Movement
$ moves the cursor to the last character in a line.
A moves the cursor to the end of the line and put you in insert mode.
0 moves the cursor to the start of the line.
G moves to the end of file.
gg moves to the beginning of a file.
% moves to corresponding item such as braces and brackets.
Files
:e filepath open a file to edit.
:e reload currently open file.
/searchTerm search for a term in current file.
Buffer
List files in buffer
:ls
Swap files in buffer
Ctrl + Shift + 6
Cut/copy and paste
Using visual selection
Press v to enter visual mode. Upon entered visual mode, you can move the cursor around to make a selection.
Press d (delete) to cut or y (yank) to copy. Move the cursor to the place you want to paste then press p to paste.
An entire line
Place your cursor over the line you’d like to copy/paste.
Press dd to cut the entire line; press yy to copy the entire line.
Move the cursor to the place you’d like to paste and then press p to paste after the cursor.
Undo and redo
Press u to undo changes.
Press Ctrl + R to redo changes.
Manipulating words
In normal mode with your cursor in a word you want to manipulate:
Press daw to delete the word
Press caw to delete the word and immediately enter insert mode
Replace text
Press r and then type the text you want to replace the character under the cursor r<text>
Search and replace all instances of a string
In normal mode type
:%s/string_to_replace/replacement_string/g
and hit enter. Vim will instantly find all instances of string_to_replace and replace with with your replacement_string.
Search and replace with confirmation
In normal mode type
:%s/string_to_replace/replacement_string/gc
and hit enter. Vim will then find all instances of the string_to_replace and for each instance ask if you want to replace it with your replacement_string.
Updated: Dec 08, 2017