A Vim cheat sheet, listing some useful, essential and most often used Vim commands.
# open new file :e filename # save changes to a file :w # quit vim :q # quit vim and don\'t save :q! # save file and quit :wq # if changes were made, save and exit, if not just exit :x # insert i # insert to the start of current line I # append after cursor a # append to end of current line A # open a new line below and insert o # open a new line above and insert O # change the rest of the current line C # overwrite one character, then go back to command mode r # enter insert mode but replace characters rather than inserting R #exit insertoverwritevisual mode and go back to command mode (ESC key) ESC # delete characters under the cursor x # delete characters before the cursor X # delete current line dd # or :d # start highlighting characters v #start highlighting lines V # undo u # undo all changes to current line U # redo CTRL + r # search for pattern pattern # scan for next search match in the same direction n # scan for next search match but opposite direction N # substitute foo with bar #r determines range and a determines arguments # range (r) can be nothing (current line), line number, or % (whole file) #arguments (a) can be: # g -> replace all occurrences in the line # i -> ignore case for search pattern # I -> don\'t ignore case for search pattern # g -> replace all occurrences in the line # c -> confirm each substitution :rsfoobara # examples # replace the first occurrence of the word foo with bar on line number 452 :452sfoobar # replace every occurrence of the word foo with bar on current line :sfoobarg # replace every occurrence of the word foo with bar in the whole file :%sfoobarg # the same as above, but ignore the case of the pattern # this replaces foo, FOO, Foo... :%sfoobargi # confirm every substitution :%sfoobargc # foreach line in file, replace first occurrence of foo with bar # and confirm every substitution :%sfoobarc