:g/pattern/m $
The :g (global) command combined with :m (move) lets you collect all lines matching a pattern and relocate them to a specific position in the file.
command-line #ex-commands #editing #global #search #formatting
:'<,'>!awk '{printf "%-20s %s\n", $1, $2}'
By piping a visual selection through awk with printf formatting, you can align columns to fixed widths.
visual-mode #visual-mode #formatting #alignment #external-command
:lua require('conform').format()
conform.
:center 80
Vim has built-in text alignment commands that adjust lines relative to a specified width.
:set formatoptions+=cro
The formatoptions setting controls how Vim automatically formats text as you type — including comment continuation, auto-wrapping, and paragraph formatting.
gl{motion}{char}
vim-lion (by Tom McDonald) adds gl and gL as alignment operators.
:set breakindent
When wrap is enabled, long lines wrap to the next screen row starting at column 1 by default, which makes indented code look messy.
:set linebreak
By default, when wrap is enabled, Vim wraps long lines at the window edge — which can split words in the middle.
:ALEFix
ALE (Asynchronous Lint Engine) is a popular Vim plugin that runs linters and formatters asynchronously in the background, showing errors and warnings in the gut
r<CR>
You can split a line at the cursor without entering Insert mode by using r.
:set conceallevel=2
The conceallevel option controls how Vim displays characters that have the "conceal" syntax attribute.
:center
The :center command pads a line with leading spaces so the text is centered within a given width.
:set textwidth=80
The textwidth option sets the maximum width for text.
highlight TrailingWhitespace ctermbg=red and match TrailingWhitespace /\s\+$/
How it works Vim's highlight and match commands let you create custom visual indicators.
set statusline=%{MyCustomFunc()}
How it works Vim's statusline supports the %{expr} syntax which evaluates a Vimscript expression and displays the result.
try | colorscheme gruvbox | catch | colorscheme default | endtry
How it works When you share your vimrc across multiple machines, a colorscheme you have installed on one system may not exist on another.
:set wrap! or :set nowrap
How it works By default, Vim wraps long lines that extend past the window width, displaying them across multiple screen lines.
:retab
How it works The :retab command replaces all tab characters in the current buffer with the appropriate number of spaces, based on your current tabstop and expan
:'<,'>!command
How it works Vim can pipe selected text through any external shell command, replacing the selection with the command's output.
qa0f=20i <Esc>20|C= <Esc>lDjq
How it works Aligning text on a delimiter such as = without plugins requires a clever macro technique.
