4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
hspazio / vim-advanced-cheatsheet Public
Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
24 stars 0 forks Branches Tags Activity
Star Notifications
Code Issues Pull requests Actions Projects Security Insights
1 Branch 0 Tags Go to file Go to file Code
hspazio Update README.md 2623061 · 7 years ago
README.md Update README.md 7 years ago
Vim Advanced Cheatsheet
Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks inspired by http://vimcasts.org
Table of contents
1. Search and Replace
2. Registers
3. Navigation
4. NORMAL mode
5. INSERT mode
6. VISUAL mode
7. Spelling
8. History
9. Commands
Search and Replace
Search in current buffer
:set hlsearch :set nohlsearch to toggle search highlighting
Use * to search for the word under the cursor - like /word but without typing
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 1/6
4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
Use # to search for the word under the cursor in reverse order
Use /word otherwise
Replace in current buffer
:%s/\s\+$//e - strip trailing white spaces
replace in the whole file :%s
the spaces till the end of the line /\s\+$/
with nothing //
and suppress any errors if no matches found e
:s/\%V#/ /g - replace # character with whitespace only within the VISUAL selection
\%V
Search in multiple files
Vimgrep is a very powerful search tool that allows searching not only in the current file but
in any provided targets.
Results will appear in the quickfix.
:vimgrep/{pattern}/{target} - search for pattern where {target} can be:
% current file
*.rb wildcards or file list
`find . -type f` backtick expression
## special symbol that represents the args (set by :args <expr> )
Also :vimgrep can be shorted as :vim
Replace in multiple files
:vimgrep /{patter}/ {target} search for a pattern
:cdo s/{pattern}/{replacement}/ge replace for each file in the quickfix - e will
ignore errors if not matches found
:cdo w or :cdo update to write the changes
Multiple repeats
:g/monkey/d - delete all lines containing "monkey"
:g/^monkey/d - delete all lines starting with "monkey"
:v/monkey/d - delete all lines that do not match "monkey" (like grep -v)
:g/^$/d - delete blank lines
All commands above consist in the composition of 3 subcommands:
1. grep the document globally :g
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 2/6
4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
2. to find blank lines /^$/
3. and delete them d
Registers
"ayy yanks current line into register "a"
"ap pastes from register "a"
"Ayy appends yanked line to register "a"
:reg a inspects register "a"
qaq resets register "a"
:g/monkey/yank A yanks all lines containing "monkey" and append them into register
"a"
Navigation
Ctrl-w g f while being with the cursor on a word (e.g. "file.txt") opens the file with
that name on a new window
from terminal: vim -p file1 file2 file3 opens Vim and the 3 files on separate tabs
(panels)
Ctrl-^ alternates between 2 buffers
type :ls to see the open buffers
switch between active buffer (marked as %a ) and the previous one (marked as
#h ) where "h" stands for "hidden"
:only closes all windows leaving only the current one open
Ctrl-w _ maximizes the current window vertically
Ctrl-w | maximizes the current window horizontally
Ctrl-w = equalizes/restores original sizes
Ctrl-w r rotates windows clockwise ( R for inverse)
Ctrl-w HJKL moves the window to the far side direction
Ctrl-w T extracts the current window in a new tab
:tabclose closes current tab
:tabonly closes all tabs leaving the current one open
:tabmove <number> moves the current tab to the N position
<number>gt goes to the N-th tab
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 3/6
4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
File explore window
:Explore opens an interactive file explorer - same as :e.
% creates a file
d creates a directory
:sp. opens the file explorer in an horizontal split
:vs. opens the file explorer in a vertical split
NORMAL mode
:r! <system cmd> >> runs a command on the system shell and reads the output into
the current position of the current buffer
Motions
t for "tag": cit as "change inner html tag"
/ for "search" term: c/term as "change until 'term' is found"
? is like / but searches backwards
r for "replace": select line + r# will replace all characters with #
a goes to INSERT mode "after" the current character
A goes to INSERT mode at the end of the line ("after ALL characters in line")
Y yanks entire line
P pastes above the cursor while p pastes after the cursor
g; goes to the last INSERT mode position - using it multiple times jumps backwards
in the changelist history
use g, to move forward in the changelist
% jumps between parenthesis or line block delimiters (E.g. Ruby's begin-end)
README
s deletes "character" under cursor and goes into INSERT mode
S deletes "line" and goes into INSERT mode
With lines that wrap on multiple "visible" lines, prefix commands with g to move
through visible lines
gj moves to the next visible line
g$ moves at the end of the visible line
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 4/6
4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
:-7t. copy line from 7 lines above (with relative numbers) "to" ( t ) "this" ( . )
location
use :+10t. to copy the 10th line below.
without +/- sign it consider the "actual" line number
t is the short for copy command
INSERT mode
Suggestions
Ctr-p and Ctr-n opens a list of suggestions for auto-completion
Ctr-x Ctr-f opens a list of "suggestions based on the files/directories" in the current
directory
Ctr-x Ctr-l opens a list of "suggestions based on the lines" in the current file
Ctr-x Ctr-p will suggest similar patterns - also repeating the same commands will
continuously add the next line
Paste commands
Ctr-r 0 pastes content of register "0 - Like "0p in NORMAL mode
Ctr-r = evaluates an expression and inserts the result inline
VISUAL mode
Ctrl-v to enter in Visual select mode
o to control the "opposite" corner for selection
Spelling
:set spell enables the spell checker ( :set nospell to turn off) - alternatively :set
spell! to toggle on/off
]s goes to the next misspelled word - or previous one with [s
z= opens a list of suggestions
1z= tries to autocorrect using the "first" (more likely) occurrence
zg marks word as good - whitelist word
zw marks word as bad - blacklist word
zug and zuw to undo
:set spelllang=en sets the language for the dictionary
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 5/6
4/3/25, 11:55 AM GitHub - hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet: Personally curated list of advanced Vim tricks
History
:earlier 1h reverts to version of 1 hour ago
:later 1h goes forward to 1 hour ahead
Commands
:!% runs current file in shell
Argdo
:argdo <command> runs the command for all files in the :args list
:argdo %s/monkey/gorilla/ge replaces "monkey" with "gorilla" and ignores errors
if no matches found
:silent argdo %s/Bob/Alice/ge hides details of the substitutions
Releases
No releases published
Packages
No packages published
https://github.com/hspazio/vim-advanced-cheatsheet 6/6
