:[range]yank {reg}
Vim's :[range]yank and :[range]delete Ex commands let you capture arbitrary line ranges into a register from the command line, bypassing the need to move the cu
:set shiftwidth=0
Setting shiftwidth=0 tells Vim to use the value of tabstop wherever shiftwidth would normally be consulted — for the > and and in insert mode, and auto-indent
:earlier {time}
Vim's :earlier and :later commands let you travel through undo history using real-world time intervals instead of individual change counts.
:g/pattern/t.
Combining :global with the :t (copy) command and the .
:set fileformat=unix
When you open a Windows file in Vim on a Unix system, you may see ^M at the end of every line — that's the carriage return (\r) from CRLF line endings.
:colder
Vim maintains a history stack of up to 10 quickfix lists.
buffers-windows #buffers-windows #navigation #ex-commands #search
:set equalprg={program}
The equalprg option replaces Vim's built-in = indentation operator with any external formatting program.
:[range]write >> filename
The >> modifier on :write appends lines to a file instead of overwriting it.
command-line #command-line #ex-commands #file-handling #editing
:'<,'>
Vim automatically sets two special marks whenever you make a visual selection: ' (end).
:let @a = execute('messages')
The execute() function (added in Vim 8.
:noautocmd w
The :noautocmd modifier runs any Ex command while suppressing all autocmd events for its duration.
:center / :left / :right
Vim has three built-in Ex commands for aligning text without any plugins: :left, :center, and :right.
:find **/*.py
Vim's built-in :find command supports recursive glob patterns, making it possible to locate and open files anywhere in a project without installing a fuzzy find
<C-a> (command-line mode)
In command-line mode, inserts all completions for the word before the cursor at once, as a space-separated list.
:compiler {name}
The :compiler command loads a compiler plugin from Vim's runtime path, setting both makeprg (the build command) and errorformat (the error parsing pattern) in o
:set makeprg={command}
Vim's :make command runs a build program and automatically loads its output into the quickfix list so you can jump directly to errors and warnings.
:{range}center [width]
Vim provides three built-in Ex commands for text alignment: :center, :right, and :left.
:lcd %:p:h
:lcd %:p:h sets the working directory for the current window to the directory of the file you're editing, using Vim's path expansion modifiers.
:echo map(synstack(line('.'), col('.')), 'synIDattr(v:val, "name")')
When syntax highlighting looks wrong or a colorscheme override isn't taking effect, you need to know exactly which highlight groups are active under the cursor.
:s/\(\w\+\)/\u\1/g
Vim's substitute command supports case-change modifiers in the replacement string that let you capitalize, uppercase, or lowercase matched text as part of the s
