:keepjumps keeppatterns %s/\s\+$//e<CR>
Bulk whitespace cleanup is common, but a plain substitution can leave side effects: your last search pattern changes and jump navigation gets noisy.
:'<,'>g/let /normal! A;<CR>
When you need a structural edit in part of a file, Visual mode ranges combine well with :global and :normal!.
visual-mode #visual-mode #command-line #ex-commands #editing
d/END/e<CR>
When you need to remove text up to a known marker, a plain search motion is often almost right but stops at the start of the match.
:set diffopt+=internal,algorithm:histogram,indent-heuristic
Default diff settings are fine for small edits, but they can produce noisy hunks when code is moved or indentation shifts.
gvV
gv is well known for reselecting the previous visual area, but pairing it with V is a practical upgrade when your next action needs linewise semantics.
yiww"_ciw\<C-r>0\<Esc>
When you are doing repetitive refactors, cw is fast but it overwrites the unnamed register with the replaced text.
:g/[^[:space:]]/normal! A;\<CR>
When you need to patch many lines at once, :g with :normal! is often faster and safer than recording a macro.
command-line #command-line #ex-commands #editing #normal-mode
:set virtualedit=block,onemore
virtualedit controls whether the cursor can move to positions that do not yet contain text.
:call setreg('q', getreg('a'), getregtype('a'))
Simple register copies can silently change behavior when register type is lost.
:lockmarks keepjumps keeppatterns %s/foo/bar/ge
Large substitutions are efficient, but they often leave side effects: your last search changes, your jumplist gets noisy, and marks can shift in ways that break
command-line #command-line #editing #substitution #navigation
:cdo keepjumps keeppatterns %s/\<OldSymbol\>/NewSymbol/ge | update
When you run :cdo over a large quickfix list, Vim can leave your jump list noisy and your last search pattern overwritten.
command-line #quickfix #ex-commands #search #editing #refactoring
*cgn
Global substitution is fast, but sometimes you need selective control over each occurrence.
:g/^/normal I// <CR>
When you need to comment a whole block quickly, :global combined with :normal is faster than recording a macro or entering Visual Block mode.
:call setreg('b', getreg('a'), getregtype('a'))
Plain register copies like :let @b = @a move text, but they can lose important metadata about register type.
:%s/0x\x\+/\=str2nr(submatch(0), 16)/g
When cleaning logs, protocol dumps, or generated code, you may need to normalize 0x.
:'<,'>normal! A;
Visual selections are not just for direct operators; they also define an Ex range.
visual-mode #visual-mode #normal-mode #editing #ex-commands #automation
:keepmarks {command}
Many batch edits in Vim update special marks like '[ and '], which can disrupt follow-up motions or tooling that depends on those positions.
navigation #navigation #marks #command-line #refactoring #editing
:let @a = expand('%:p')
Named registers are not only for yanked text.
registers #registers #command-line #filename-modifiers #editing
,
After using f, t, F, or T for single-character motion on a line, Vim lets you repeat that character search without retyping the target.
g?iw
g? is Vim’s built-in ROT13 operator.
