Useful vi commands

Useful vi Commands

0. :q -> quit ; :w -> write the change ; :q! -> quite anyway without saving ; :qw -> quite after saving the changes

1. yw -> yank (copy) a word
2. yy -> copy the current line
3. yG -> copy from cursor to EOF
4. 2y -> copy 2 lines from cursor
5. y2w -> copy 2 words from cursor
6. p/P -> copy before or after cursor

7. :set number -> see the line numbers
:set nonumber -> hide the line numbers
8. :set list -> show the newline character
:set nolist -> hide the newline character

9. :%s/search-text/replace-text/g -> Search and replace text with greedy option set
10. /search-text -> search any text and then press n to search next or ? to search previous

11. Ctrl+f -> to move one screen forward
12. Ctrl+b -> to move one screen backward

13. :line_number -> to go to the specified line number

14. * (Shift+8) -> Hightlight the word at the cursor position and search for next match
:noh to remove the highlight
15. :e -> Open another file to edit

16. :J -> Join the line with next line giving a space in between

17. : %s/^I/\r/g -> Replace all with ; works on gVim
: %s/^I/^M/g -> to achieve the same in unix vi. To get '^M', use Ctrl+v first then hit enter.
: %s/\m/,/g -> insert ',' between each character. Works on gVim
: %s/\n/,\r/g -> replace the new line (\n) using ',' and carriage return (\r) . works on gVim
: %s/.*ABCD/ABCD/g -> replace words from beginning of line up to word 'ABCD' and replace that with only word 'ABCD'
e.g. "10/17/2008 11:55 AM 229,888 ABCD XY - FOO - 1.0"
becomes "ABCD XY - FOO - 1.0"
:'<, '>s/^^I/&A/g -> replace all tabs from beginning of the line with A (the selected lines only)
:%s/^^I/&A/g -> Same as above without any selection
:%s/\s*$// -> replace all trailing white spaces

18. vEU -> change from the cursor to end of word to uppercase
v$U -> change from the cursor to end of line to uppercase
vEu -> change from the cursor to end of word to lowercase
v$u -> change from the cursor to end of line to lowercase
19. u -> undo delete
U -> undo the last change
Ctrl+r -> Redo the last change

20. : -> to recall history

21.: & -> repeat last :s command
: . -> repeat last text changing command
: , -> repeat last search command. In gVim use 'n'


22.
M -> Move to the middle of the current screen
H -> Move to the top of the current screen
0 -> Beginning of current line
+/Return -> First character of next line
dL -> Delete up to last line on the screen
D -> Delete remainder of the current line
"xyy -> copy current line to buffer x
"xp -> copy the line from buffer x

23. Vertical selection and insertion
^v to start vertical selection
press 'I' or 'i' then enter any letter you want to append and finally press escape.

24. Delete lines with search result
g/string/d - Delete lines that contains the 'string'
v/string/d - Delete lines that DOESN'T contain the 'string'

25. Sort a file
:sort

26. Counting words:%s/pattern//gn - Count the pattern
:%s/[^ ]\+//gn - Count the space delimited words

27. Recording
Hit q and register character (alphanumeric) e.g. x
Hit q again to stop recording
@x to rerun the recorded keystroke recorded

28. Find next key word
i (insert mode) -> Ctrl -> i
this would show the keywords as drop down values to be picked for


Resources:

http://www.brezeale.com/technical_notes/vim_notes.shtml
http://www.rayninfo.co.uk/vimtips.html
https://xyz.pp.se/~thnov/vi.html
http://www.lagmonster.org/docs/vi2.html
http://www.unix-manuals.com/refs/vi-ref/vi-ref.htm
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_Tips_Wiki - Vim tips wiki