vim shortcuts / cheat sheet

Note: This table is presupposes that you are using my vim setup.

command mode

Every command can be executed n times by pressing a number and then entering the command. All commands with a movement following (e.g. c+movement) can have a number before the movement (e.g. c4l).

movement

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
h	move left
j	move down
k	move up
l	move right
w	move one word right (including next space)
W	same as w, but with punctuation jump
e	move one word right (excluding next space)
E	same as e, but with punctuation jump
b	move one word left
B	same as b, but with punctuation jump
$	move to end of the line
0	move to start of the line
^	move to the first word of line	same as 0w
%	move between two together belonging brackets
(	move code block up (at line position of first word)
)	move code block down (at line position of first word)
{	move code block up (at line position zero)
}	move code block down (at line position zero)
f	jump to next occurrence of next entered character in line
F	jump to previous occurrence of next entered character in line
t	jump to next occurrence of next entered character in line - 1
T	jump to previous occurrence of next entered character in line - 1
;	repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
,	repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
gg	move to top of file
G	move to bottom of file
number+gg	go to line number
gd	go to local declaration of variable
gD	go to global declaration of variable
g_	jump to the last non-blank character of the line
ctrl+f	one page forward
ctrl+b	one page backwards
ctrl+d	move forward one half screen
ctrl+u	move backwards one half screen
zz	center cursor
ctrl+e	move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
ctrl+y	move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
enter or +	move down at line position of first word
/	search regex-pattern	leave with enter
#	search word at current cursor position and jump to next occurrence of it above
*	search word at current cursor position and jump to next occurrence of it below
N	just jump in case of search to occurrence above
n	just jump in case of search to occurrence below
M	put cursor in middle of current screen
H	jump to top of the currently visible screen
L	jump to bottom of the currently visible screen
m+mark-name	set mark at current cursor position	marks with same name will be replaced	ma: mark with name a set at current cursor position
`+mark-name	jump to previously set mark		when mark a has been set, jump with `a to the previous cursor position
'+mark-name	jump to line start of previously set mark

text manipulation

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
u	undo
ctrl+r	redo
U	switch undo of whole line
r	replace character at current cursor position with next key press
R	switch to replace-mode, will replace all characters till exited
x	delete character at current cursor position
~	switch case (upper or lower) of character at current cursor position and move one right
p	paste after cursor	stands for 'put'
P	paste before cursor
y+movement	copy with the movement	stands for 'yank'	y$ will copy till end of line
Y	copy to end of line	same as y$
d+movement	delete with the movement		d$ will delete till end of line
D	delete to end of line	same as d$
dd	delete line	actually cut it
yy	copy line
J	delete newline character in line below
-	insert newline character below
<<	move line one tab left
>>	move line one tab right
=G	indent file below cursor	in c, cpp, etc. with clang-format
!!	enter shell command, the result of it will be pasted below the cursor
ö	enter semicolon at end of the line
ü	delete two together belonging parenthesis, brackets or braces
xp	swap two characters	cut then paste
+	toggle inline comment

switch to insert mode

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
i	enter insert mode at cursor
I	enter insert mode at first word of line	same as ^i or 0wi
a	enter insert mode at cursor position + 1
A	enter insert mode at end of line
o	insert newline below and enter insert mode there (auto indented)
O	insert newline above and enter insert mode there (auto indented)
c+movement	delete to movement, move cursor there and enter insert mode
C	change till end of line	same as c$
cc	delete whole line and jump in insert mode
ä	enter curly-braces and move to insert mode between them

insert mode

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
esc	return to command mode
jk or kj	same as escape
ctrl+c	same as escape
ctrl+n	insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor
ctrl+p	insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor
ctrl+t	move line one tab to right (indent)
ctrl+d	move line one tab to left (de-indent)
ctrl+w	delete previous word
any key	use keyboard as you are used to	This setup auto-completes all types of brackets and quotation marks.

other

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
.	repeat last action
K	open man page of cmd
"	toggle netrw
F2	toggle paste mode	Paste with right mouse click and remember to leave this mode again (toggle back)!
F3	git pull
F4	git add -A && git commit -m "...
F5	git push
F6	beautify code	with clang-format, note that the .clang-format file is needed in the same dir as the code is
F7	compile and execute code	this is used
F8	toggle style	codedark (w/ modified bg) and PaperColor
F9	toggle netrw	same as '"'
F10	:q!
ZZ	:q

enter visual mode

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
v	enter character visual mode	select single character
V	enter line visual mode	select whole lines
ctrl+v	enter block visual mode	select code blocks

visual mode

In the visual mode, everything selected is affected by these commands. The visual mode gets exited after executing one command.

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
v	select more or quit
d or x	delete	actually cut
y	copy	'yank'
~	swap case (upper and lower)
>	shift one tab right
<	shift one tab left
+	toggle inline comment in selected lines
movement	of any kind moves selection

window manager

Press ctrl+w and then enter the next commands (from this table) for window mode and expected behaviour.

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
w	switch between two windows
h	move to window on the left
j	move to window below
k	move to window above
l	move to window on right
v	create vertical split at right
n	create horizontal split
=	make viewports equal size
-	decrease current viewport one line
+	increase current viewport one line
q	quit current window
r	rotate windows to right
R	rotate window to left

tabs

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
alt+j or gT	move to tab on the left
alt+k or gt	move to the tab on the right
#gt number	go to specific tab number

netrw (file manager)

Note: Netrw is just a window, so controllable by window manager. Note: All vim commands are active here (concludes that searching with / for example is also possible). Note: Move between files with movement keys.

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
F9 or "	toggle netrw
enter	if on folder, open it; if on file, replace current file in current window
v	open in vertical split	on file
t	open in new tab	on file

commands

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
:help keyword	shows help to vim command
:w	write
:q	quit
:q!	quit override
:wq	write quit
:wa	write all tabs
:wqa	write quit all tabs
:w filename	saves in with new filename	does not delete old file
:e	reload file
:e filename	edit a file
:r + filename	read file and paste it below cursor
:s	substitute
:set ic	enable ignore-case for search
:set noic	disable ignore-case for search
:delmarks mark-name	delete marks		delmarks abcd or delmarks a-d deletes marks a, b, c and d
:bd	delete current buffer
:bn	switch to next buffer
:bp	switch to previous buffer
:sp filename	opens a new file and splits your screen horizontally to show more than one buffer
:vsp filename	opens a new file and splits your screen vertically to show more than one buffer
:ls	list all open buffers
:tabedit filename	open file in new tab
:tabclose	close a single tab
:tabs	list all open tabs

substitute command

More info here.

shortcut	behaviour	comment	example
:s/foo/bar/g	replace 'foo' with 'bar' in current line
:%s/foo/bar/g	replace 'foo' with 'bar' in all lines
:%s/foo/bar/gc	change each 'foo' to 'bar', but ask for confirmation first
:5,12s/foo/bar/g	change each 'foo' to 'bar' for all lines from line 5 to line 12 (inclusive)