Vim Notes

Vim = VI + Improved

why vim ?

  1. Vim is Ubiquitous
  2. Vim is amazingly powerful
  3. Vim’s Knowledge Is Transferable
  4. Vim is Cross-Platform
  5. Vim is available in a TUI and a GUI
  6. Vim has Syntax Highlighting
  7. Commands are easy to Remember
  8. Vim is Like a Language
  9. Vim is Thoroughly Documented

Different Modes in Vim

  • Normal/Command Mode
  • Insert Mode
  • Visual Mode
  • Line Mode (:)

To exit Vim type :q

To open a new file vim myday.txt

To save and exit the file :wq

. repeats previous command !

! forces commands in vim. (there are more than 3 uses of !) : Toggle a setting, execute external commands

  • Always use h, j, k, l for navigation instead of arrow keys.
  • Ctrl-f : Page up and Ctrl-b : Page Down
  • w : move forward one word, W: move forward one word (ignore punctuation)
  • b : move backward one word, B: move backward one word (ignore punctuation)
  • e : jumps to end of current work, and move forward to the end of next word, similar as above with E
  • z-CR : move the view up
  • 0 or ^ : jump to start of line , $ : jump to end of line
  • gg : to move top of file, G or :$ : move to bottom of file
  • Ngg or :N : to jump to Nth line
  • Ctrl-g : view file info, like status etc, to enable this automatic set ruler (Note to disable this : set ruler! or set noruler)

Deleting Text and “Thinking in Vim”

  • You can combine vim motions with delete !! : “operator + motion“
  • Utilise motions to navigate to errors !
  • x : to delete character cursor is on, X : deletes character to left of cursor
  • dw : delete the word, try dh, dj, dk, dl and also d0, d^, d$
  • dd : delete current line, D or d$ deletes all character from cursor to line end
  • Ndd : delete N lines : “Count + operator + motion”

Getting Help

  • :help to get help, use :q to exit
  • :help <command> to get help specific to a command. e.g. :help dd
  • :help {subject} to get help on a given subject. e.g. :help count
  • :h is short version of help.
  • Ctrl-w w to switch to editing and help window.
  • Ctrl-o : to move to previous cursor position, Ctrl-i to move to next cursor position
  • Commands are of two types : linewise and characterwise, always lookout for this in documentation
  • :h help to get understanding of how to read the documentation.

Deleting, Yanking and Putting

  • Register is clipboard like storage location
  • All deletes are stored in p put command via unnamed/default register
  • p : put text after cursor, P : puts before the cursor
  • Copy is usually performed by using yank y command puts the text in register.
  • cut-copy-paste : delete-yank-put
  • yw, y$, y^ : command + motion
  • yy : yank lines, Nyy : yank N lines
  • u : undo operations, Ctrl-R : redo operation

Registers

  • Unnamed = “”
  • Numbered = “1 ”2 "3 "4 ... "9
  • Named = “a ”b ... "z
  • “” : holds text from d, c, s, x and y operation
  • “0 : holds the last text yanked (y)
  • “1 : holds the last text deleted (d) or changed (c)
  • Numbered registers shift with each d or c
  • To view register contents :reg
  • To paste the contents of register “x type : “xP e.g. “1P, where x is a register
  • BlackHole register is used to execute commands without affecting other register. “_dd
  • To yank lines to specific register “ayy
  • To append more text to a register “Ayy
  • Trick : teh to fix this spelling take cursor to e and execute xp that should swap eh. Very useful trick :) when you are a fast typist.

Transforming and Substituting text in Vim

  • i : put your in insert mode. I command puts you in insert mode and towards start of line.
  • a : appends(puts in insert) after the current character on cursor , A : append at the end of line
  • o : start new line and puts in insert mode. O : start new line above and put in insert mode.
  • 80i* : can create a line with 80 asterisk. (Count) + operation
  • 5o# : can create 5 comment lines :P
  • R invokes ‘REPLACE’ mode that overwrites the characters it encounters
  • r : invokes replace for only 1 character and keeps you in normal mode
  • cw : change the entire word, c$ or C : change till end of line (insert mode), cc change entire line
  • ~ : change the case of character. g~w for changing case of entire word, g~~ or g~$ change case on entire line.
  • gUU changes the case the case to upper for entire line, guu changes the case to lower for entire line
  • J joins two lines together with a space. gJ joins two lines without space, NJ : to join N lines

Search, Find and Replace

  • f{char} : find the first occurance of x towards right of line, F{char} : find the first occurance of x towards left of line (Note : both case sensitive) (can combine count also)
  • use ; to repeat fx search forwards and , for searching backwards
  • tx and Tx : similar to fx put cursor before the search hit
  • dfx : deletes till character x (including x) dtx : deletes till charcater x (doesn’t delete x)
  • use /{key} to search for key in file. n : cycle next occurrence and N : cycle previous occurence
  • Enable incremental search its very useful set is also disable highlight search set nohls
  • A Trick : use /{key} to search key and cw to change it to lock and then n to next occurence and . to repeat previous command. you could also use :%s/key/lock/gc it takes time to type this ;)
  • To reverse direction of search ?{key}
  • * : searches word under cursor and use normal cycle keys n and N. or use # a reversed search
  • To yank all the text from start to first occurance of x in register a “ay/x
  • search and replace (substitute) : :[range]s/old/new/flag : flags : g : global, gc : global confirm. Note this works on current line. Now here usually :%g/old/new is used for entire file, you could also use some specific line like :1/x/old/new. for changing from line 1-5 : :1,5s/g/old/new. $ represent last line in file while . represents first line in file. range could also a searchword :/firstword/,/secondword/s/old/new
  • For linux user they need to change directory location it maybe difficult to write all escaping \ characters they can use pattern separator. :%s#/local/mail#/usr/local/mail

Text Objects

  • daw deletes entire word on which cursor is placed (space after word also), diw only deletes the word on which cursor is placed.
  • pattern : {operator}{a}{object} or {operator}{i}{object}
  • most used shortcut is ciw(change inner word) and daw (delete a word) to quickly refactor variables. (Note use das deletes the sentence. try cis also)
  • So a includes the boundaries while i doesn’t include boundries of delimiter.
  • dip (delete inner paragraph, doesn’t include boundry), dap includes boundry and deletes paragraph
  • most used shortcut to edit the variable value int name = "smk". Take the cursor on value of variable name. ci" changes the inner text of delimiter while da" will delete word along with delimiter.
  • ci(, ci[ or ci< or ci> are some of other very used shortcuts, you can also yank these value ya( or yi(
  • for html you can use special at or it.

Macros

  • Macros are recorded sequence of keystrokes. Useful for complex repeated tasks.
  • There are no special registers for macros. There is only one a register.
  • q{register} : To record in macro in a register. To stop, type q.
  • @{register} : Replay the macro stored in register.
  • @@ : Repeats most recent macro.’
  • Best Practices while using macros
    • Normalise the cursor position : 0,
    • Perform edits and operations
    • position your cursor to enable easy replays : j
  • To execute macro on specific range of lines, :15,20normal @a
  • You can update macros any time : Its as simple as update register use capital letters for macros
  • Saving Macros
    • viminfo files : .viminfo or _viminfo
    • Stores history and non-empty registers
    • read when vim starts
    • can easily overwrite registers
    • vimrc files : let @d = 'dd'

Vim Visual Mode

  • v : characterwise visual mode, V : linewise visual mode, ctrl-v : blockwise visual mode
  • vim motions and text-objects can be used to expand the visual area
  • Commands that work in visual mode
    • ~ : Switch Case, c : Change, d : Delete, y : Yank, r : Replace, x : Delete, I : Insert, A : Append, J : Join, u : Make lowercase, U : make Uppercase
    • > : shift right, \< : shift left (very important to tab things)
  • Blocks mode : O toggles current boundry left and right o toggles up and down boundary
  • Block mode can be utilised to make changes to blocks of lines for example to append end to all lines in a block, select block Aend will add same word each line
  • Note : shiftab defines how much shift operator shifts the selected text
  • you can use selected lines/blocks as range in substitue commands
  • you can also center text block using selection then :'<,'>center (Notice before center represents selection and are populated automatically)
  • gv reselects last selected text

vimrc

  • rc = run commands
  • system-wide vimrc and personal virmc
  • each line is executed as a command
  • To check which vim files are being sourced :version
  • To check value of some option or its disabled or enabled : :set {option}?
" keep 1000 items in history
set history=1000

" show cursor position
set ruler

" show incomplete commands
set showcmd

" shows a menu while using tab completion
set wildmenu

set scrolloff=5
set hlsearch
set incsearch
set ignorecase
set smartcase

set nu
set backup
" set bex=

set lbr "easier linebreak

set ai " autoindent
set si " smartindent

set bg=light
color slate

"map KEY KEYSTROKE
map <F2> iJohn Smith<CR>123 Main Street<CR>London, UK<CR><ESC>

let mapleader=","
map <leader>w :w!<CR>

Vim Buffers

  • Temporary area where memory is stored while its being processed
  • original file remained unchanged until you write that buffer to file
  • set hidden : because vim always warns about open unsaved buffer which may be trouble when you wanna switch buffers quickly without saving
  • :buffers or :ls: lists all open buffers
  • :b3 : switches to buffer 3, :b smk.txt : switched to buffers assiociated with file smk.txt
  • :bn or :bnext : switches to next buffer , :bp or :bpreviouse : switches to previous buffers (cyclic wrap)
  • Ctrl-^ or :b# : switches to last opened buffer (represented by # in :ls list)
  • + flag means changes of buffer has not been saved
  • h or a : are hidden and active buffers. Buffers that do not have any flag are not loaded into memory
  • :badd smk.txt : adds smk.txt to buffer
  • :bdelete or :bd1 : deletes and removes a buffer
  • :bufdo %s/#/@/g : applies some operation to all buffers (if set hidden is not used then vim can’t switch buffers :) )
  • :wall : saves all buffers
  • :E : opens explorer

Windows

  • A window is a view of buffer. (Previously we had multiple files in buffers but to look at more than one buffer at the same time we use window)
  • :sp or :split: splits and puts the same buffer in two windows horizontally
  • :vs or :vsplit or Ctrl-w v : splits and puts the same buffer in two windows vertically
  • Ctrl-w w : cycle windows, Ctrl-w {motion} : cycles cursor according motion
  • :q or Ctrl-w q : closes the split window
  • :on or :only : closes all window except only currently active window
  • Ctrl-w {resize operation} : can be used to resize windows : operations allowed (+ , -, _,|, =, <, >)
  • Ctrl-w J or Ctrl-w H.. : can be move the cursor window around
  • Similar to :bufdo we have :windo that executes some command to all windows

Gvim and MacVim

  • Why use graphical version of vim
    • leverage some features which are not available in command line version of vim
    • scrolling, text selection using mouse and copy-paste, etc.
  • Vim usually maintains its own register systems for system clipboard, if you copy something in system, it can be accessed uses vims “* register and “+ registers
  • To make vim share system clipboard rather than using its own system :set clipboard=unnamedplus (operates on + register, for only using * register use :set clipboard=unnamed
  • commandKey+v : works in MacVim because it behind the scenes pastes the * register using “*gP
  • gvimrc file is used to apply some specific settings to gvim versions.
    • :set gfn=* : font-selector for gvim