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I have started using vim recently and was wondering if there's any keyboard shortcut to move the the last character of previous line( line number l-1 if I am currently on line number l) ?
One of the ways is to use the up arrow to move to the same column of previous line and then use $ to move to the end of the line.
I am looking for some shortcut to do that in one command.
UPDATE:
Here's also another solution to move to the beginning of the next line / the end of the previous line without the need to set any mappings. Add these three to your .vimrc:
set whichwrap+=<,h
set whichwrap+=>,l
set whichwrap+=[,]
(Credit to: Kevin H. Lin and garyjohn)
Original Answer:
I've not memorized all Vim shortcut combinations, so there might be one shortcut for what you're asking for, but I usually define a mapping whenever I need something I don't know how to do.
For what you need, you can simply define it with this:
nnoremap <S-L> <Up><S-4>
Just add it to your ~/.vimrc(if this file doesn't exist yet, create it yourself), then restart vim. Then the next time you open up your Vim, the "Shift-L" shortcut will do the job.
You can go straight into the insert mode as well and append characters after the last character of the previous line with this rule instead:
nnoremap <S-L> <Up><S-A>
Also in case you don't understand the structure of the above rules, you can read more about it here:
Understand Vim Mappings and Create Your Own Shortcuts.
There is a corner case: If your cursor is on the first line, pressing this mapping should not move the cursor.
Therefore, we can use the <expr> mapping:
nnoremap <expr> <F6> line('.')==1?'\<F6>':'k$'
In the example above, I used <F6>, you can choose the short-cut key you like.
I am editing a dictionary in a text file, containing Russian words - one word per line.
Some nouns are missing their derivatives, which are usually the same word appended by few more letters - in 6-7 variations as shown in this screenshot:
In Vim I would like to put the cursor in the first column and scroll down line by line. And when I recognize a noun, I'd like to press some (as few as possible!) keystrokes to take that word, copy it in separate lines and append the letters.
I can get rid of the duplicates by issuing %sort u later.
If I could run that command on the whole file it would be something like:
%s/\(.\+\)$/\1^M\1а^M\1ам^M\1ами^M\1ах^M\1е^M\1ном^M/
Do you please have an idea, how to create such a "macro" in Vim?
There are a couple of ways that you can handle this. You can create a macro or you can create a map. Either can be done while running VIM. Either can be placed in another file (your .vimrc, for example, or a file with bindings specific to this project) and sourced when needed.
I will also give you a bit more advice with regular expressions: if you are writing something particularly complex, you can greatly decrease the number of \s needed by starting the regular expression with \v (i.e., :s/\v([0-9a-f]+\s)/0x\1/g).
Creating a Macro in VIM
You can start a macro in VIM by pressing q in Normal mode, followed by the key that you wish to use for the macro. You can then invoke the macro by pressing # followed by the macro's letter. Press q again in Normal mode to stop recording.
You can therefore enter this macro as follows (using the q register):
qq:s/\(.\+\)$/\1\r\1а\r\1ам\r\1ами\r\1ах\r\1е\r\1ном\r/Enterq
Then, when you are on a line and you want to run this command, enter #q from Normal mode.
Storing a macro in a file and sourcing it
When you created a macro in the last step, what you were actually doing was setting the q register. You can check this by entering the registers in command mode. You can instead set this macro in your .vimrc file as follows and it will be available every time you start VIM.
Create the file you want to store this macro in (:new).
Add the following line to the file:
let #q=":s/\\(.\\+\\)$/\\1\\r\\1a\\r\\1b\\r\\1ам\\r\\1ами\\r\\1ах\\r\\1е\\r\\1ном\\r/^M"
(If you yank the line and paste it in VIM with Ctrl+R", there will be a proper ^M character at the end of the line. You'll need to do some manual editing to make sure that it's inside the quotes. Alternatively, you can enter Ctrl+VCtrl+M to enter the ^M character.)
Save the file (:w testmacro.vim).
Source it (:so % or :source %).
Test your macro by typing #q on one of the lines you'd like to do this to.
Later, you will be able to load this macro by running :so testmacro.vim.
Create a Mapping
You can instead create a mapping. The following mapping copies the last word in a given line, pastes it onto the following six lines, and then appends to each of the given lines.
nnoremap <c-j> yy6pAа<esc>jAам<esc>jAами<esc>jAах<esc>jAе<esc>jAном<esc>j
n at the beginning of "nnoremap" indicates that it only functions in Normal mode.
noremap means that this command won't engage in any recursive remapping (whereas with nmap, this could happen).
<c-j> maps to Ctrl+J
yy6p yanks the line and pastes it 6 times.
Aa<esc>j appends to the end of the current line, enters the text (in this case a), exits Insert mode, and moves down a line.
You can enter this command in VIM's command mode or you can store it in a file and load it with the :source command.
Combining Registers with Mappings
You can access a register in your mappings. This means that if you know that entering a given replacement regex will do what you want, you can save that in a register and then enter your command on the current line.
To do this, enter the following commands in a file and then source it:
nnoremap <c-i> :<c-r>f<cr>
let #f="s/\\(.\\+\\)$/\\1\\r\\1a\\r\\1b\\r\\1ам\\r\\1ами\\r\\1ах\\r\\1е\\r\\1ном\\r/^M"
Now you can enter Ctrl+I to run the replacement regex in register f on the current line.
Alternatively, dedicate a few registers to the purpose - let's say a-f.
nnoremap <c-l> yy6p$"apj"bpj"cpj"dpj"epj"fpj
let #a="a"
let #b="ам"
let #c="ами"
let #d="ax"
let #e="e"
let #f="ном
In this case, we're using the ability to press " and the name of a register before hitting a command that uses it, such as paste.
You can record macros by pressing q in the escape mode. For example,
position your cursor on the noun you want to edit.
press qa to start recording macro and store it in register a (other alphabet and digits may also be used for registers) .
do whatever general actions you want to do (copy line, paste, append letters, etc. as in you have tried to show in your search string).
once you are done with the changes, in escape mode press q again.
Your macro is now created in register a. Whenever, you want to repeat your key sequences, just press #a.
Note that you can do anything in recording mode, including any kinds of commands, insertions, cursor movements, and so on. For more information on macros and related options, check out Vim help :h complex-repeat.
Vim registers are shared as place holders for both macros and yanked test; this feature allows you to even save and edit your macros in a file. See this question for details.
Here is a map solution - which copies the line into a buffer and then pastes using p.
The A appends at the end of the line
map <F2> 0dwpo<esc>pAa<enter><esc>pAam<enter><esc>pAax ...etc
If your goal is, when your cursor on a special word, and press something, vim will append different "suffixes" (I hope I used the right word, but you knew what I mean). You could go macro (q). However since you have already written the :s command, you could create a mapping using that command do the same, and it would be shorter.
in command line, you can get the word under cursor by pressing <c-r><c-w>. so you could try:
nnoremap <leader>z :s/<c-r><c-w>/& & &..../<cr>
I didn't write the & & &... part, since I don't know (never tried, I don't have vim under windows. I don't even have windows) if the line break \n could be used here under windows. & means the whole matched part, which in this case is the word under your cursor.
So you just move your cursor to the word, type <leader>z, vim will do the job for you. (if the replacement part is correct :) ).
I'd like to paste yanked text into Vim's command line. Is it possible?
Yes. Hit Ctrl-R then ". If you have literal control characters in what you have yanked, use Ctrl-R, Ctrl-O, ".
Here is an explanation of what you can do with registers. What you can do with registers is extraordinary, and once you know how to use them you cannot live without them.
Registers are basically storage locations for strings. Vim has many registers that work in different ways:
0 (yank register: when you use y in normal mode, without specifying a register, yanked text goes there and also to the default register),
1 to 9 (shifting delete registers, when you use commands such as c or d, what has been deleted goes to register 1, what was in register 1 goes to register 2, etc.),
" (default register, also known as unnamed register. This is where the " comes in Ctrl-R, "),
a to z for your own use (capitalized A to Z are for appending to corresponding registers).
_ (acts like /dev/null (Unix) or NUL (Windows), you can write to it but it's discarded and when you read from it, it is always empty),
- (small delete register),
/ (search pattern register, updated when you look for text with /, ?, * or # for instance; you can also write to it to dynamically change the search pattern),
: (stores last VimL typed command via Q or :, readonly),
+ and * (system clipboard registers, you can write to them to set the clipboard and read the clipboard contents from them)
See :help registers for the full reference.
You can, at any moment, use :registers to display the contents of all registers. Synonyms and shorthands for this command are :display, :reg and :di.
In Insert or Command-line mode, Ctrl-R plus a register name, inserts the contents of this register. If you want to insert them literally (no auto-indenting, no conversion of control characters like 0x08 to backspace, etc), you can use Ctrl-R, Ctrl-O, register name.
See :help i_CTRL-R and following paragraphs for more reference.
But you can also do the following (and I probably forgot many uses for registers).
In normal mode, hit ":p. The last command you used in vim is pasted into your buffer.
Let's decompose: " is a Normal mode command that lets you select what register is to be used during the next yank, delete or paste operation. So ": selects the colon register (storing last command). Then p is a command you already know, it pastes the contents of the register.
cf. :help ", :help quote_:
You're editing a VimL file (for instance your .vimrc) and would like to execute a couple of consecutive lines right now: yj:#"Enter.
Here, yj yanks current and next line (this is because j is a linewise motion but this is out of scope of this answer) into the default register (also known as the unnamed register). Then the :# Ex command plays Ex commands stored in the register given as argument, and " is how you refer to the unnamed register. Also see the top of this answer, which is related.
Do not confuse " used here (which is a register name) with the " from the previous example, which was a Normal-mode command.
cf. :help :# and :help quote_quote
Insert the last search pattern into your file in Insert mode, or into the command line, with Ctrl-R, /.
cf. :help quote_/, help i_CTRL-R
Corollary: Keep your search pattern but add an alternative: / Ctrl-R, / \|alternative.
You've selected two words in the middle of a line in visual mode, yanked them with y, they are in the unnamed register. Now you want to open a new line just below where you are, with those two words: :pu. This is shorthand for :put ". The :put command, like many Ex commands, works only linewise.
cf. :help :put
You could also have done: :call setreg('"', #", 'V') then p. The setreg function sets the register of which the name is given as first argument (as a string), initializes it with the contents of the second argument (and you can use registers as variables with the name #x where x is the register name in VimL), and turns it into the mode specified in the third argument, V for linewise, nothing for characterwise and literal ^V for blockwise.
cf. :help setreg(). The reverse functions are getreg() and getregtype().
If you have recorded a macro with qa...q, then :echo #a will tell you what you have typed, and #a will replay the macro (probably you knew that one, very useful in order to avoid repetitive tasks)
cf. :help q, help #
Corollary from the previous example: If you have 8go in the clipboard, then #+ will play the clipboard contents as a macro, and thus go to the 8th byte of your file. Actually this will work with almost every register. If your last inserted string was dd in Insert mode, then #. will (because the . register contains the last inserted string) delete a line. (Vim documentation is wrong in this regard, since it states that the registers #, %, : and . will only work with p, P, :put and Ctrl-R).
cf. :help #
Don't confuse :# (command that plays Vim commands from a register) and # (normal-mode command that plays normal-mode commands from a register).
Notable exception is #:. The command register does not contain the initial colon neither does it contain the final carriage return. However in Normal mode, #: will do what you expect, interpreting the register as an Ex command, not trying to play it in Normal mode. So if your last command was :e, the register contains e but #: will reload the file, not go to end of word.
cf. :help #:
Show what you will be doing in Normal mode before running it: #='dd' Enter. As soon as you hit the = key, Vim switches to expression evaluation: as you enter an expression and hit Enter, Vim computes it, and the result acts as a register content. Of course the register = is read-only, and one-shot. Each time you start using it, you will have to enter a new expression.
cf. :help quote_=
Corollary: If you are editing a command, and you realize that you should need to insert into your command line some line from your current buffer: don't press Esc! Use Ctrl-R =getline(58) Enter. After that you will be back to command line editing, but it has inserted the contents of the 58th line.
Define a search pattern manually: :let #/ = 'foo'
cf. :help :let
Note that doing that, you needn't to escape / in the pattern. However you need to double all single quotes of course.
Copy all lines beginning with foo, and afterwards all lines containing bar to clipboard, chain these commands: qaq (resets the a register storing an empty macro inside it), :g/^foo/y A, :g/bar/y A, :let #+ = #a.
Using a capital register name makes the register work in append mode
Better, if Q has not been remapped by mswin.vim, start Ex mode with Q, chain those “colon commands” which are actually better called “Ex commands”, and go back to Normal mode by typing visual.
cf. :help :g, :help :y, :help Q
Double-space your file: :g/^/put _. This puts the contents of the black hole register (empty when reading, but writable, behaving like /dev/null) linewise, after each line (because every line has a beginning!).
Add a line containing foo before each line: :g/^/-put ='foo'. This is a clever use of the expression register. Here, - is a synonym for .-1 (cf. :help :range). Since :put puts the text after the line, you have to explicitly tell it to act on the previous one.
Copy the entire buffer to the system clipboard: :%y+.
cf. :help :range (for the % part) and :help :y.
If you have misrecorded a macro, you can type :let #a=' Ctrl-R =replace(#a,"'","''",'g') Enter ' and edit it. This will modify the contents of the macro stored in register a, and it's shown here how you can use the expression register to do that. Another, simpler, way of modifying a macro is to paste it in a buffer ("ap), edit it, and put it again into the register, by selecting it and "ay.
If you did dddd, you might do uu in order to undo. With p you could get the last deleted line. But actually you can also recover up to 9 deletes with the registers #1 through #9.
Even better, if you do "1P, then . in Normal mode will play "2P, and so on.
cf. :help . and :help quote_number
If you want to insert the current date in Insert mode: Ctrl-R=strftime('%y%m%d')Enter.
cf. :help strftime()
Once again, what can be confusing:
:# is a command-line command that interprets the contents of a register as vimscript and sources it
# in normal mode command that interprets the contents of a register as normal-mode keystrokes (except when you use : register, that contains last played command without the initial colon: in this case it replays the command as if you also re-typed the colon and the final return key).
" in normal mode command that helps you select a register for yank, paste, delete, correct, etc.
" is also a valid register name (the default, or unnamed, register) and therefore can be passed as an arguments for commands that expect register names
For pasting something that is the system clipboard you can just use SHIFT - INS.
It works in Windows, but I am guessing it works well in Linux too.
"I'd like to paste yanked text into Vim command line."
While the top voted answer is very complete, I prefer editing the command history.
In normal mode, type: q:. This will give you a list of recent commands, editable and searchable with normal vim commands. You'll start on a blank command line at the bottom.
For the exact thing that the article asks, pasting a yanked line (or yanked anything) into a command line, yank your text and then: q:p (get into command history edit mode, and then (p)ut your yanked text into a new command line. Edit at will, enter to execute.
To get out of command history mode, it's the opposite. In normal mode in command history, type: :q + enter
For pasting something from the system clipboard into the Vim command line ("command mode"), use Ctrl+R followed by +. For me, at least on Ubuntu, Shift+Ins is not working.
PS: I am not sure why Ctrl+R followed by *, which is theoretically the same as Ctrl+R followed by + doesn't seem to work always. I searched and discovered the + version and it seems to work always, at least on my box.
It's worth noting also that the yank registers are the same as the macro buffers. In other words, you can simply write out your whole command in your document (including your pasted snippet), then "by to yank it to the b register, and then run it with #b.
For context, this information comes from out-of-the-box, no plugins, no .vimrc Vim 7.4 behavior in Linux Mint with the default options.
You can always select text with the mouse (or using V or v and placing the selection in the "* register), and paste it into the command line with Shift + Ctrl + v.
Typing Ctrl + r in the command line will cause a prompt for a register name. so typing :CTRL-r* will place the content register * into the command line. It will paste any register, not just "*. See :help c_CTRL-R.
Furthermore, the middle mouse button will paste into the command line.
See :help->quote-plus for a description of the how X Window deals with selection. Even in a plain, out-of-the-box Vim (again, in Vim 7.4 in Linux Mint, anyway), any selection made with the left mouse button can be pasted in the command line with the middle mouse button.
In addition, the middle mouse button will also paste text selected in Vim into many other X Window applications, even GUI ones (for example, Firefox and Thunderbird) and pasting text into the command line is also possible where the text was selected from other apps.
See :help->x11-selection for addl information.
tl;dr
Try the :CTRL-r approach first, and then use Shift + Ctrl + v or the middle mouse button if you need something else.
It is conceded that it can be confusing.
I was having a similar problem. I wanted the selected text to end up in a command, but not rely on pasting it in. Here's the command I was trying to write a mapping for:
:call VimuxRunCommand("python")
The docs for this plugin only show using string literals. The following will break if you try to select text that contains doublequotes:
vnoremap y:call VimuxRunCommand("<c-r>"")<cr>
To get around this, you just reference the contents of the macro using # :
vnoremap y:call VimuxRunCommand(#")<cr>
Passes the contents of the unnamed register in and works with my double quote and multiline edgecases.
OS X
If you are using Vim in Mac OS X, unfortunately it comes with older version, and not complied with clipboard options. Luckily, Homebrew can easily solve this problem.
Install Vim:
brew install vim --with-lua --with-override-system-vi
Install the GUI version of Vim:
brew install macvim --with-lua --with-override-system-vi
Restart the terminal for it to take effect.
Append the following line to ~/.vimrc
set clipboard=unnamed
Now you can copy the line in Vim with yy and paste it system-wide.
"[a-z]y: Copy text to the [a-z] register
Use :! to go to the edit command
Ctrl + R: Follow the register identity to paste what you copy.
It used to CentOS 7.
If you have two values yanked into two different registers (for example register a and register b) then you can simply set a variable c and do the operation on it.
For example, :set c = str2float(#a) + str2float(#b) and then you can paste the content of c anywhere.
For example whilst in INSERT mode, CTRL + R then type = to enter into the expression register and just type c after equal sign and hit ENTER. Done you should now have the total of a and b registers.
All these can be recorded in a macro and repeated over!
The str2float function is used if you are working with floats, if you don't, you will get integers instead.
I am not sure if this is idiomatic but it worked for my case where I needed to add 2 numbers in a row and repeat it for 500 more lines.
I like to use Control-v to paste from the system clipboard, so I use:
cnoremap <C-v> <C-r>+
I can easily select a rectangular area in a file provided this area contains text or spaces (or anything). I do it with visual block mode and motion keys.
But when I try to create such area in a new file (or any file without text) I can't.
Is there a way to 'expand' this area by automatically filling it with spaces for example? Or am I going in wrong direction?
The reason I want this:
I create a new file with vim and then would like to create a comment block similar to this:
##############################################
# #
# My comment goes here #
# #
##############################################
I can do it over existing text using Ctrl+v+motion keys, then r# to create an area filled with pounds. Then similarly to cut out inner rectangle with spaces.
How do I use this technique on a new file?
Thanks.
Apart from the (very good) answer from Brian Rasmussen, the only way I know of to do almost exactly what you're asking is to use virtualedit mode. This won't let you edit on non-existent lines, but it will let you edit beyond the end of existing lines. Therefore, to turn the current line into a load of # symbols, you could do this:
:set virtualedit=all
v50lr#
To make a 50x5 block, you could create 4 new blank lines and then do the same:
:set virtualedit=all
4o<ESC>
<C-V>4k50lr#
(where <C-V> means press Ctrl+V and <ESC> means press Esc).
I believe there are some plugins for various file types that make it much easier to create comment blocks like this, but I'm not sure which is best.
You could just do something like:
50i#<ESC>yyo#<ESC>48a<SPACE><ESC>a#<ENTER>#<SPACE><SPACE>My comment goes here<ESC>:exe<SPACE>'normal'<SPACE>(49-getpos('.')[2]).'a<SPACE>'<ENTER>a#<ENTER>#<ESC>48a<SPACE><ESC>a#<ESC>p
But maybe that's just me being silly! I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out what's going on there if you're interested (:help is your friend).
How about this as a slightly more serious alternative: bung the following in your vimrc or in a file in the plugins directory of the vim runtime folder (e.g. ~/.vim/plugins on Unix)
nmap <F4> :InsertCommentBlock<CR>
command! InsertCommentBlock call InsertCommentBlock()
function! InsertCommentBlock()
let linelength = 50
let linelist = []
call add(linelist, repeat('#', linelength))
call add(linelist, '#' . repeat(' ', linelength-2) . '#')
let comment = input('Please enter a comment: ')
call add(linelist, '# ' . comment . repeat(' ', linelength - (4+len(comment))) . '#')
call add(linelist, '#' . repeat(' ', linelength-2) . '#')
call add(linelist, repeat('#', linelength))
call append(line('.'), linelist)
endfunction
See:
:help function
:help 'virtualedit'
:help command
:help nmap
:help repeat()
:help append()
:help add()
:help getpos()
:help :exe
etc...
If you want to create a block like that in a new file, you could do something like 50i#EscY5P
So it's 50 times insert # followed by yank current line and put it 5 times. This will give you a 50x5 block of #.
Of course you still have to do, whatever you do to get from the block of #s to the comment in your post.
The accepted answer mentions using
:set virtualedit=all
However, then you enable virtualedit in all modes, which might not what you want. There is actually also an option to enable it in just block editing mode:
:set virtualedit=block
This is what I put in my vimrc
I don't think there's any to select text that isn't there, but the easy solution would be to "seed" it with something like 76a yy4p ... so draw 76 spaces, then copy the line 4 extra times.
What are the essential vim commands? What does a new-user need to know to keep themselves from getting into trouble? One command per comment, please.
What I find irreplaceable (because it works in vi also, unlike vim's visual mode) are marks. You can mark various spots with m (lower case) and then a letter of your choice (eg x). Then you go elsewhere, and can go back with ``x(backquote letter) to the exact spot, or with'x` (apostrophe letter) to go to the line.
These movements can be used as arguments to commands (yank, delete, etc). For example, you want to delete 10 lines; instead of counting and then moving to the topmost line and entering 10dd, you go to either the start or the end of the block, press mm (mark m), then go to the other end of the block, and press d'm (delete apostrophe m). If you use backquote instead of apostrophe in this example, then the deletion will work character-wise, not line-wise. Try marking in the middle of the line with "mark m", moving to the middle of another line, then entering "d backquote m" and you will see what I mean.
I was very happy the day I learned about using * or # to search, down or up respectively, for the word under the cursor. Make sure to :set incsearch and :set hlsearch first.
I like this QRC!
http://www.fsckin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/vi-vim_cheat_sheet.gif
When you have some repetitive action to take Macros are usually faster than regex.
Just type
q[0-9a-z] in normal mode
Many people use
qq
because it's fast.
Press
q in normal mode
again to stop recording.
Then just type
#[0-9a-z] in normal mode
to repeat what you just recorded.
#q
for the example like above.
Edited to add: you can also repeat the macro. Let's say you programed a macro to jump to the head of a line, insert a tab, and then jump down one line. You then test your macro by typing "#q" to run it once. Then you can repeat the action nine more times by typing "9#q".
:q -> quit
:w -> save
:q! -> quit and don't save
:x -> save and quit
:[number] -> go to line number
G -> go to end of file
dd -> delete line
p -> "put" line
yy -> "copy" line
:s/[searchfor] -> search
I guess those are the basic one to start from
Use the 'J' (J for Join; upper-case) command to delete the newline at the end of a line. You'll find it tricky otherwise.
This recent Vim tutorial from IBM is pretty good
First of all you need to know how to close vi:
ctrl-c : q!
Rest can be found from vimtutor. Launch vimtutor by typing vimtutor at your command line
Although this is a matter of personal preference I've found that one of the essential things to do is to remap Esc to something else.
I find it very uncomfortable to reach for the Esc key to exit insert mode, but the beautiful thing about Vim is that allows key mappings.
I'm currently using the following mapping using Control + S:
inoremap <C-s> <Esc>:w<CR>
This has the advantage of being a key mapping I have already committed to memory and has the added value of saving my work every time I go to normal mode. Yeah, I know it is crazy but I would be hitting the save command that frequently anyway. It's like a bad habit, you know.
" ~/.vimrc
" Turn on line numbering
set nu
" Turn on syntax highlighting
syntax on
" Set 4 space expanding tabs
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
set expandtab
"turn off line wrapping
set nowrap
" Map CTRL-N to create a new tab
:map <C-n> <ESC>:tabnew<RETURN>
" Map Tab and CTRL-Tab to move between tabs
:map <Tab> <ESC>:tabn<RETURN>
:map <C-Tab> <ESC>:tabp<RETURN>
If you're using vim, the 'u' command (in command mode) will Undo the last command you typed. You can use this command repeatedly to undo mistakes you may have made before saving the file.
See http://www.rayninfo.co.uk/vimtips.html for a great collection of Vim tips, from the basic can't-live-without to very sophisticated stuff that you might never have thought of trying.
Lots of great commands are listed at the Vim Tips Wiki.
It's also good to run the vimtutor when learning these commands
alias vi nedit :)
all humor aside..
for vi WHEN NOT using nedit..
i (switch to insert mode)
a (append = move to end of line and switch to insert mode)
esc (exit insert mode)
dd delete a line
x delete a character
:wq (save and quit)
/ start a search
n find Next
? search backwards..
yy (yank) copy a line to the buffer
pp (paste) paste it here
r (replace a character)
<N> <command> this is a neat - but aggravating feature that lets you type digits and then a command so
5dd will delete 5 lines
but at this point you might as well
- man vi and refresh your memory
While there are LOTS more, I switched from Vi to nedit several years ago, which I find has more features I can use on a regular basis more easily. Tabbed editing, incremental search bar, column select, copy and paste. sort selected lines, search and destroy within selection, whole doc or all open docs..
tear-off drop down menus..
and it supports syntax highlighting for all the languages I use.. (with pattern files I've used a long time over the years. VIM many now be equivalent, but It has to introduce a feature that Nedit doesn't and an easy way to migrate my pattern files before I switch again.
I like the Vim 5.6 Reference Guide, by Bram Moolenaar and Oleg Raisky.
You can directly print it in booklet form, easy to read, I always have it laying around.
It's a tad old, but what are 8 years in Vi's lifespan ?
:set ignorecase smartcase
Makes searching case-insensitive, unless your search includes a capital letter. Not the most indispensable perhaps, but I find myself setting this option any time I'm editing in a new place. It's in any vimrc file I own.
:%!xxd
View the contents of a buffer in hexadecimal. To revert:
:%!xxd -r
My biggest tip: ctrl+q saves the day when you accidentally hit ctrl+s to save the file you are working on
I have this in my vimrc
set number
set relativenumber
This gives me a line numbering system which makes j, k keys really productive.
I use vi very lightly, and I only use the following commands:
a - switch to insert mode (after the cursor)
esc - return to command mode
:wq - save and quit
:q - quit (no save, only without modification)
:q! - force quit (no save, also with modification)
x - delete one character (in command mode)
dd - delete the whole line (in command mode)
I know there are many many more, but those are enough to get you by.
One of my favourite commands is %G which takes to directly to the end of a file. Especially useful in log-files.
How to switch between modes (i to enter insert mode (one of many ways), esc to exit insert mode, colon for command mode) and how to save and exit. (:wq)
Another useful command is to search something: /
e.g. /Mon will search (and in case of vim highlight) any occurences of Mon in your file.
As a couple of other people have already mentioned, vimtutor is the way to go. It will teach you everything you need to know in vim. The one piece of general advice I would give you is to stay out of insert mode as much as possible. There is enormous power in the other modes, it just takes a little bit of practice to get used to it.
i - insert mode (escape to exit)
dd - delete line
shift-y - 'Yank' (copy) line
p - 'Put' (paste) line(s)
shift-v - Visual mode used to select text (tryin 'yanking' this text and 'putting' it somewhere.
ctrl-w n - create new window (you can open a file or start new file here)
ctrl-w v - split existing window vertically
ctrl-n (in insert mode) - autocomplete (if supported)
:! to run a shell command, usually with standard in as the file or a selection (shift-V)
Useful plugins to look at:
* Buffer Explorer - use \be to view files in the buffer (and select to re-open)
NB vi is not vim! vim is rapidly turning into the emacs of the new century. nvi is probably the closest thing to the original vi. Here's a nice hint: "xp" will exchange two characters (try it).
replace 'foo' with 'bar' everywhere in the file
:%s/foo/bar/gc
The real power is in the searching. Here are the essential commands:
/Steve will find the first instance of "Steve" in the text.
n will find the next "Steve" in the text.
:%s//Stephen/g will replace all those instances of "Steve" you just searched for with "Stephen".
Not to promote myself, but I wrote a blog post on this subject. It focuses on the critical parts of Vim for a beginner.
My favorites:
% find matching bracket/brace
* and # next/previous match
gg top of page
G end of the page
<Ctrl-v> Change to visual mode and select column
<Ctrl-a> increase current number by 1
<Ctrl-x> decrease current number by 1
Running macros