The ABCs of vim

In a daze, I typed abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz into Vim to see what would happen, and got bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. Well, that was boring. Anyway, it gave me the idea to write this short guide for what every letter of the alphabet represents/does in vim, along with a few of the commands I use on a (semi-)regular basis for each one. Enjoy!

A is for After

  • a - enter Insert Mode after the highlighted character.
  • A - enter Insert Mode after the current line.

B is for Back

  • b - move back one word.
  • B - move back one WORD.

C is for Change

  • cw - delete the following word and enters Insert Mode to change it.
  • ctG - change all text ’till the next G.
  • C - change the remainder of the current line.

D is for Delete

    • diw delete the inside of the current word.
    • dd delete the current line.
    • D delete the remainder of the current line.

E is for End

  • e - Navigate to the end of the following word.
  • E - Navigate to the end of the following WORD.

F is for Find

  • fG - Find the next occurrence of G on the current line.
  • FG - Find the previous occurrence of G on the current line.

G is for Go

  • 12g - Go to line 12 in the current file.
  • gg - Go to the top of the current file.
  • G - Go to the bottom of the current file.

H is for Left

  • h - move the cursor left

I is for Insert or Inside

  • i - enter Insert Mode.
  • cip - change inside the current paragraph.

J is for Jerk

  • J - jerk the next line up, placing its contents at the end of the current line.
  • j - move the cursor down.

K is for Up

  • 10k - move the cursor up 10 times.

L is for Last

  • L - jump to the last visible line in the window.
  • l - move the cursor right.

M is for Mark

  • m' - set a mark that can be jumped back to using the command ''.

N is for Next

  • n - Finds the next occurrence of the current search term (argument to / or ?)
  • N - Finds the previous occurrence of the current search term (backwards next)

O is for Over

  • o - begin a new line over (below) the current line.
  • O - begin a new line over (above) the current line.

P is for Put or Paragraph

  • p - put the last yanked contents after the cursor.
  • P - put the last yanked contents before the cursor.
  • "mp - put the contents of register m at the current location.
  • dip - delete inside the current paragraph.

Q is for … reQord? or Quit

  • qj - record a macro to register j. Hitting q again ends the macro. It can be executed later with the command @j.
  • :q - quit vim

R is for Replace

  • rw - replace the highlighted character with w
  • R - Enter Replace Mode. Type to replace characters until finished. Press Esc to quit Replace Mode.

S is for Supplant or Surround*

  • s - supplant the highlighted character (delete it and enter Insert Mode.)
  • S - supplant the current line.
  • cs"( - change surrounding quotation marks to parentheses.*
  • ysw" - surround the current word with parentheses.*
  • dsw - delete the surroundings of the current word.*

* Must have vim-surround installed.

T is for ’Till

  • dt( - Delete ’till the next open parenthesis.

(t is just like f, but stops at the character before the occurrence)

U is for Undo

  • u - undo the last change.
  • 10u - undo the last 10 changes.

V is for Visual

  • v - enter Visual mode.
  • V - enter Visual Line mode.
  • <CTRL>v - enter Visual Block mode.

W is for Word or Write

  • daw - delete around the highlighted word.
  • :w - write the current file to disk.

X is for eXtract

  • x - extract (delete without mode change) the character under the cursor.
  • X - extract the character before the cursor.

Y is for Yank

  • 3yw - yank (insert into the unnamed register).the next 3 words
  • yy - yank the current line.
  • Y - yank the rest of the current line.

Z is for (looks like) Fold

  • zf} - fold the rest of the current paragraph.
  • za - Toggle the fold (fold or unfold) underneath the cursor.
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