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Vim

Introduction to Vim

Install vim

  • Linux vi is mapped to vim, but it might not have all the features.
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install vim
  • Red Hat: sudo yum install vim
  • Windows: from vim

First editing session - create file

  1. Type vim hello.txt
  2. Press i to switch to insert mode.
  3. Type in "hello world".
  4. Press ESC to switch back to command mode.
  5. Type :wq this will write out the file and quit vim.

Change file

  1. Type vim hello.txt. The editor opens, the cursor is on the "h" of the "hello".
  2. Press ~ to change the case of "h" to be "H"
  3. Press 5l (lower case L) to move 5 characters to the "w".
  4. Press rW to replace "w" by "W".
  5. Press o to switch to insert mode on the line below.
  6. Type in: "and welcome to vim!"
  7. Press ENTER and continue typing: "This is the 3rd line.
  8. Press ESC to switch back to command mode.
  9. Type :wq this will save the file and quit vim.

Visual Insert

  1. Type vim hello.txt. The editor opens, the cursor is on the "H" of the "Hello".
  2. Press 2yy followed by p. The first 2 lines were yanked into memory (copied) and the pasted above the current line.
  3. Press Ctrl-v to switch to visual mode.
  4. Press 2j to mark 2 more lines under the current line.
  5. Press I (Shift i) to switch to insert mode.
  6. Type in "vim! "
  7. Press ESC
  8. After a second "vim! " will appear on the second and third lines as well.
  9. Type :wq to write file and quit vim.

Visual Append

  1. Type vim hello.txt.
  2. Press $ (Shift-4) that will jump to the end of the current line.
  3. Press Ctrl-v to switch to visual mode.
  4. Press j 3 time to mark 3 additional rows.
  5. Press A (Shift a) to switch to insert mode appending to the end of the row.
  6. Type in " end"
  7. Press ESC
  8. After a secon " end" will appear at the end of 3 other lines.
  9. Type :wq to write and quit.

Modes of vim

  • Normal Mode (aka. Command Mode or Navigation mode)
  • Insert Mode
  • Command line
  • Visual Mode

ESC

  • ESC

Before learning anything else, it is worth remembering that pressing ESC several times will always bring you back to Normal mode.

ESC - get out of trouble and back to Command mode

Save (write) file

  • :w
:w                Write under current filename.
:w filename       Save-as.

Quit

  • :q
  • :q!
  • :wq

These are the ways to quit vim. (when in Normal mode press either of the following:)

:q    quit            - If there was no change since last write.
:q!   force-quite     - Abandon changes.
:wq   write-and-quit

Basic moves

  • h
  • j
  • k
  • l
  • 0
  • ^
  • $
  • :20
  • :goto 40

Remember, you can use these in Normal mode only.

Move around h (left) j (down) k (up) l (right) or the 4 arrows
0         - jump to beginning of the line
^         - jump to first non white-space of the line
$         - jump to end of line
:20       - go to line number 20
:goto 40  - go to character 40

Switch to insert/edit mode

  • i
  • I
  • a
  • A
  • o
  • O
i     - (insert)  right before (to the left of) the current character.
I     - (Insert)  right before first non-blank in the current line.
a     - (appaned) right after the current character.
A     - (Apppend) right after end of line.
o     - add new empty row below.
O     - add new empty row above.

Remember, ESC will take you from insert mode back to normal mode.

Delete row/word/character

  • dd
  • dw
  • x
dd   delete current row
dw   delete word
x    delete current character

Undo - Redo

  • u - undo
  • :redo
u      - undo
:redo  - redo

Copy/Paste (Yank/Paste)

  • yy
  • p
  • P
Yank: yy
Yank 4 rows:   4yy

Paste: p
Paste: P

Switch characters

  • xp
xp  - switch current and next character.

Exercise: vim intro

  • Take the examples in the first few slides and type them yourself.

Exercise: vim editing

  • Create a text file and write a short-story.
  • Involve deleting characters, words, and lines.
  • Switch between Insert mode and Normal command mode.
  • Save the file, quit, open it again.

More of Vim

Repeate commands

Many key combinations can be preceeded with a number that will indicate the number of repetitions we would like to have.

3dd            Delete 3 rows
4l             Move 4 characters to the right.
5(left-arrow)  Move 5 characters to the left.
2dw            Delete 2 words.

Repeat last change

  • .

  • Make some change. (e.g. switch to insert mode, type in "hello world"; click ESC)

  • Press .

  • The text "hello world" will be inserted again.

  • Press 3.

  • The text "hello world" will be inserted 3 more times.

Search

  • /
  • ?
  • n
  • N

search forward:  /
search backward: ?
search again: n or N (in reverse)
search current word: *
search current word backwards: #


:set ignorecase

Search and replace: substitute

  • /
  • s
:%s/Old/New/              Replace Old by New.
:%s/^    /\t/             Replace leading 4-spaces by a tab.
:%s/$/./                  Put a . at the end of every line.
:'<,'>s/...         Subtitute in range.

To select range press v and then use the navigation keys. Then hit :

Search and replace: substitute modifiers

:%s/Old/New/c             Ask for confirmation before every substitute.
:%s/Old/New/g             Multiple replaces on the same line.

:%s/Old/New/gc            Both.

help

  • :help
:help
:h
  • It will split the window.
  • You can jump between the help window and the other editor window by Ctrl-w Up and Ctrl-w Down.
  • You can close the help part by typing :q while you are in the help window.

Editing another file

:e filename

Switching buffers

  • :ls
  • :bn
  • :bp
  • :bN
  • :bd
  • :b TAB

Working with buffers

:ls   list buffers

:bn     next buffer
:bp     previous buffer

:bN     switch to buffer N
:b TAB  cycle thorugh the names of the files in the buffers

:bd     delete current buffer
:bd3    delete buffer number 3

Switching between last two buffers in vim

  • Ctrl-6
  • Ctrl-^
:ls

a  - active buffer (the one we see in the window)
h  - hidden buffer (not in the window and has unsaved changes )
#  - alternate buffer
+  - buffer modified (unsaved)

To switch back-and-forth two buffers:

Ctrl-^ (Ctrl-Shift-6)
Ctrl-6

Visual modes

  • v
  • Shift-v
  • Ctrl-v
v         - Visual mode from here to cursor.
Shift-v   - Visual mode this line till the line of the cursor.
Ctrl-v    - Vertical visual mode. Block or rectangular edit.

Use the arrow key and other navigation keys to move cursor.

Ctrl-V, select rectangular, x  - delete the selected characters.

Indentation

Press >> to indent current line
Press N>> to indent N lines
Press << to outdent current line
Press N<< to outdent N lines

Press == to autoindent currentline.
Press N== to autoindent N lines.

Select rows in Visual mode

Press > to indent the selected lines.
Press N> to indent N time.
Press < to unindent

Press = to autoindent.

As vim looses the visual selection we need a solution to allow us to indent more than once. Press '.' to repeate the previous action to further indent or press 'u' to undo the extra indentation. Alternatively one can map keys to keep the selection after indentation. Indentation commands

String completition in insert mode

  • Ctrl-N

  • Ctrl-P

  • Ctrl-N - by searching forward

  • Ctrl-P - by searching backwards

Shell commands

  • :!ls
  • :!pwd
:!ls
:!pwd

Jump to character in current line

  • f
  • F
  • ;
  • ,
f C    will jump to the first occurance of C to the right.
F C    will jump to the first occurance of C to the left

;  will repeat f or F
,  will reverse f or F

Any of those can be prefixed by number.

Windows

  • m
  • '
Ctrl-w s        horizontal split same file
Ctrl-w v        vertical split same file

:sp filename    horizontal split with other file
:vsp filename   vertical split with other file

Ctrl-w w        Cycle through the open windows
Ctrl-w arrow    Move between windows.  (also Ctrl-w [hjkl] work)

Ctrl-w +        Increase window
Ctrl-w -        Decrease window   (or use the mouse)
Ctrl-w =        Reset windows (equalize them)
Ctrl-w _        Maximize current window vertically
Ctrl-w |        Maximize current window horizontally

Ctrl-w r        Rotate windows
Ctrl-w R        Rotate windows in the other direction
Ctrl-w [HJKL]   Move windows

Ctrl-w c        Close window
:q              Close current window
:only           Close every window except the current one

:help ctrl-w

Working with windows

Mark

ma          Will set mark a.
m{a-zA-Z}   Any letter can be used as a mark.

'a          Jump to mark a in current buffer.

Registers

  • "ayy
  • "Ayy
  • "ap
"ayy  will copy the current line into register 'a'

"Ayy  will append the current line to the register 'a'


"ap   will paste the content of register 'a'.

To list the content of all the registers, type :reg

Change encoding

  • set fileencoding
  • converted
  • utf8

Sometimes you have files in encodings you don't want, sometime you'll see in the status line that the file is converted. You can change the encoding of the file to utf8 by:

:set fileencoding=utf8
:w

Current filename

Copy (yank) the current file (buffer) name to clip-board so you can paste it using p.

:let @" = expand("%")

Copy the full path:

:let @" = expand("%:p")

Show rownumbers

  • :set number
:set number    - show line numbers
:set nonumber  - hide line numbers
:set number!   - toggle line numbers

Show invisible characters

:set list
:set nolist
:set list!

~/.vimrc

  • .vimrc {% embed include file="src/examples/vimrc)

Embed vim settings in source code

  • vim:

In a C file:

/*
  vim:sw=4:
*/

In a Perl file

# vim:expandtab
# vim:tabstop=4

In a JavaScript file

// vim:expandtab
// vim:tabstop=4

modline turns this feature on

modlines sets the number of lines to check

  • set modline}
  • set modlines}
:set modline
:set modlines=10

TABs vs. Spaces

screencast

  • tabstop = 4
  • softtabstop = 4
  • shiftwidth = 4
  • expandtab

Videos

Vim Resources