Have you ever felt slow working with Vi/Vim?
Check this one-page cheat sheet that will help you get back to work quickly and improve your velocity while working in Vi/Vim:
Vi & Vim Cheat Sheet in PDF format
This is a core essentials Vi & Vim cheat sheet which cover the basic quick references of Vi insert mode, edit commands, ex commands, navigation, search and substitute, etc.
👉 Not sure between Vi and Vim? Check my post on the
Differences Between Vi and Vim.
Insert & Replace
| |
|---|
| i | insert text before the cursor |
| a | insert text after the cursor |
| I | insert text at the beginning of the current line |
| A | insert text at the end of the current line |
| o | insert text in a new line below the cursor |
| O | insert text in a new line above the cursor |
| r | replace a character at the cursor position |
| R | replace characters starting at the cursor position |
Cursor Motion
| |
|---|
| h or ← | move cursor left |
| l or → | move cursor right |
| k or ↑ | move cursor up |
| j or ↓ | move cursor down |
| G | goto the end of file |
| nG or :n | goto the line number n |
| 0 | move to the beginning of the line |
| $ | move to the end of the line |
| CTRL+f | move one screen view forward |
| CTRL+b | move one screen view backward |
Ex Commands
| |
|---|
| :q | quit current open file |
| :q! | force to quit without saving changes |
| :w | save file |
| :w file | save file as file |
| :wq! | force to save file then quit |
| :x,yw file | write from line x to line y into file |
| :w » file | append buffer to file |
| :e file | edit another file |
| :e! file | edit another file without saving current changes |
| :r file | insert file content at the current cursor position |
| :n | edit next file in vi arguments file list |
| CTRL+G | display current file name and position |
Search & Substitute
| |
|---|
| /string | search forward for string |
| ?string | search backward for string |
| n | repeat the last search |
| :,$s/str1/str2/gc | search and substitute str1 by str2 from the current line to the end of file. A line number can be specified before the comma “,”. The “c” ask for confirmation before each substitution |
| :%s/str1/str2/g | replace all str1 by str2 in all the file without prompting for confirmation |
| :%s/str1/str2/ | replace str1 by str2 on the first occurrence in each line of the file |
Undo, Delete, and Copy
| |
|---|
| u | undo last change |
| CTRL+r | redo last undo change |
| mA | set mark A to current position. Marks can be the letter [a-z] and [A-Z] |
| y'A | yank (copy) from current line to mark A |
| d'A | delete from current line to mark A |
| P | put the buffer content before the cursor |
| p | put the buffer content after the cursor |
| x | delete character at cursor position |
| dW | delete first word after cursor position |
| d$ or D | delete from cursor position to end of line |
| dd | delete current line |
| J | join current line with following line |
Going Further
- :map for mapping a key in command mode to a group of commands. Example:
:map de :1,$d^M will delete all
lines when using the :de command. - :set to define or show your editor options. Example:
:set number will make vi display line numbers, and
“:set all” will display all current vi options. - :ab to define a text abbreviation in insert mode. Example:
:ab VIM Vi Improved will auto-complete “VIM”
in insert mode for the phrase “Vi Improved”.
