VIM tips

Using tabs

:tabe <filename>
// switch between tabs
:tabn
:tabp

Split screen

:sp  === ^w+v
:vsp === :vs === ^w+s
// switch between windows
^w + arraw key
^w + w //switch to next window

^w + c //close current window
^w + o //close others windows

Buffers

:ls  //list buffers
:b<num> //switch to buffer <num>
:bd //delete current buffer
:bn //next buffer
:bp //previous buffer
:b <filename>

Move

h   move one character left
j   move one row down
k   move one row up
l   move one character right
w   move to beginning of next word
b   move to previous beginning of word
e   move to end of word
W   move to beginning of next word after a whitespace
B   move to beginning of previous word before a whitespace
E   move to end of word before a whitespace

0   move to beginning of line
$   move to end of line
_   move to first non-blank character of the line
g_  move to last non-blank character of the line

gg  move to first line
G   move to last line
nG  move to n'th line of file (n is a number; 12G moves to line 12)

H   move to top of screen
M   move to middle of screen
L   move to bottom of screen

z.  scroll the line with the cursor to the center of the screen
zt  scroll the line with the cursor to the top
zb  scroll the line with the cursor to the bottom

Ctrl-D  move half-page down
Ctrl-U  move half-page up
Ctrl-B  page up
Ctrl-F  page down
Ctrl-O  jump to last (older) cursor position
Ctrl-I  jump to next cursor position (after Ctrl-O)
Ctrl-Y  move view pane up
Ctrl-E  move view pane down

Searching move

n   next matching search pattern
N   previous matching search pattern
*   next whole word under cursor
#   previous whole word under cursor
g*  next matching search (not whole word) pattern under cursor
g#  previous matching search (not whole word) pattern under cursor

%   jump to matching bracket { } [ ] ( )

fX  to next 'X' after cursor, in the same line (X is any character)
FX  to previous 'X' before cursor (f and F put the cursor on X)
tX  til next 'X' (similar to above, but cursor is before X)
TX  til previous 'X'
;   repeat above, in same direction
,   repeat above, in reverse direction

Undo/redo

u -- undo
r -- redo

Visual mode

v  //visual mode
^v //visual block mode
gv //viual line mode

Copy functions

y to yank/copy, x to cut, p to paste after cursor, P to paste before cursor.

yi + >,',",],),}  // copy content inside the parentheses
ya + >,',",],),}  // copy content inside the parentheses and include the parentheses
ci + >,',",],),}  // clear content inside the parentheses and enter edit mode
di + >,',",],),}  // delete content inside the parentheses
yiw   // copy current word
yw    // copy from current position to the end of the word

Others

. repeat last edit actions
gg=G format file

Written on November 18, 2016