Vim Features Overview

This is my overview of some of the Vim features created as a part of learning about these features.

The Vim config is here: https://github.com/serebrov/vimrc (careful, here be dragons).

Essential resources:

• Vim documentation
• Drew Neil's Vimcasts
• Derek Wyatt's Video Tutorials
• Tim Pope's plugins

. (dot) - repeat the last normal-mode command, automatic mini-macro.

:h navigation

:h mark-motions.

• a-z - local marks (inside the buffer), reset when buffer is deleted
• A-Z - global (across files)
• 0-9 - automatically set from .viminfo, '0 - cursor position on last exit from Vim, '1 - previous exit, and so on, see :h viminfo-file-marks

Set the mark with m{a-zA-Z}.

Jump to the mark:

• '{a-z} `{a-z} - jump to mark in the current buffer, with ' - to the first non-blank char of the mark line, with ` - to the exact mark location
• '{A-Z0-9} `{A-Z0-9} - jump to mark in the file (may be another file, not a motion in this case)

Jump to the mark is a motion (can be used with operators).

List of marks - :marks.

Delete marks with :delm:

:delm a - delete mark `a`
:delm a b or :delm ab - delete marks `a` and `b`
:delm p-z - delete all marks from `p` to `z`
:delm! - delete all marks for the current buffer (only a-z, not A-Z and 0-9)

Jump list is a very powerful way to navigate files in Vim. It is similar to the browser back / forward navigation button. After you use a motion or a command like gf to open another file, you can use C-o to go back and C-i to go forward again.

The change list lets you move across edits in a similar way.

Some shortcuts that are useful in the command and insert mode:

• <C-H> - delete previous character
• <C-W> - delete previous word
• <C-U> - delete current line, this is often used in mappings to clear the command line, for example to remove the automatic '<,'> when there is a visual selection

And some editing shortcuts for the insert mode (everything can be done by switching to normal mode, changing the text and switching back to insert, but it may be faster to do a small edit operation while staying in the insert mode):

• <C-T> / <C-D> - indent / un-indent, useful for markdown lists
• <C-Y> / <C-E> - insert char above / below the cursor
• <C-A> / <C-X> (normal mode) - increment/decrement number under the cursor
• g<C-A> in visual mode - sequentially increment values in a column

1                1                1
1 -- select --> |1| -- g<C-A> --> 2
1               |1|               3

This one is special as it does switch to the normal mode, but only for one command:

• <C-O> - execute normal command and get back to insert mode

:h insert.txt

<C-R><r> inserts the text from the register.

Examples:

• <C-R>0 (zero) - paste yanked text
• <C-R>" - paste the text from the unnamed register

If we have "Hello" in the a register and "World" in the b, we can insert them like this: "ap"bp from normal mode.

But it is easy to do from the insert mode <C-R>a<C-R>b and change will be repeatable with dot.

See also: Vim: The useful Ctrl-R

<C-R>= - prompt for the expression and insert it

<C-R>=3*0.65  -- will insert 1.95

<C-A> - Insert the last text added in the insert mode.

Example:

"some_text(...)
ct(new_text"      - change "some_text" to "new_text" till the (

"some_text, ...   - now we need to do the same change, but till the comma
ct,<C-A>          - we enter the new command `ct,` and then use Ctrl-A to insert new_text

There is also <C-@> to insert the last inserted text and stop the insert mode.

Completion shortcuts for the insert mode:

• <C-N> / <C-P> - generic completion, :h i_CTRL-N
• <C-X><C-O> - omni-completion, :h compl-omni
• <C-X><C-L> - lines
• <C-X><C-F> - file names, based on :pwd
• <C-X><C-]> - tags
• <C-X><C-K> - dictionary
• <C-X><C-N> - keywords in current file
• there are more, see :h ins-completion

Work with autocomplete menu:

• <C-N> / <C-P> - use the next / prev match from the word list
• <C-Y> - accept the currently selected match (yes)
• <C-E> - revert to the originally typed text (exit from autocompletion)
• <BS> (and <C-H>) - delete one character from current match
• <C-L> - add one character from current match

Open the popup without selecting the first item: <C-N><C-P> (will actually select the first item and then un-select it).

Complete whole lines with <C-X><C-L>:

• type some text, do <C-X><C-L>
• if there are a few suggestions - type a bit more and <C-L>
• now you are at the end of the line, and complete mode is still active
• press <C-X><C-L> a few more times to get more lines which follow the line you've got

See also: Let Vim Do the Typing.

Similarly it is possible to complete sentences word-by-word with <C-X><C-P>.

The command line window is a larger view of the command line.

It is very useful to edit long commands, or search patterns because we can use the normal mode for editing (the normal command line, : only has insert mode).

• q: - opens a command-line window.
• q/ - opens a search history window.

From the command line / search prompt - press <C-F> to switch to the command-line window.

So don't re-map the q:! (as people often map it to nop because they accidentally open the command line window meaning to do :q).

If you often invoke it accidentally, you probably have a problem with entering :q correctly. In this case either remap the :q to something else (for example, to <Leader>q) or type it like this:

• left pinky - Shift
• right pinky - :
• left pinky - q

(there is no chance to type it backwards this way).

In normal mode v, V, <C-V> start the char-, line-, block-wise visual mode. Same keys in visual mode switch between char/line/block modes.

In normal mode gv re-selects the last visual selection (very useful).

In visual mode:

• o - move to other end of the selection (also very useful when you need to adjust the selection on the other end of the visual block)
• gv - switch current and previous visual selection
• c - change the selection (can re-paste after the change with <C-R>", convenient for wrapping)
• d - delete the selection
• r - replace each character in the selection with entered character

In the visual block mode:

• O - move to other corner on the same line
• $ - select until the end of line, will work for all lines even if the length is different
• A / I - append / prepend the block with entered text

Visual block + $ - selects a non-rectangular block. Then use A to append to the end of lines. This is a very handy operation that often saves a lot of time.

Alternative: do A on one line, then select a block and repeat with :'<,'>normal ..

Select function body (between { and }): vaBV - select "a block" and then change the selection mode to line-wise. To select 2 levels up - v2aBV (when inside other {} block inside function) or vaBaB (repeat aB to move to the next block). A mapping to work from any level inside the function: :map t ? function <CR>f{vaBV (search backwards for function, move to the { and then do vaBV).

• <C-G> - normal mode, show current file name and path and cursor position
• g<C-G> - show file stats (number of columns, lines, words, bytes)

In insert mode, Ctrl-R= will prompt for the expression and insert the result into the document.

It can also be convenient to have the expression in the document, then copy it and insert when prompted. The insert operation will be in command-line mode and we can do it using Ctrl-R" (in cmd mode, Ctrl-R inserts the given register value).

For example:

Document:
5+5*2       | ^ v $ y       - go to start, select until end, copy
5+5*2=      | A = Ctrl-R =  - append, enter =, Ctrl-R = to invoke prompt

Command line:
=           | Ctrl-R "      - insert the copied expression
=5+5*2      | Enter

Document:
5+5*2=15

cos(1.57)=7.963267e-4

See :help i_CTRL-R_=, :help c_CTRL-R, :help registers.

• <C-K>{char1}{char2} - insert a digraph (normal mode)
• digraph table
• <C-V><key> - insert the key literally (like <C-V><Tab> always inserts a tab, regardless of 'expandtab' option).
• <C-V>{code} - insert the unicode char literally by decimal code
• <C-V>u{code} - insert by hex code
• ga - show ascii value of char under cursor
• g8 - show utf-8 byte sequence for char under cursor

:dig - show digraphs

Some commands to manage files from Vim command line:

• set path.,**= - set path to recursively look through the sub-directories.
• :find **/filename or :e **/filename - search for the file and open it.
• :find **/filename<TAB> - display the list of matching files and move through them
• :saveas new_name - make a copy with new_name and switch to that copy
• :saveas Ctrl-R % - will insert the current file name, useful if new file name is similar to the current file name (also the following can be useful to edit the new name in the command-line window)
• :w new_name - make a copy, but don't switch to it
• :drop file_name - open file or jump to already opened version
• :set switchbuf + useopen= + :sbuffer path/to/file - with 'useopen' option will also search for already open buffer and jump to it (also affects quickfix)
• :hardcopy - print the file

The 'tpope/vim-eunuch' adds more commands to manage files (like Remove, Move, Chmod, Find, SudoWrite, and others).

Netrw is the standard Vim file manager:

• <F1> - open netrw help (use <C-^> to get back)
• - - go to the parent dir, <CR> - open a file
• R - rename file
• d - create dir
• mf - mark file, mF - unmark file, mu - unmark all files, qF - mark quickfix files
• :MF pattern - mark files by pattern, mr - query for pattern and mark files
• mt - mark target dir (or :MP dir), mark files, mc - copy files (mm - move)
• mg - vimgrep marked, mz - compress / decompress, mx - apply shell command, md - diff, mp - print
• qf - file info
• <del>, D - delete file or dir (marked files if there are any, visual selection if any)
• gh - hide / unhide dot files
• i - switch view mode (thin / long / wide / tree)
• s - sorting style
• p - preview the file
• x - view the file with an associated program (gx in any buffer)
• X - execute the file
• mb - bookmark the directory, gb - go to bookmarked dir, qb - list bookmarks and history
• :Ex */pattern - search in current dir
• :Ex **/pattern - search in current dir and sub-directories
• :Ex **//pattern - search in dir and sub-dirs inside files with vimgrep

• :help 42
• :help!
• :help holy-grail
• :help UserGettingBored
• :help quotes
• :Ni!
• :set rightleft (revert with :set norightleft or :set rightleft!)
• :help map-modes (see comment below the table about :nunmap)
• :help showmatch (read the note)
• :help bar