Powerful Vim Tips to Boost Your Coding Efficiency

First, the article clarifies the distinction between an editor, a compiler, and a debugger: Vim is only an editor (similar to Windows Notepad), gcc is a compiler, and gdb is a debugger; Visual Studio integrates all three functions.

Vim Basics

Vim is a powerful multi‑mode text editor widely used on Linux/UNIX. It operates without menus, relying on commands. The default mode is command mode , where any typed characters are interpreted as commands. Other modes include insert mode and low‑line mode .

Common Commands in Command Mode

Insertion Commands

a

– insert after the cursor. i – insert before the cursor. o – open a new line below the cursor. A – insert at the end of the current line. I – insert at the beginning of the current line. O – open a new line above the current line.

Navigation Commands

Enter low‑line mode with Shift+: then set nu to show line numbers, set nonu to hide them. GG – jump to the start of the last line; gg – jump to the start of the first line. nG or :n – jump to line n . $ – move to the end of the current line; 0 – move to the beginning. b – move backward by one word; w – move forward by one word. h j k l – left, down, up, right (arrow keys work as well). L – move to the last line of the visible screen.

Deletion Commands

x

– delete the character under the cursor. nx – delete n characters after the cursor; nX – delete n characters before the cursor. dd – delete the current line. D – delete from the cursor to the end of the line. ndd – delete n consecutive lines starting from the current line. dG – delete from the cursor to the end of the file. :n1,n2d – delete a specific range of lines. u – undo the last change (similar to Ctrl+Z).

Copy and Paste

yy

copies the current line; nyy copies the current line plus the next n‑1 lines. p pastes after the cursor, P pastes before. dd cuts the current line; ndd cuts n lines. The same p / P commands paste the cut text.

Search and Replace

:%s/old/new

– replace all occurrences of old with new in the whole file. :n1,n2s/old/new/g – replace in a line range; add c to confirm each replacement. r – replace the character under the cursor. R – enter replace mode to overwrite characters until Esc is pressed. u – cancel the previous operation.

Save and Quit

:w!

– force write (save) changes. :q! – quit without saving. :wq! or x! – save and quit. :w filename – write the buffer to a new file (useful for backup).

Advanced Tips

Import Command Output

Use :r !date to insert the current date directly at the cursor, avoiding manual copy‑paste.

Commenting Multiple Lines

To comment a range of lines, execute :n1,n2s/^/#/g. The caret ^ anchors the substitution at the line start, inserting #. To remove the comment, use :n1,n2s/^#//g.

Defining Custom Mappings

Example: :map ^P I# maps Ctrl+P to insert a # at the beginning of the line and return to command mode.

Another example: :map ^B 0x maps Ctrl+B to move to the start of the line and delete the first character.

Abbreviations

Define a shortcut for frequently typed text with :ab mymail [email protected]. Typing mymail followed by Enter expands to the full email address.

These mappings are temporary; to make them permanent, add them to .vimrc.

Basic Configuration

All settings are stored in .vimrc. For a regular user, edit the file with vim .vimrc and add desired options.

An example of installing a ready‑made configuration:

curl -sLf https://gitee.com/HGtz2222/VimForCpp/raw/master/install.sh -o ./install.sh && bash ./install.sh

After the script finishes, run source ~/.bashrc to apply the changes.

To uninstall, execute bash ~/.VimForCpp/uninstall.sh.

Original link: https://blog.csdn.net/m0_61933976/article/details/124653524