What are the most-used vim commands/keypresses?

Question

Here's a tip sheet I wrote up once, with the commands I actually use regularly:

References

• vim documentation online
• advanced vim tips
• more useful tips and graphical cheat sheet

General

• Nearly all commands can be preceded by a number for a repeat count. eg. 5dd delete 5 lines
• <Esc> gets you out of any mode and back to command mode
• Commands preceded by : are executed on the command line at the bottom of the screen
• :help help with any command

Navigation

• Cursor movement: ←h ↓j ↑k l→
• By words:
  • w next word (by punctuation); W next word (by spaces)
  • b back word (by punctuation); B back word (by spaces)
  • e end word (by punctuation); E end word (by spaces)
• By line:
  • 0 start of line; ^ first non-whitespace
  • $ end of line
• By paragraph:
  • { previous blank line; } next blank line
• By file:
  • gg start of file; G end of file
  • 123G go to specific line number
• By marker:
  • mx set mark x; 'x go to mark x
  • '. go to position of last edit
  • ' ' go back to last point before jump
• Scrolling:
  • ^F forward full screen; ^B backward full screen
  • ^D down half screen; ^U up half screen
  • ^E scroll one line up; ^Y scroll one line down
  • zz centre cursor line

Editing

• u undo; ^R redo
• . repeat last editing command

Inserting

All insertion commands are terminated with <Esc> to return to command mode.

• i insert text at cursor; I insert text at start of line
• a append text after cursor; A append text after end of line
• o open new line below; O open new line above

Changing

• r replace single character; R replace multiple characters
• s change single character
• cw change word; C change to end of line; cc change whole line
• c<motion> changes text in the direction of the motion
• ci( change inside parentheses (see text object selection for more examples)

Deleting

• x delete char
• dw delete word; D delete to end of line; dd delete whole line
• d<motion> deletes in the direction of the motion

Cut and paste

• yy copy line into paste buffer; dd cut line into paste buffer
• p paste buffer below cursor line; P paste buffer above cursor line
• xp swap two characters (x to delete one character, then p to put it back after the cursor position)

Blocks

• v visual block stream; V visual block line; ^V visual block column
  • most motion commands extend the block to the new cursor position
  • o moves the cursor to the other end of the block
• d or x cut block into paste buffer
• y copy block into paste buffer
• > indent block; < unindent block
• gv reselect last visual block

Global

• :%s/foo/bar/g substitute all occurrences of "foo" to "bar"
  • % is a range that indicates every line in the file
  • /g is a flag that changes all occurrences on a line instead of just the first one

Searching

• / search forward; ? search backward
• * search forward for word under cursor; # search backward for word under cursor
• n next match in same direction; N next match in opposite direction
• fx forward to next character x; Fx backward to previous character x
• ; move again to same character in same direction; , move again to same character in opposite direction

Files

• :w write file to disk
• :w name write file to disk as name
• ZZ write file to disk and quit
• :n edit a new file; :n! edit a new file without saving current changes
• :q quit editing a file; :q! quit editing without saving changes
• :e edit same file again (if changed outside vim)
• :e . directory explorer

Windows

• ^Wn new window
• ^Wj down to next window; ^Wk up to previous window
• ^W_ maximise current window; ^W= make all windows equal size
• ^W+ increase window size; ^W- decrease window size

Source Navigation

• % jump to matching parenthesis/bracket/brace, or language block if language module loaded
• gd go to definition of local symbol under cursor; ^O return to previous position
• ^] jump to definition of global symbol (requires tags file); ^T return to previous position (arbitrary stack of positions maintained)
• ^N (in insert mode) automatic word completion

Show local changes

Vim has some features that make it easy to highlight lines that have been changed from a base version in source control. I have created a small vim script that makes this easy: http://github.com/ghewgill/vim-scmdiff

http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html

This is the greatest thing ever for learning VIM.

Here is a great cheat sheet for vim:

Have you run through Vim's built-in tutorial? If not, drop to the command-line and type vimtutor. It's a great way to learn the initial commands.

Vim has an incredible amount of flexibility and power and, if you're like most vim users, you'll learn a lot of new commands and forget old ones, then relearn them. The built-in help is good and worthy of periodic browsing to learn new stuff.

There are several good FAQs and cheatsheets for vim on the internet. I'd recommend searching for vim + faq and vim + cheatsheet. Cheat-Sheets.org#vim is a good source, as is Vim Tips wiki.