Vim cheat sheet

Definition

Vim is a free and open-source text editor program, popular on UNIX systems.

Cheat sheet

You can download a printable Vim command line cheat sheet here.

Command	Description
ESC	Command mode
i	insert mode (write)
v	visual mode (search in document)
:shell	open command line prompt
:e filename	open a new file
:w	save changes
:q	exit vim
:q!	exit vim without changing changes
:wq	save changes and exit vim
:u	undo last action
CTRL + r	redo
o	open new line BELOW the cursor + insert mode
O	open new line ABOVE the cursor + insert mode
A	go to the end of the line + insert mode
yy	yank the current line
y	yank the highlighted text
dd	delete the current line
D	delete to the end of the line
d	delete the highlighted text
dw	delete word
p	paste text after cursor position, paste line below the current line
x	delete current character
:vs	split the current window vertically
:split file	opens file in second window
CTRL + l	move to the right window
CTRL + h	move to the left window
:q	close window
h	move LEFT
j	move DOWN
k	move UP
l	move RIGHT
gg	go to the beginning of the document
G	go to the end of the document
w	move to the NEXT word
:n [line_nb]	jump to line number [line_nb]
qf<commands recorded>q	record macro and associate it to the character “f”
@f	execute macro associated to the character “f”
:%s/foo/bar/g	find each occurrence of ‘foo’ and replace it with ‘bar’
:%s/foo/bar/gc	change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’, but ask for confirmation first