Vi and Vim Quick References: A One Page Cheat Sheet

Last updated: 2022-03-20

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Have you ever felt slow working with Vi/Vim?

Vim is a free and open-source, screen-based text editor program inspired by Vi. It may be difficult for newcomers and even long-term users to remember all the different commands. This one-page cheat sheet 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 post covers the core essentials Vi & Vim cheat sheet, including brief references of Vi insert mode, edit commands, ex commands, navigation, search and substitute, etc. The cheat sheet is also available in an easy-to-print pdf and jpg format, or support this blog with the poster size Vi and Vim cheat sheet. You may also want to check my post on the Differences Between Vi and Vim.

Vi & Vim Cheat Sheet - Essentials References

👉 You have to use the ESC (escape key) to get into the vi command mode. You will need to press the RETURN Key for executing a command starting with the ponctuation character : or / or ?. Use CTRL+c to cancel a command. Use . to repeat your last command and :!cmd to execute a shell command (where cmd is the command to execute).

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”.

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