to the next nth beginning of word	Normal	<n>w
Go to the next nth ending of word	Normal	<n>e
Go to the previous nth beginning of word	Normal	<n>b
Go to the previous nth ending of word	Normal	<n>ge

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Go to the beginning of current document	Normal	gg
Go to the ending of current document	Normal	G
Go to the next line	Normal	k
Go to the previous line	Normal	j
Go to the next nth line	Normal	<n>j
Go to the previous nth line	Normal	<n>k
Go to the given line number	Normal	<n>gg

Block

Scenario	Mode	Command
Go to next page	Normal	Ctrl+f
Go to previous page	Normal	Ctrl+b
Go to next paragraph	Normal	}
Go to previous paragraph	Normal	{

Delete

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Delete the character under cursor	Normal	x
Delete the character before cursor	Normal	X
Delete the next nth characters(include current cursor) in current line	Normal	<n>x
Delete the previous nth characters(not include current cursor) in current line	Normal	<n>X
Delete all characters from cursor(include) until next given character(not include) in current line	Normal	dt<c>
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) until previous given character(not include) in current line	Normal	dT<c>
Delete all characters from cursor(include) to next given character(include) in current line	Normal	df<c>
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) to previous given character(include) in current line	Normal	dF<c>
Delete all characters after cursor(include) in current line	Normal	D or d$
Delete all characters before cursor(not include) in current line	Normal	d0

Word

Scenario	Mode	Command
Delete all characters from cursor(include) to the next beginning of word	Normal	dw
Delete all characters from cursor(include) to the next ending of word	Normal	de
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) to the previous beginning of word	Normal	db
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) to the previous ending of word	Normal	dge
Delete all characters from cursor(include) to the next nth beginning of word	Normal	d<n>w
Delete all characters from cursor(include) to the next nth ending of word	Normal	d<n>e
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) to the previous nth beginning of word	Normal	d<n>b
Delete all characters from cursor(not include) to the previous nth ending of word	Normal	d<n>ge

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Delete the current line	Normal	dd
Delete the lines from beginning to current line(include)	Normal	dgg
Delete the lines from current line(include) to ending	Normal	dG
Delete the next nth lines(include current line)	Normal	<n>dd or d<n-1>j
Delete the previous nth lines(include current line)	Normal	d<n-1>k
Delete the lines from current line(include) to the given line number	Normal	d<n>gg

Block

Senario	Mode	Command
Delete all characters from cursor to the ending of current paragraph	Normal	d}
Delete all characters from the beginning of current paragraph to cursor	Normal	d{
Delete the next nth paragraph	Normal	d<n>}
Delete the previous nth paragraph	Normal	d<n>{

Column Mode

Scenario	Mode	Command
Delete the same range of continuous lines	Normal Blockwise Visual Normal	Ctrl+v h/l x/d/X

Insert

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Insert text before cursor	Normal Insert	i
Insert text after cursor	Normal Insert	a

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Insert text before current line	Normal Insert	O
Insert text after current line	Normal Insert	o
Insert text at the beginning of current line	Normal Insert	I
Insert text at the ending of current line	Normal Insert	A

Column Mode

Scenario	Mode	Command
Insert same text at the same position of continuous lines	Normal Blockwise Visual Insert Normal	Ctrl+v j/k I Esc

Select

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Select text by character	Normal Characterwise Visual	v

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Select text by line	Normal Linewise Visual	V

Block

Scenario	Mode	Command
Select text by block	Normal Blockwise Visual	Ctrl+v

Copy

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Copy all characters from cursor until the next given character(not include)	Normal	yt<c>
Copy all characters from cursor to the next given character(include)	Normal	yf<c>
Copy all characters from the previous given character(not include) to cursor	Normal	yT<c>
Copy all characters from the previous given character(include) to cursor	Normal	yF<c>

Word

Scenario	Mode	Command
Copy all characters from cursor to the next beginning of word	Normal	yw
Copy all characters from cursor to the next ending of word	Normal	ye
Copy all characters from cursor to the next nth beginning of word	Normal	y<n>w
Copy all characters from cursor to the next nth ending of word	Normal	y<n>e
Copy all characters from cursor to the previous beginning of word	Normal	yb
Copy all characters from cursor to the previous ending of word	Normal	yge
Copy all characters from cursor to the previous nth beginning of word	Normal	y<n>b
Copy all characters from cursor to the previous nth ending of word	Normal	y<n>ge

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Copy current line	Normal	yy or Y
Copy the next nth lines	Normal	<n>yy
Copy the previous nth lines	Normal	y<n-1>k

Block

Scenario	Mode	Command
Copy current paragraph	Normal	y}
Copy the next nth paragraph	Normal	y<n>}
Copy the previous nth paragraph	Normal	y<n>{
Copy all the characters in surround(not include)	Normal	yi<symbol>
Copy all the characters in surround(include)	Normal	ya<symbol>

Paste

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Paste after cursor	Normal	p
Paste befor cursor	Normal	P

Line

Scenario	Mode	Command
Paste text before current line	Normal	:pu!
Paste text after current line	Normal	:pu
Paste text before the given line number	Normal	:<n>pu!
Paste text after the given line number	Normal	:<n>pu

Replace

Character

Scenario	Mode	Command
Replace all the characters from cursor to the ending of current line	Normal Replace	R
Replace character under cursor with other character	Normal	r<c>
Swith the character under cursor to uppercase/lowercase	Normal	~

Document

Scenario	Mode	Command
Replace all occurances of given pattern to another string	Normal	:%s/<given pattern>/<target string>/g

Advance

According to this blog, you already can do most of work in Vim. If you want to make your Vim more fancy and tune your workflow, you may want to play some Vim plugins. The following steps may help you to enjoy it.

1. Choose a Vim implementation to play

   There are several implementations you can choose

   • Vim
   • NeoVim
   • MacVim

2. Set up your .vimrc configuration

   The first thing you need to do is choosing a plugin manager, vim-plug is a good choice for beginner. but the easiest way may just copy an existing dotfile from GitHub.

3. Try different plugins

   vimawesome is a good place to find vim plugins, for beginner you may need the following feature

   • Theme
   • File Finder
   • Syntax
   • Motion
   • Code Complement
   • Code Format

That’s it, Hope you enjoy the Vim journey!

References

1. Learning the vi Editor/Vim Modes ↩