Essential Vim commands for efficient text editing

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In this tutorial, I’ll cover the basic commands and concepts that you need to know to work in Vim efficiently. I recommend you to open a file with Vim/Neovim and try the command while reading it.

The 3 most used modes in Vim:

• Normal mode: Used for moving/editing text. When you press <ESC> in other modes, you’ll get back to Normal mode.
• Command-line mode: Used for executing commands (eg: save file, open help file).
• Insert mode: Used for inserting text.

You can learn more about each command with the Vim’s help file. Open it by typing :h {command name} and hit enter.

Normal Mode

To begin with, let’s learn how to move your cursor in Vim normal mode.

Motions

motion is a command that moves your cursor to a specific location. Here are some basic motions:

Up-down motions

k           go up
j           go down
-           go up and move to the first non-blank character
+ or <CR>   go down and move to the first non-blank character
(<CR> means enter)
gg          go to first line
G           go to last line

Learn more with :h up-down-motions.

Left-right motions

h           go left
l           go right
0           go to the first character of the line
^			go to the first non-blank character of the line
$           go to the end of the line
f{char}		go to the occurrence of {char} to the right
F{char}		go to the occurrence of {char} to the left
t{char}		go till before the occurrence of {char} to the right
T{char}		go till after the occurrence of {char} to the left
;			repeat latest f, t, F or T
,			repeat latest f, t, F or T in opposite direction

Learn more with :h left-right-motions.

Word motions

w			go one word forward
W			go one word forward, ignore symbol
e			go forward to the end of word
E			go forward to the end of word, ignore symbol
b			go one word backward
B			go one word backward, ignore symbol
ge			go backward to the end of word
gE			go backward to the end of word, ignore symbol

Learn more with :h word-motions.

Motion with number

You can add number before motion to execute it multiple times. For example, 5j will move the cursor down 5 lines.

This is very useful when you want to move the cursor to a specific line quickly. This is often used with 'relativenumber' option enabled so you can see the line number relative to the current line.

Operator

After being able to move in Vim, let’s learn how to editing text. The way to edit text in Vim is through operator.

d           delete
y           yank(copy)
c           change(delete and enter insert mode)

(after delete or yank you can use p to paste)

Learn more with :h operator.

Operation to current line

A most simple way to use operator is to repeat it twice, which will apply the operation to the current line:

• d d - delete current line
• y y - yank current line
• c c - change current line

Operation to end of line

You can use the uppercase version of operator, which will apply the operation from the current cursor position to the end of the line:

• D - delete until the end of the line
• Y - yank until the end of the line
• C - change until the end of the line

Operator with motion

Another way to use operator is to combine it with motion that we just learned. This will apply the operation from the current cursor position to the specific location.

Some examples of operator + motion:

• d e - delete to the end of the word
• c t( - change till the first occurrence of (
• y 5j - yank to 5 lines down

Another way to use operator is to combine it with text-objects. Let’s learn about text-objects first.

Text Objects

iw          inside word
aw          around word

ip          inside paragraph
ap          around paragraph

it          inside tag block (for HTML, JSX, etc.)
at          around tag block (for HTML, JSX, etc.)

i{          inside {}
a{          around {}
...(you can apply this to any pair block [] () <> '' "" ``)

Learn more with :h text-objects.

Operator with text object

Some examples of operator + text-objects:

• c i" - change inside ""
• d a{ - delete around {}
• y ap - yank around paragraph

Tip: If the text-objects is pair block, Vim will find the nearest one from the right of your cursor. This trick is very useful.

Example (| is the position of your cursor):

int main(void) {
| cout << "test";

  return 0;
}

NORMAL MODE

After you press ci":

int main(void) {
  cout << "|";

  return 0;
}

INSERT MODE

You can use ci" to change the text inside "test" even if your cursor is at the beginning of the line.

Scrolling

Scrolling is useful when you want to move vertically to a position that is not visible on the screen.

CTRL-U       scroll window half a screen upwards
CTRL-D       scroll window half a screen downwards
CTRL-B       scroll window a full screen upwards
CTRL-F       scroll window a full screen downwards

Learn more with :h scrolling.

Inserting

There are several ways to enter insert mode:

i           insert text before the cursor
I           insert text before the first non-blank in the line
a           append text after the cursor
A           append text at the end of the line
o           begin a new line below the cursor and insert text
O           begin a new line above the cursor and insert text

Learn more with :h inserting.

Others

s           delete character and start insert (synonym for cl)
S           delete line and start insert (synonym of cc)
x           delete character under the cursor
X           delete character before the cursor
u           undo
CTRL-R      redo
.           repeat last change
ZQ          quit without checking for changes
ZZ          save current file and quit

Insert Mode

<ESC>       leave insert mode
i_CTRL-O    execute one command in Normal mode and then return to Insert mode

Command-line Mode

:w<CR>          save the current file
:q<CR>          quit
:q!<CR>         quit without checking for changes (same as ZQ)
:wq<CR>         save current file and quit (same as ZZ)
/{pattern}<CR>  search forward for the occurrence of {pattern}
?{pattern}<CR>  search backward for the occurrence of {pattern}
n			    repeat the latest `/` or `?`
N			    repeat the latest `/` or `?` in opposite direction

Final Words

Remember all these command takes some time. If you are already familiar with these commands, you can continue to read the Practical Vim command workflow to learn how to move/edit text in Vim efficiently.

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