Vim Cheatsheet

Operators and Text Objects

Use this Vim reference while you build software engineering projects, review code, or refresh the syntax you reach for most.

Entering Insert Mode

Key	Where it starts typing
`i`	Before the cursor
`a`	After the cursor
`I`	At the first non-blank of the line
`A`	At the end of the line
`o`	On a new line below
`O`	On a new line above
`gI`	At column 1, ignoring indent
`gi`	Where you last left Insert mode
`s`	Delete the character, then insert
`S` or `cc`	Clear the line, then insert
`C`	Clear to end of line, then insert

Counts work here too: 3ohello + Esc inserts three lines of "hello".

Operators

An operator waits for a motion or text object.

Operator	Action
`d`	Delete (into a register)
`c`	Change: delete, then Insert mode
`y`	Yank (copy)
`p` `P`	Put after / before the cursor
`>` `<`	Indent / dedent
`=`	Auto-indent
`gu` `gU`	Lowercase / uppercase
`g~`	Toggle case
`gq`	Reformat to `textwidth`
`g?`	ROT13 (yes, really)
`!`	Filter through an external command
`zf`	Create a fold

gUiw     " uppercase the word under the cursor
=i{      " reindent everything inside the braces
gqip     " rewrap the current paragraph
>3j      " indent this line and the 3 below
!ipsort  " sort the current paragraph through sort(1)

Text Objects

Text objects are the reason ci" beats selecting quotes by hand. i means inner (contents only), a means a (contents plus the delimiters or trailing space).

Object	Selects
`iw` / `aw`	Word / word plus trailing whitespace
`iW` / `aW`	WORD / WORD plus whitespace
`is` / `as`	Sentence
`ip` / `ap`	Paragraph
`i"` / `a"`	Inside double quotes / including them
`i'` / `a'`	Single quotes
` `i` ` `/` `a` ``	Backticks
`i(` `ib` / `a(` `ab`	Parentheses
`i{` `iB` / `a{` `aB`	Braces
`i[` / `a[`	Brackets
`i<` / `a<`	Angle brackets
`it` / `at`	HTML/XML tag contents / whole tag

" Cursor anywhere inside:  greet("world", 3)
ci"    →  greet("|", 3)          change the string
da,    " (with a plugin) delete an argument
ci(    →  greet(|)               change all arguments
dat    " on <p>hi</p>: delete the entire tag

Quote and bracket objects work from anywhere inside the pair, so you do not need to move to the delimiter first.

Small Edits Without Insert Mode

Key	Action
`x`	Delete the character under the cursor
`X`	Delete the character before the cursor
`r{char}`	Replace one character
`R`	Replace mode (overtype until `Esc`)
`~`	Toggle case of one character and advance
`J`	Join this line with the next
`gJ`	Join without inserting a space
`Ctrl-a`	Increment the number under the cursor
`Ctrl-x`	Decrement it
`g Ctrl-a`	In Visual mode, make an incrementing sequence

Indent and Format

>>            " indent the current line
<<            " dedent it
3>>           " indent 3 lines
=G            " reindent from here to end of file
gg=G          " reindent the whole file
:set shiftwidth=2 expandtab
:'<,'>>       " indent the last visual selection
:set textwidth=80
gqq           " rewrap the current line to textwidth

Insert-Mode Shortcuts

You do not have to leave Insert mode for everything.

Key	Action
`Ctrl-w`	Delete the word before the cursor
`Ctrl-u`	Delete to the start of the line
`Ctrl-h`	Backspace
`Ctrl-t` `Ctrl-d`	Indent / dedent the line
`Ctrl-r{reg}`	Insert the contents of a register
`Ctrl-r=`	Insert the result of an expression
`Ctrl-o{cmd}`	Run one Normal-mode command, then come back
`Ctrl-n` `Ctrl-p`	Complete the word from the buffer
`Ctrl-x Ctrl-f`	Complete a filename
`Ctrl-x Ctrl-l`	Complete a whole line
`Ctrl-x Ctrl-o`	Omni completion (language aware)
`Ctrl-v{code}`	Insert a character literally, e.g. `Ctrl-v u00e9`
`Ctrl-k{digraph}`	Insert a digraph, e.g. `Ctrl-k a:` gives ä

" In Insert mode
Ctrl-r "     " paste the unnamed register
Ctrl-r %     " insert the current filename
Ctrl-r =2*21 " insert 42
Ctrl-o zz    " recenter without leaving Insert mode

Reading and Filtering

:r file.txt         " insert the contents of a file below the cursor
:r !date            " insert the output of a shell command
:0r template.txt    " insert at the very top
:%!sort             " sort the entire buffer through sort(1)
:%!jq .             " reformat JSON through jq
:.!tr a-z A-Z       " uppercase just this line
:'<,'>!sort -u      " sort and dedupe the selection

! hands lines to an external program and replaces them with its output, which turns any command line tool into a Vim command.