How do I move the cursor to the top of the visible screen?
H
The H command moves the cursor to the first line of the currently visible screen (the "High" position).
Search: i" a"
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How do I switch to the previous buffer in Vim?
:bprev
The :bprev (or :bp for short) command switches to the previous buffer in Vim's buffer list.
How do I auto-indent a block of code using visual mode?
=
Pressing = in visual mode auto-indents the selected lines according to Vim's built-in indentation rules.
visual-mode #editing #visual-mode #indentation #formatting #productivity
How do I automatically open or close the quickfix window based on results?
:cwindow
The :cwindow command intelligently manages the quickfix window — it opens the window only if there are entries in the quickfix list, and closes it if the list
How do I use search patterns as line ranges in Ex commands to operate on a block of text?
:/start/,/end/d
Instead of specifying line numbers for Ex command ranges, you can use search patterns.
command-line #ex-commands #editing #search #ranges #command-line
How do I profile Vim functions at runtime to find what's making it slow?
:profile start /tmp/profile.log | profile func *
When Vim feels sluggish during editing (not just at startup), the :profile command lets you measure the execution time of every function call.
How do I quickly change the text between any pair of delimiters?
ci" / ci( / ci{ / ci[ / ci` / ci'
The ci{delimiter} family of commands changes the text inside any matching pair of delimiters.
editing #editing #text-objects #change #delimiters #normal-mode
How do I insert special characters like arrows, math symbols, or accented letters in Vim?
<C-k>
Vim has a built-in digraph system that lets you type special characters using short two-character codes.
How do I repeat the last substitute command quickly?
&
The & command in normal mode repeats the last :s substitution on the current line.
search #search #substitution #ex-commands #repeat #normal-mode
How do I move through search matches while still typing the pattern?
<C-g> and <C-t>
While the search prompt is open (with incsearch enabled), pressing advances the cursor to the next match and moves it to the previous match — all without leav
How do I jump to the global definition of a variable or function in Vim?
gD
How it works Vim provides two built-in commands for jumping to where an identifier is defined, without needing tags or an LSP: gd (lowercase) searches backward
How do I make Vim open new splits below and to the right instead of above and left?
:set splitbelow splitright
How it works By default, Vim opens horizontal splits (:split or :sp) above the current window and vertical splits (:vsplit or :vsp) to the left.
How do I use relative line offsets in Ex commands to target lines near the cursor?
:.+1,.+3d
Vim's Ex command addresses support arithmetic offsets relative to the current line (.
command-line #ex-commands #editing #navigation #command-line
How do I paste text and leave the cursor after the pasted content instead of on it?
gp
The standard p command pastes text after the cursor but leaves the cursor at the beginning of the pasted text.
How do I find which Vim scripts or functions are slow and causing performance issues?
:profile start profile.log
When Vim feels sluggish, the built-in :profile command lets you measure exactly how much time each script and function consumes.
How do I search for a pattern across all files in my project without leaving Vim?
:vimgrep /pattern/ **
:vimgrep /pattern/ searches recursively through all files in the current working directory tree using Vim's own regex engine, populating the quickfix list with
How do I transform text in a visual selection using awk or sed?
:'<,'>!awk '{print toupper($0)}'
Vim can pipe any visual selection through external Unix commands and replace the selection with the output.
visual-mode #visual-mode #external-command #awk #text-transformation
How do I wrap text with an HTML tag using vim-surround?
ysiw<em>
The vim-surround plugin makes wrapping text in HTML or XML tags effortless.
How do I quickly replace all occurrences of the word under my cursor?
* then :%s//new/g
Pressing searches for the word under the cursor, which also loads it into the search register.
How do I search and replace text across multiple files in Vim?
:args **/*.py | argdo %s/old/new/gc | update
Vim can perform search-and-replace across multiple files without any plugins by combining the arglist with :argdo.
search #search #substitution #ex-commands #productivity #quickfix #arglist