Search Vim Tricks
Searching...<C-v> (in visual mode)
Once you are in any visual mode, pressing v, V, or switches to charwise, linewise, or blockwise visual mode respectively — without cancelling the current sele
n.
The n.
<C-e> / <C-y> (insert mode)
In insert mode, copies the character directly below the cursor (from the next line) and copies the character directly above (from the previous line).
:%!command
:%!{command} replaces the entire buffer contents with the output of piping them through a shell command.
:let @a="text"
:let @{register}=".
qq{commands}@qq
A recursive macro calls itself at the end of its own definition, causing it to run repeatedly until Vim hits an error — such as reaching the end of the file o
set wildmode=lastused
With wildmode=lastused, :b cycles buffers in most-recently-used order instead of alphabetically.
set wildcharm= then nnoremap b :b
wildcharm sets the key that triggers wildmenu expansion inside mappings.
:Telescope buffers
:Telescope buffers opens a fuzzy-searchable list of all open buffers.
:keepalt e {file}
Every time you open a file with :edit, Vim updates the alternate file register (#) to the previous buffer.
buffers-windows #buffers #ex-commands #registers #navigation
:'<,'>!{cmd}
After making a visual selection and entering the command line with :, Vim automatically inserts the range ' for the selection.
gwip
The gw operator reformats text just like gq, but leaves the cursor in its original position after reformatting.
:let @/ = "pattern"
Assigning a string directly to the search register @/ with :let causes Vim to highlight all matches (if hlsearch is enabled) without performing a search or movi
[m
The [m motion jumps backward to the start of the nearest enclosing or preceding method definition.
:G log -- %
vim-fugitive's :G log -- % loads the git commit history for the current file into a quickfix-style log buffer.
\@<= and \@=
Vim's regex engine supports zero-width lookahead and lookbehind assertions using the \@ atom.
:windo {cmd}
:windo {cmd} executes an Ex command in every window in the current tab page, cycling through each one and applying the command before returning focus to the ori
buffers-windows #windows #buffers #ex-commands #buffers-windows
<C-v>I
Visual block mode's I command lets you type once and have the text inserted at the cursor column across all selected lines simultaneously.
"1p then u. to cycle through delete history
Vim silently maintains a rolling history of your last 9 deletions in numbered registers "1 through "9.
:s/pattern/\=expr/
Prefixing the replacement field of :s with \= makes Vim evaluate the rest as a Vimscript expression and use the result as the replacement string.
