Programmer’s like to be nerdy! And programmers are depicted as nerds. Of course, I won’t open up gedit to impress my sister. That’s not it. I researched a little before actually jumping into vi if it is worth investing time upon and yeah, it’s debatable, but what I found true; which is true in general as well; is the more you invest your time, the better you will be and once you master it, you will start using vim like a language, like talking and giving command to the editor. That clicked the yes button. Once I started using it, I found the navigation keys being used in many other gui applications as well as other editor’s as well, as plugins or as “vi mode”. Anyway, I am enjoying it.

I am using NeoVIM; nvim. It is a “hyperextensible Vim-based text editor” as they put it. And it is really not that bad. Every day I am learning new shortcut keys that is making my navigation easier and faster. And the more I am using it, the more I am liking it! There is absolutely no reason I regret learning vim based editors but as of right now (2019-08-28), I am not in the position to actually recommend you to switch from your comfrotable text editors or IDEs to vim based editors.

So, in this post I want to list down the shortcut keys that I use the most or have found useful, so that I could refer back if I need to someday. The order will mostly be the same as I had learned it in.

So the commands:

i – Go to insert mode (Remember there are two modes in vi, Command mode and Insert Mode). Puts the cursor before the highlighted character.
Esc Key – Go to command mode. Clean any command buffer. The navigation keys and other commands works only in the command mode.
a – Go to insert insert mode. Puts the cursor after the highlighted character.
H J K L – Beautiful navigation arrows
A – Go to insert mode. Puts the cursor at the end of the line.
d – Ready for deletion. The next command followed actually decides what to delete. Explained below.
dw – Deletes the word (characters after current cursor position). Note that commands are flexible like languages and have subtle differences in vi. Eg. d5w means delete five words. More examples below.

Okay, at this point, I realize, it might have been better if I had categorized the commands / shortcuts into different categories such as navigation, clipboard operations, deleting, editing or things like that but since the way I am going here is exactly the way I learned it, or the way we learn using typical commands, it shouldn’t be that bad. So, lets continue further.

dd – Delete line.
b w e – Navigation keys. Go to the beginning of word on left. Go to the beginning of word to the right. Go to the end of word to the right. (You can use this like dw command as well, i.e. You can think of it as db or de commands. But what actually happening is the delete command d was waiting for selection to be deleted and w, b, e provide the content for deletion. You can use it along ith numbers as well, as was stated in the dw command above.)
ge – To move backwards to the end of the previous word
:q – Quit. (Use :q!) for force quit. Also, you might notice what the : does. It prompts a new input where. This is used frequently.
:w – Save. (Use :wq) for save and quit.
y – Yank (Copy)
x – Delete highlighted character (Actually puts that into clipboard, so it’s like, ‘cut’ one letter)
p – Put (Paste)
gg – Go to beginning of file
G – Go to the end of file
[N]gg – Go to the line number N (The line numbers are set using :set number (listed below))
[N]G – Go to the line number N
[P]% – Go to point P percent through the buffer

Haven’t I written about the search key?

/ – Searches for text. Regex can be used (which I haven’t yet)
:noh – No highlight. (Removes highlight on last search results)
:let @/ = ““ – To clear the last used search pattern

Can you function without line numbers?

Since we are dabbling in vim and its wonders already, line numbers in a code is something I can’t miss out. It is useless to mention (yet I am mentioning) that without visible line numbers for reference, one cannot use the command :[line_number], efficiently. This particular command led me to other commands.

:set number – set absolute line numbers in your code, text etc. Short version is :set nu.
:set relativenumber – This is the coolest one for sure. It will set the line your cursor is in as 0 and the line above and below as 1,2,3 and so on. Short version is :set rnu

Now lets undo these deeds.

:set nonumber – unset the line numbers set before. Short version is :set nonu.
:set norelativenumber – unset relative line numbers set before. Short version is :set nornu.

Just use them as :set nu!, to set and unset with single command. The ! toggles things.

Managing windows and navigating

:split – Divides the screen to to horizontal splits
:vsplit – Divides the screen to to vertical splits

[Ctrl w + L] – Move the current window to the “far right” split
[Ctrl w + H] – Move the current window to the “far left” split
[Ctrl w + J] – Move the current window to the “very bottom” split
[Ctrl w + K] – Move the current window to the “very top” split

Scrolling

[Ctrl F] – Scroll Forward one window of text
[Ctrl D] – Scroll Down one window of text
[Ctrl U] – Scroll Up one window of text
[Ctrl B] – Scroll Back one window of text

Undo / Redo

u – Undo
[Ctrl R] – Redo

Mark (similar to bookmarking) a place

m[char] – Marks a place which we can easily come back to. eg. mx
`[char] – Backtick and a char brings back to that marked point
‘[char] – Go to the start of the line containing the mark

So that is the Vim philosophy they are talking about!

About a month ago, I learned something really interesting and really cool about Vim. It’s about actually using Vim not as an editor that has many different commands that are; say; to be remembered and all that. I learned Vim is actually about using it as a language to talk to the editor, which would make editing like talking to Vim to do task. And I also learned the navigation options like * and # which acts like searching but most importantly, I learned about the “repeatability” philosophy. I learned how the dot (.) can be used to repeat a set of commands and how one should try to use commands in the way that could be used repeatedly.

Also, changing inner word ciw (and related commands such as ci)) made my editing more easier and at the same time more elegant.

Last Updated: Thu Jan 23 14:16:48 2020 +0545
Author: Madhav Humagain (scimad) & Sharmila Upadhyaya