vim

Navigating Your Text

Before diving into text manipulation, efficient navigation is key. Vim’s modal nature (Normal, Insert, Visual) dictates how you interact with the text.

• Entering Insert Mode: i (insert before cursor), a (insert after cursor), o (open a new line below), O (open a new line above).
• Returning to Normal Mode: Esc key.
• Movement:
  • h: Left
  • j: Down
  • k: Up
  • l: Right
  • w: Next word
  • b: Previous word
  • e: End of word
  • 0: Beginning of line
  • $: End of line
  • gg: Go to the beginning of the file
  • G: Go to the end of the file
  • nG: Go to line n

Example:

Let’s say you have a file named my_text.txt with the following content:

This is a sample text file.
It contains multiple lines of text.
We will use vim to edit it.

Open the file in Vim: vim my_text.txt

Navigate to the beginning of the file using gg, then move to the end of the third line using 3j$.

Editing Text

Vim offers a rich set of commands for editing text.

• Deleting Text:
  • x: Delete character under cursor
  • dw: Delete word
  • dd: Delete line
  • d$: Delete to end of line
  • dgg: Delete from cursor to beginning of file
  • dG: Delete from cursor to end of file
• Yanking (Copying) Text:
  • yw: Yank word
  • yy: Yank line
  • y$: Yank to end of line
• Putting (Pasting) Text:
  • p: Paste after cursor
  • P: Paste before cursor
• Changing Text:
  • cw: Change word
  • cc: Change line
  • c$: Change to end of line

Example:

Continuing with my_text.txt, let’s make some changes:

1. Move to the beginning of the second line (2gg).
2. Delete the word “contains” using dw.
3. Insert the word “includes” using iincludes<Esc>.
4. Move to the end of the third line (3j$).
5. Append “efficiently” using a efficiently<Esc>.

Searching and Replacing

Vim provides powerful search and replace functionalities.

• Searching: /pattern searches forward, ?pattern searches backward. n repeats the last search forward, N repeats the last search backward.
• Replacing: :s/old/new/g replaces all occurrences of “old” with “new” on the current line. :1,$s/old/new/g replaces all occurrences of “old” with “new” in the entire file. :s/old/new/gc prompts for confirmation before each replacement.

Example:

Let’s replace all instances of “text” with “data” in my_text.txt:

:1,$s/text/data/g

This command will replace all occurrences of “text” with “data” throughout the file.

Working with Multiple Files

Vim allows you to efficiently work with multiple files.

• Opening multiple files: vim file1.txt file2.txt
• Switching between files: :n (next file), :N (previous file)

Visual Mode

Visual mode allows for selecting blocks of text for various operations.

• Entering Visual Mode: v (character-wise), V (line-wise), Ctrl-v (block-wise)
• Operations in Visual Mode: Many commands work differently in visual mode, e.g., d deletes the selected text, y yanks it, and c changes it.

Example:

Select a block of text in visual mode and then use d to delete it, or y to copy it.

More Advanced Commands (Brief Overview)

This only scratches the surface. Vim offers many more commands for advanced operations like macros, regular expressions, plugins, and more. Exploring these features unlocks even greater productivity.