Vim Commands Cheatsheet

Some great Vim commands are listed at Best of Vim Tips.

Moving the Cursor

• h Move cursor left
• l Move cursor right
• k Move cursor up
• j Move cursor down
• nG Move cursor to line n
• $ Move cursor to end of current line
• 0 Move cursor to beginning of current line
• w Move cursor forward one word
• b Move cursor backward one ward
• fc Move forward to c
• Fc Move back to c
• H Move to top of screen
• M Move to middle of screen
• L Move to bottom of screen
• % Move to associated ( ), { }, [ ]
• ( Move a sentence back
• ) Move a sentence forward
• { Move a paragraph back
• } Move a paragraph forward

Save & Exit

• :q Quit Vim (fails when changes have been made)
• :q! Quit without saving
• :cq Quit always, without saving
• :w Save current file
• :w [filename] Save current file as [filename]
• :wq Save current file and exit
• :wq! Save current file and exit always
• :wq [filename] Save to [filename], exit if not editing the last
• :wq! [filename] Save to [filename] and exit always
• :[range] wqSave only lines in [range] and exit
• ZZ Save current file, if modified, and exit
• ZQ Quit current file and exit

Editing a File

• :e Edit the current file
• :e! Edit the current file always, discard any changes to current buffer
• :e [filename] Edit [filename]
• :e! [filename] Edit [filename] always, discard any changes to current buffer
• gf Edit the file whose name is under or after the cursor

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 next buffer (right)
• Ctrl + wl move cursor to previous buffer (left)

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

Inserting Text

• a Append text after the cursor
• A Append text at the end of the line
• i Insert text before the cursor
• I Insert text before the first non-blank in the line
• o Begin a new line below the cursor and insert text
• O Begin a new line above the cursor and insert text

Inserting a File

• :r [name] Insert the file [name] below the cursor
• :r ![cmd] Execute [cmd] and insert its standard output below the cursor

Deleting Text

• x Delete characters under and after the cursor
• X Delete characters before the cursor
• d Delete text that [motion] moves over
• dw Delete word from cursor on
• db Delete word backward
• d$ Delete to end of line
• dd Delete lines
• D Delete the characters under the cursor until the end of the line

Yank (to copy)

• yy Yank current line
• y$ Yank to end of line from cursor
• yw Yank from cursor to end of current word
• nyy Yank n lines

Put (or paste)

• p Paste below cursor
• P Paste above cursor
• u Undo last change
• U Restore line
• J Join next line down to current line

Substitute (Replace)

• :s/pattern/string/flags Replace pattern with string according to flags in current line only.
• :%s/pattern/string/flags Replace pattern with string according to flags in all lines.
• g Flag - Replace all occurrences of pattern
• :%s/\<pattern\>/string/g Change only whole words exactly matching 'pattern' to 'string'
• c Flag - Confirm replaces. 
• :%s/pattern/string/gc Change each pattern to string, but ask for confirmation first.
• & Repeat last :s command

Visual commands

• > shift text right
• < shift text left
• y yank (copy) marked text
• d delete marked text
• ~ switch case

Other Useful Commands

• . Repeat last command
• cw Change current word to new word
• r Replace one character at the cursor position
• R Begin overstrike or replace mode
• :/ [pattern] Search forward for [pattern]
• :? [pattern] Search backward for [pattern]

Regular Expressions

• . Any single character except newline
• * zero or more occurances of any character
• [...] Any single character specified in the set
• [^...] Any single character not specified in the set
• ^ Anchor - beginning of the line
• $ Anchor - end of line
• \< Anchor - begining of word
• \> Anchor - end of word
• \(...\) Grouping - usually used to group conditions