Cursor movement
- h – move cursor left
- j – move cursor down
- k – move cursor up
- l – move cursor right
- w – jump forwards to the start of a word
- W – jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- e – jump forwards to the end of a word
- E – jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- b – jump backwards to the start of a word
- B – jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- 0 – jump to the start of the line
- ^ – jump to the first non-blank character of the line
- $ – jump to the end of the line
- G – go to the last line of the document
- 5G – go to line 5
- fx – jump to next occurrence of character x
- tx – jump to before next occurrence of character x
- } – Jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
- { – Jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
Insert mode – inserting/appending text
- i – insert before the cursor
- I – insert at the beginning of the line
- a – insert (append) after the cursor
- A – insert (append) at the end of the line
- o – append (open) a new line below the current line
- O – append (open) a new line above the current line
- ea – insert (append) at the end of the word
- Esc – exit insert mode
Editing
- r – replace a single character
- J – join line below to the current one
- cc – change (replace) entire line
- cw – change (replace) to the end of the word
- c$ – change (replace) to the end of the line
- s – delete character and substitute text
- S – delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
- xp – transpose two letters (delete and paste)
- u – undo
- Ctrl + r – redo
- . – repeat last command
Marking text (visual mode)
- v – start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
- V – start linewise visual mode
- o – move to other end of marked area
- Ctrl + v – start visual block mode
- O – move to other corner of block
- aw – mark a word
- ab – a block with ()
- aB – a block with {}
- ib – inner block with ()
- iB – inner block with {}
- Esc – exit visual mode
Visual commands
- > – shift text right
- < – shift text left
- y – yank (copy) marked text
- d – delete marked text
- ~ – switch case
Cut and paste
- yy – yank (copy) a line
- 2yy – yank (copy) 2 lines
- yw – yank (copy) word
- y$ – yank (copy) to end of line
- p – put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
- P – put (paste) before cursor
- dd – delete (cut) a line
- 2dd – delete (cut) 2 lines
- dw – delete (cut) word
- D – delete (cut) to the end of the line
- d$ – delete (cut) to the end of the line
- x – delete (cut) character
Exiting
- :w – write (save) the file, but don’t exit
- :wq or :x or ZZ – write (save) and quit
- :q – quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
- :q! or ZQ – quit and throw away unsaved changes
Search and replace
- /pattern – search for pattern
- ?pattern – search backward for pattern
- \vpattern – ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
- n – repeat search in same direction
- N – repeat search in opposite direction
- :%s/old/new/g – replace all old with new throughout file
- :%s/old/new/gc – replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
Working with multiple files
- :e filename – edit a file in a new buffer
- :bnext or :bn – go to the next buffer
- :bprev or :bp – go to the previous buffer
- :bd – delete a buffer (close a file)
- :sp filename – open a file in a new buffer and split window
- :vsp filename – open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
- Ctrl + ws – split window
- Ctrl + ww – switch windows
- Ctrl + wq – quit a window
- Ctrl + wv – split window vertically
- Ctrl + wh – move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
- Ctrl + wl – move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
- Ctrl + wj – move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
- Ctrl + wk – move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)
Tabs
- :tabnew filename or :tabn filename – open a file in a new tab
- Ctrl + wT – move the current split window into its own tab
- gt or :tabnext or :tabn – move to the next tab
- gT or :tabprev or :tabp – move to the previous tab
- #gt – move to tab number #
- :tabmove # – move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
- :tabclose or :tabc – close the current tab and all its windows
- :tabonly or :tabo – close all tabs except for the current one
