Notes

Vim Notes🔗

Vim = VI + Improved

why vim ?

Vim is Ubiquitous
Vim is amazingly powerful
Vim’s Knowledge Is Transferable
Vim is Cross-Platform
Vim is available in a TUI and a GUI
Vim has Syntax Highlighting
Commands are easy to Remember
Vim is Like a Language
Vim is Thoroughly Documented

Different Modes in Vim

Normal/Command Mode
Insert Mode
Visual Mode
Line Mode (:)

To exit Vim type :q

To open a new file vim myday.txt

To save and exit the file :wq

. repeats previous command !

! forces commands in vim. (there are more than 3 uses of !) : Toggle a setting, execute external commands

Navigation in Vim🔗

Always use h, j, k, l for navigation instead of arrow keys.
Ctrl-f : Page up and Ctrl-b : Page Down
w : move forward one word, W: move forward one word (ignore punctuation)
b : move backward one word, B: move backward one word (ignore punctuation)
e : jumps to end of current work, and move forward to the end of next word, similar as above with E
z-CR : move the view up
0 or ^ : jump to start of line , $ : jump to end of line
gg : to move top of file, G or :$ : move to bottom of file
Ngg or :N : to jump to Nth line
Ctrl-g : view file info, like status etc, to enable this automatic set ruler (Note to disable this : set ruler! or set noruler)

Deleting Text and “Thinking in Vim”🔗

You can combine vim motions with delete !! : “operator + motion“
Utilise motions to navigate to errors !
x : to delete character cursor is on, X : deletes character to left of cursor
dw : delete the word, try dh, dj, dk, dl and also d0, d^, d$
dd : delete current line, D or d$ deletes all character from cursor to line end
Ndd : delete N lines : “Count + operator + motion”

Getting Help🔗

:help to get help, use :q to exit
:help <command> to get help specific to a command. e.g. :help dd
:help {subject} to get help on a given subject. e.g. :help count
:h is short version of help.
Ctrl-w w to switch to editing and help window.
Ctrl-o : to move to previous cursor position, Ctrl-i to move to next cursor position
Commands are of two types : linewise and characterwise, always lookout for this in documentation
:h help to get understanding of how to read the documentation.

Deleting, Yanking and Putting🔗

Register is clipboard like storage location
All deletes are stored in p put command via unnamed/default register
p : put text after cursor, P : puts before the cursor
Copy is usually performed by using yank y command puts the text in register.
cut-copy-paste : delete-yank-put
yw, y$, y^ : command + motion
yy : yank lines, Nyy : yank N lines
u : undo operations, Ctrl-R : redo operation

Registers🔗

Unnamed = “”
Numbered = “1 ”2 "3 "4 ... "9
Named = “a ”b ... "z

“” : holds text from d, c, s, x and y operation
“0 : holds the last text yanked (y)
“1 : holds the last text deleted (d) or changed ©
Numbered registers shift with each d or c
To view register contents :reg
To paste the contents of register “x type : “xP e.g. “1P, where x is a register
BlackHole register is used to execute commands without affecting other register. “_dd
To yank lines to specific register “ayy
To append more text to a register “Ayy
Trick : teh to fix this spelling take cursor to e and execute xp that should swap eh. Very useful trick :) when you are a fast typist.

Transforming and Substituting text in Vim🔗

i : put your in insert mode. I command puts you in insert mode and towards start of line.
a : appends(puts in insert) after the current character on cursor , A : append at the end of line
o : start new line and puts in insert mode. O : start new line above and put in insert mode.
80i* : can create a line with 80 asterisk. (Count) + operation
5o# : can create 5 comment lines :P
R invokes ‘REPLACE’ mode that overwrites the characters it encounters
r : invokes replace for only 1 character and keeps you in normal mode
cw : change the entire word, c$ or C : change till end of line (insert mode), cc change entire line
~ : change the case of character. g~w for changing case of entire word, g~~ or g~$ change case on entire line.
gUU changes the case the case to upper for entire line, guu changes the case to lower for entire line
J joins two lines together with a space. gJ joins two lines without space, NJ : to join N lines

Search, Find and Replace🔗

f{char} : find the first occurance of x towards right of line, F{char} : find the first occurance of x towards left of line (Note : both case sensitive) (can combine count also)
use ; to repeat fx search forwards and , for searching backwards
tx and Tx : similar to fx put cursor before the search hit
dfx : deletes till character x (including x) dtx : deletes till charcater x (doesn’t delete x)
use /{key} to search for key in file. n : cycle next occurrence and N : cycle previous occurence
Enable incremental search its very useful set is also disable highlight search set nohls
A Trick : use /{key} to search key and cw to change it to lock and then n to next occurence and . to repeat previous command. you could also use :%s/key/lock/gc it takes time to type this ;)
To reverse direction of search ?{key}
* : searches word under cursor and use normal cycle keys n and N. or use # a reversed search
To yank all the text from start to first occurance of x in register a “ay/x
search and replace (substitute) : :[range]s/old/new/flag : flags : g : global, gc : global confirm. Note this works on current line. Now here usually :%g/old/new is used for entire file, you could also use some specific line like :1/x/old/new. for changing from line 1-5 : :1,5s/g/old/new. $ represent last line in file while . represents first line in file. range could also a searchword :/firstword/,/secondword/s/old/new
For linux user they need to change directory location it maybe difficult to write all escaping \ characters they can use pattern separator. :%s#/local/mail#/usr/local/mail

Text Objects🔗

daw deletes entire word on which cursor is placed (space after word also), diw only deletes the word on which cursor is placed.
pattern : {operator}{a}{object} or {operator}{i}{object}
most used shortcut is ciw(change inner word) and daw (delete a word) to quickly refactor variables. (Note use das deletes the sentence. try cis also)
So a includes the boundaries while i doesn’t include boundries of delimiter.
dip (delete inner paragraph, doesn’t include boundry), dap includes boundry and deletes paragraph
most used shortcut to edit the variable value int name = "smk". Take the cursor on value of variable name. ci" changes the inner text of delimiter “ while da" will delete word along with delimiter.
ci(, ci[ or ci< or ci> are some of other very used shortcuts, you can also yank these value ya( or yi(
for html you can use special at or it.

Macros🔗

Macros are recorded sequence of keystrokes. Useful for complex repeated tasks.
There are no special registers for macros. There is only one a register.
q{register} : To record in macro in a register. To stop, type q.
@{register} : Replay the macro stored in register.
@@ : Repeats most recent macro.’
Best Practices while using macros
- Normalise the cursor position : 0,
- Perform edits and operations
- position your cursor to enable easy replays : j
To execute macro on specific range of lines, :15,20normal @a
You can update macros any time : Its as simple as update register use capital letters for macros
Saving Macros
- viminfo files : .viminfo or _viminfo
- Stores history and non-empty registers
- read when vim starts
- can easily overwrite registers
- vimrc files : let @d = 'dd'

Vim Visual Mode🔗

v : characterwise visual mode, V : linewise visual mode, ctrl-v : blockwise visual mode
vim motions and text-objects can be used to expand the visual area
Commands that work in visual mode
- ~ : Switch Case, c : Change, d : Delete, y : Yank, r : Replace, x : Delete, I : Insert, A : Append, J : Join, u : Make lowercase, U : make Uppercase
- > : shift right, \< : shift left (very important to tab things)
Blocks mode : O toggles current boundry left and right o toggles up and down boundary
Block mode can be utilised to make changes to blocks of lines for example to append end to all lines in a block, select block Aend will add same word each line
Note : shiftab defines how much shift operator shifts the selected text
you can use selected lines/blocks as range in substitue commands
you can also center text block using selection then :'<,'>center (Notice before center represents selection and are populated automatically)
gv reselects last selected text

vimrc🔗

rc = run commands
system-wide vimrc and personal virmc
each line is executed as a command
To check which vim files are being sourced :version
To check value of some option or its disabled or enabled : :set {option}?

" keep 1000 items in history
set history=1000

" show cursor position
set ruler

" show incomplete commands
set showcmd

" shows a menu while using tab completion
set wildmenu

set scrolloff=5
set hlsearch
set incsearch
set ignorecase
set smartcase

set nu
set backup
" set bex=

set lbr "easier linebreak

set ai " autoindent
set si " smartindent

set bg=light
color slate

"map KEY KEYSTROKE
map <F2> iJohn Smith<CR>123 Main Street<CR>London, UK<CR><ESC>

let mapleader=","
map <leader>w :w!<CR>

Vim Buffers🔗

Temporary area where memory is stored while its being processed
original file remained unchanged until you write that buffer to file
set hidden : because vim always warns about open unsaved buffer which may be trouble when you wanna switch buffers quickly without saving
:buffers or :ls: lists all open buffers
:b3 : switches to buffer 3, :b smk.txt : switched to buffers assiociated with file smk.txt
:bn or :bnext : switches to next buffer , :bp or :bpreviouse : switches to previous buffers (cyclic wrap)
Ctrl-^ or :b# : switches to last opened buffer (represented by # in :ls list)
+ flag means changes of buffer has not been saved
h or a : are hidden and active buffers. Buffers that do not have any flag are not loaded into memory
:badd smk.txt : adds smk.txt to buffer
:bdelete or :bd1 : deletes and removes a buffer
:bufdo %s/#/@/g : applies some operation to all buffers (if set hidden is not used then vim can’t switch buffers :) )
:wall : saves all buffers
:E : opens explorer

Windows🔗

A window is a view of buffer. (Previously we had multiple files in buffers but to look at more than one buffer at the same time we use window)
:sp or :split: splits and puts the same buffer in two windows horizontally
:vs or :vsplit or Ctrl-w v : splits and puts the same buffer in two windows vertically
Ctrl-w w : cycle windows, Ctrl-w {motion} : cycles cursor according motion
:q or Ctrl-w q : closes the split window
:on or :only : closes all window except only currently active window
Ctrl-w {resize operation} : can be used to resize windows : operations allowed (+ , -, _,|, =, <, >)
Ctrl-w J or Ctrl-w H.. : can be move the cursor window around
Similar to :bufdo we have :windo that executes some command to all windows

Gvim and MacVim🔗

Why use graphical version of vim
- leverage some features which are not available in command line version of vim
- scrolling, text selection using mouse and copy-paste, etc.
Vim usually maintains its own register systems for system clipboard, if you copy something in system, it can be accessed uses vims “* register and “+ registers
To make vim share system clipboard rather than using its own system :set clipboard=unnamedplus (operates on + register, for only using * register use :set clipboard=unnamed
commandKey+v : works in MacVim because it behind the scenes pastes the * register using “*gP
gvimrc file is used to apply some specific settings to gvim versions.
- :set gfn=* : font-selector for gvim