Vim Commands Cheat Sheet, Copy-Pasteable

Exiting Vim

• :w  - Write (Save)
• :wq - Write and quit
• :q  - Quit, fails if unsaved
• :q! - Quit, even if unsaved

Modes

• ESC    - Return to normal mode
• i      - Insert at cursor position
• a      - Insert after cursor position
• o      - Insert on line below cursor
• v      - Enter visual mode
• ctrl+v - Enter visual mode (vertical)
• V      - Enter visual mode (full lines)

Toggling Case

• u [in visual mode] - To lowercase
• U [in visual mode] - To uppercase
• Undo/Redo
• u      - Undo
• ctrl+r - Redo

Movement

• $     - Jump to end of line
• ^     - Jump to start of line
• h     - Move left
• j     - Move down
• k     - Move up
• l     - Move right
• H     - Move to top of screen
• M     - Move to middle of screen
• L     - Move to bottom of screen
• gg    - Move to start of file
• G     - Move to end of file
• 420gg - Move to line 420
• w     - Jump to start of next word
• b     - Jump to start of prev word

Search

• /something    - Search for string
• n             - Jump to next match
• N             - Jump to prev match
• /something\c  - Case insensitive search

Copy-Pasting

• y  [in visual mode] - Copy highlighted text
• yy                  - Copy the current line
• d  [in visual mode] - Cut highlighted text
• dd                  - Cut the current line
• Ctrl+Shift+V        - Paste from external clipboard

Find-and-Replace

• Find and Replace All in Document
  • :%s/find/replace/g
• Find and Replace All on Current Line
  • :s/find/replace/g  [in visual mode]  
• Find and Replace All in Highlighted Section
  • :'<,'>s/find/replace/g  [in visual mode] 
• Find and Replace All in Document
  • :%s/address/replace/g

Important Regular Expression (REGEX) Characters

• . - Any single character
• * - Up to unlimited characters