🗓️ 15022025 2138

VIM

NOTE

JR's very own intro to vim over here! 🤓

Command cheatsheet

Commands in VIM generally follow this pattern

:[range][command][arguments]

Part	Description	Example
:	Starts an ex command	:w, :s/...
[range]	Optional line range	:%, 5,10, .,$
[command]	The action to perform	s, d, y, w, g, m
[arguments]	Optional arguments, like patterns, flags, file names	/pattern/, /repl/gi, file.txt

Yank & Registers Cheatsheet

Command	Description
"*y or "+y	Yank into system clipboard ("* = primary, "+ = clipboard)
"aY	Yank into register a (can be any letter a–z)
"0p	Paste from the default yank register
"*p	Paste from system clipboard
:reg	Show all registers and contents
yy / dd / p	Yank, delete, and paste using default register
"ap	Paste from register a

Macros

1. Begin recording with q command
2. Choose register (a-z)
3. Perform actions
4. End recording with q command

using registers

Command	Description
:5,10norm! @a	Do from lines 5-10
:5,$norm! @a	From line 5 to end of file

Replace Cheatsheet

Command	Description
:s/pat/repl/	Replace first match in current line
:s/pat/repl/g	Replace all matches in current line
:.,$s/pat/repl/g	Replace from current line to end
:%s/pat/repl/g	Replace in entire file
:5,10s/pat/repl/g	Replace from line 5 to 10
:%s/pat/repl/gc	Replace in file, confirm each (c = confirm)
:%s/escaped\.pat/repl/g	Use \ to escape special chars like . or *
:%s/pat/replace & more/g	Use & to refer to the matched original pattern
:%s/pat/repl/gi	Case-insensitive replacement
:%s/pat/repl/gI	Case-sensitive, even if ignorecase is on
:%s/pat\nnext/repl/g	Replace across multiple lines using \n
:5,10s/hello/world/gc	Replace "hello" with "world" in lines 5–10, with confirm

Mapping types

Type	Description
Recursive (map)	If the result of this mapping exists as another mapping, Vim will execute that as well
Non Recursive (noremap)	Vim will execute the result of this mapping as-is, without considering further mappings