Master Vim: Essential Commands, Modes, and Tips for Efficient Editing

Vim is a text editor compatible with vi, used for editing plain text and especially useful for programming.

Basic Modes

Editing mode: default mode when opening a file
Insert mode:
Command-line mode: built-in command line interface

Basic Usage

# vim [options] [file ...]
#   Open a file and place the cursor at the beginning of line #
+/PATTERN: Open a file and place the cursor at the first line that matches PATTERN

Mode Switching

Editing mode (default)

Editing mode → Insert mode:
    i   : insert at cursor position
    a   : append after cursor
    o   : open a new line below cursor
    I   : insert at beginning of current line
    A   : append at end of current line
    O   : open a new line above cursor

Insert mode → Editing mode:
    ESC

Editing mode → Command-line mode:
    :

Command-line mode → Editing mode:
    ESC

Closing Files

1. In editing mode:
    ZZ   : save and quit
    ZQ   : quit without saving
2. In command-line mode:
    :q          quit
    :q!         force quit without saving
    :wq         write and quit
    :w          write (save)
    :x          write and quit (same as :wq)
    :w /PATH/TO/SOMEFILE   write to specified file

Command Mode Cursor Navigation

Character-wise Movement

h : left
j : down
k : up
l : right
#COMMAND : move # characters in the specified direction

Word-wise Movement

w : move to start of next word
e : move to end of current or next word
b : move to start of current or previous word
#COMMAND : move # words in the specified direction

Line Start/End Movement

^ : jump to first non‑blank character of the line
0 : jump to column 0 (line start)
$ : jump to end of line

Line Jump

#G : jump to line number #
1G, gg : first line
G      : last line

Sentence Jump

) : next sentence
( : previous sentence

Paragraph Jump

} : next paragraph
{ : previous paragraph

Screen Scrolling

Ctrl+f : scroll forward one screen
Ctrl+b : scroll backward one screen
Ctrl+d : scroll forward half screen
Ctrl+u : scroll backward half screen
Enter  : scroll down line by line

Current Screen Position

H : top of screen
M : middle of screen
L : bottom of screen
zt : place cursor line at top of screen
zz : place cursor line at middle of screen
zb : place cursor line at bottom of screen

Vim Editing Commands

Character Editing

Default mode:
    x   : delete character under cursor
    #x  : delete # characters starting at cursor
    xp  : swap character under cursor with the next one
    r   : replace character under cursor (rCHAR to replace with CHAR)
    ~   : toggle case of character under cursor

Deletion Commands

d   : delete (can be combined with motion)
    d$  : delete to end of line
    d^  : delete to first non‑blank character of line
    d0  : delete to start of line
    dw  : delete to start of next word
    de  : delete to end of current/next word
    db  : delete to start of current/previous word
    D   : same as d$
    dd  : delete current line
    #dd : delete # lines starting from current line

Paste Commands (p, put, paste)

p : paste after cursor (or below current line if yanked whole line)
P : paste before cursor (or above current line if yanked whole line)

Yank (Copy) Commands

y   : yank (copy) similar to d
    y$  : yank to end of line
    y^  : yank to first non‑blank character of line
    y0  : yank to start of line
    ye  : yank to end of current/next word
    yw  : yank to start of next word
    yb  : yank to start of current/previous word
    yy  : yank whole line
    #yy : yank # lines

Change Commands (c)

c   : change (delete then enter insert mode)
    c$  : change to end of line
    c^  : change to first non‑blank character of line
    c0  : change to start of line
    cb  : change to start of current/previous word
    ce  : change to end of current/next word
    cw  : change to start of next word
    cc  : change whole line
    #cc : change # lines

Other Editing Operations

Visual Mode

v   : characterwise visual selection
V   : linewise visual selection
    d, c, y can be used after selection to delete, change, or yank
    u   : undo last change (or #u to undo # changes)
    Ctrl+r : redo undone changes
    .   : repeat last change
    vimtutor : start Vim tutorial

Vim Command-line Mode

(1) Address Ranges

:start_pos[,end_pos]
    #: specific line number (e.g., 5 for line 5)
    . : current line
    $ : last line
    #,# : range from line # to line #
    #,+# : range from line # to line # plus offset (e.g., 3,+7)
    .,$-1 : from current line to second‑last line
    1,$   : whole file
    %     : whole file (same as 1,$)
    /pattern/ : first line matching pattern after cursor
    /first/,$ : from first match to end of file
    /pat1/,/pat2/ : from first match of pat1 to first match of pat2
    Commands can follow a range, e.g., d to delete, y to yank, c to change, w /PATH/ to write range to file, r /PATH/ to read file into range

(2) Search

/PATTERN : search forward for pattern
?PATTERN : search backward for pattern
n        : repeat search in same direction
N        : repeat search in opposite direction

(3) Search and Replace

s/old/new/flags
    old : pattern to find (regular expressions allowed)
    new : replacement text (no regex, but can use back‑references)
    flags:
        i : ignore case
        g : replace all occurrences in the line
    Alternative delimiters can be used, e.g., s@@@ or s###
    Example:
        %s@<t[[:alpha:]]\+>@T\1@g
        %s@<t[[:alpha:]]\+>@&er@g

Vim Multi‑File Features

Multiple Files

vim FILE1 FILE2 ...
    :next   : go to next file
    :prev   : go to previous file
    :first  : go to first file
    :last   : go to last file
    :wqall  : write all files and quit
    :wall   : write all files
    :qall   : quit all files

Multiple Windows

-o : split windows horizontally
-O : split windows vertically
    Ctrl+w ARROW : move between windows
    Ctrl+w s : split current window horizontally
    Ctrl+w v : split current window vertically

Customizing Vim

Settings in command‑line mode affect only the current Vim session.
Permanent settings:
    Global: /etc/vimrc
    User: ~/.vimrc
Common options:
    set number   (or set nu)   : show line numbers
    set nonumber (or set nonu) : hide line numbers
    set showmatch (set sm)      : highlight matching brackets
    set noshowmatch (set nosm)  : disable bracket highlight
    set autoindent (set ai)     : enable automatic indentation
    set noautoindent (set noai): disable automatic indentation
    set hlsearch                : highlight search results
    set nohlsearch              : disable search highlight
    syntax on                   : enable syntax highlighting
    syntax off                  : disable syntax highlighting
    set ignorecase (set ic)     : ignore case in searches
    set noignorecase (set noic) : case‑sensitive searches
    :help                       : open help
    :help {subject}              : open help for a specific subject