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vim key mapping

Beginner Block

i
start insert
<es­c> or <C-­[>
escape to normal mode
:w [<f­ile­nam­e>]
in normal mode, write to current file
:q
in normal mode, quit the editor
[ https:­//g­ith­ub.c­om­/Pi­pin­g/d­otfiles ] has my config­ura­tion
Notation: <l­e­a­de­­r> key can be defined via let mapleader = "­\<s­pac­e>"
<C­-a> means Ctrl + A , <S­-x> means Shift + x

Motions: command that moves the cursor

hjkl
left/d­own­/up­/right
f/F
search and move to next typed character
t/T
similar to f/F. but stop before character
0/$
start/end of current line
^/g_
start and end of current line with non whitespace
w/e
next start/end of word, W/E for word with punctu­nation
b/B
previous start of word B for word with punctu­ation
gg
go to line {count}, default first line
G
go to line {count}, default last line
-/<­ent­er>
previo­us/next start of the line
H/M/L
cursor go to TOP/MI­DDL­E/B­OTTOM of the screen
''
(single quote twice) previous location in jumplist
'{a-z}­/`{a-z}
previous marked position using m{a-z}, E.g. ma `a
'.
To the position where the last change was made.
%
move to closing pair [], {}, ()
{1-9}+
a number type before motions, repeat {count} motion
:help motion
check more on documents inside vim
g; g,
cycle through change positions
Vim Concept: Motions - command that moves the cursor, depends on current cursor position. Above list is not complete! It can be used with OPERATOR to effici­ently editing text in Textual User Interf­ace

Text-O­bje­ct-­Motion

ap
around a paragraph
iw
inner word
aw
aroud word
i"
inner double quote
a"
around double quote
//
last search result, follow after operator
//0
search­-offset to that whole line
:h iw
help for more

Operator - editing the text effici­ently

d
delete/cut
c
change
y
copy/yank
~
reverse case
!
filter with external program, E.g. format doc
gu/gU
make lower/­upper case
</>
indent left/right
=
filter with predefined equalprg
zf
fold the text
Two way to combine operator and select­ions:
1. <op­era­tor­><m­oti­on> or <op­era­tor­><t­ext­-ob­jec­t-m­oti­on> etc.
2. <se­lection from visual mode><­ope­rat­or>
E.g. di" delete the word inside double quotes
Press one operator twice operate on current line as the select­ion
E.g. yy copy the current line, dd cut/delete the current line

Paste && Registers

p
paste content from register "
P
paste before cursor or cursor line
"0p
paste 0 register's content in normal mode
:register
show content of a list of registers
:h i_ctrl-r
more registers
VIM Concept: Registers, used to store copy/cut text, the register can have single character names, {0-9a­-z"%­#*+­:.-=}.

p/P is used in normal mode, other Ctrl-­R{r­egi­ster} are used in insert mode and command line mode. (I reversed p/P since I feel p before cursor is more natural for modern IDE)

Page Movement

<C-­e>/­<C-­y>
move buffer down/up and keep cursor position
zz
bring current cursor line to center
zb
bring current cursor line to bottom screen
zt
bring current cursor line to top screen

Visual Mode Commands

o
switch between two ends of selection (anchor)
<c-­v>
switch to visual block mode
V
switch to visual line mode
v
switch to visual mode
<le­ade­r>a
alignment, using plugin easy-­align

Tabs

gt
go to next tab
gT
go to previous tab
:tabnew
new tab, <­lea­der­>t
:tabclose
close current tab

Target.vim - Extended and Smart Text Object

Key Sequence: <op­era­tor> <sc­ope> <se­ek?> <te­xt-­obj­ect>
a i
<sc­ope> around (include delime­ter), inner
" '
<text object> for quotes
b ( )
<text object> for parent­heses()
{}<­>[]t
<text object> blocks, html tags
Usage: <op­era­tor> <sc­ope> [<s­eek­>] <te­xt-­obj­ect>
E.g.
- diw delete the word without the surrou­nding whitespace
- vaw visual select the word & surrou­nding whitespace
- cia change next function arguments ( target.vim )
- dinb delete content inside next parent­hesis (targe­t.vim)
 

Windows (Split, Size Adjust­ment, Placement)

<C-­w>=
equal size display all panels
<C-­w>s
horizontal split
<C-­w>v
vertical split
<C-­W>p
go to last accessed window
<C-­w>H
put pane to absolute left, take full height
<C-­w>L
put pane to absolute right, take full height
<C-­w>J
put pane to absolute bottom, take full width
<C-­w>K
put pane to absolute top, take full width
:set splitright
for vertical split, place new pane right
<C-­w>hjkl
move to relative left/d­own­/up­/right pane

Insert Mode ( Emacs Style Single Line Editing)

<C-­a>
Jump to the beginning of the line
<C-­e>
Jump to the end of the line
<C-­w>
Backwa­rd-­Delete Word
<C-­d>
Forwar­d-D­elete Word
<C-­y>
paste/yank to current line
<C-­k>
delete the rest line after cursor

Useful Utility Commands (Normal Mode)

.
dot command, repeat last change
J
Join the line below to current line
<C-­a>
add {count} to number under cusor
<C-­x>
subtract {count} to number under cusor
@;
repeat last cmdline command
<le­ade­r>j
break current line and move trailing part one line above
dot command . repeat text changes that is defined by vim. E.g. invoked by operator c and followup inserted text.

Useful Utility (Inser­t/C­ommand Mode)

<C-­R>/
put last search string
<C-­R>=
calculator <C-­R>=­128/2, insert mode
<C-­R>"
put last copied text
<C-­R>0
put second to last copied text
dot command . does not repeat command line commands, only changes that is defined by vim. E.g. invoked by operator c and followup inserted text.

CSCOPE MAPPING (My Config­ura­tion)

:cs add <path to cscope.ou­t> <path to worksa­pce>
<le­ade­r>ca
add cscope.out <wo­rksapce path>
<le­ade­r>gs
search the C symbol under cursor
<le­ade­r>gd
search global defintion
<le­ade­r>gc
search who called this function
<le­ade­r>ge
search this string as egrep pattern
<le­ade­r>gf
search for this file under cursor
<le­ade­r>gi
search for files that include the current file
<le­ade­r>ga
search assignment to this variable

Normal Commands (My Config­ura­tion)

q
close current window
<cr>
:noh Remove Search Highlights
<le­ade­r>m
open tagbar for current file
<le­ade­r>l
toggle line number display
<le­ade­r>z
open current file in a new tab to "­ZOO­M"
<le­ade­r>q
open quickfix window

Command Mode :

:%
{range}, equal to 1,$ (the entire file)
:{range}! <ex­ternal cmd>
range of text is being pipe to cmd to be replaced
:%! xxd
edit binary file
:%! xxd -r
save the file into binary form
Ctrl-f
open cmdline editing windows

Code Build

:make all -j
build the code & report on quickfix list

Special and Very Useful Windows -- Quickfix

:copen­/:c­close
open/close Quickfix
:cn
go to next fix
:cp
go to previous fix
:make all -j
build the code & report on quickfix list
Quickfix typically used after :make command and can be configured to work with cscope. The quickfix window contains the parsed result from :make that contains where compli­cation error happen, and put cursor to exactly the file/l­ine­/column so user can just fix it!
I open quick fix with my shortcut and prefix a :botright copen to open it at the bottom of window

Fold The Content

:set foldme­thod=
syntax, indent, manual, etc
:set foldlevel=
0,1,2,­3,.., applied when value is changed
za
toggle folding at the cursor position
zf
Operator to create a fold (manual mode only)
zo
open selection text
zc
close the fold

Vim Diff Mode

:diffsplit <[f­ile­nam­e]>
split the window with diff mode on
:diffoff
turn off diff mode, (include diff highli­ghts)
:set diff!
only switch the diff color highlight
do
get change from the other side
dp
put change to the other side
windo diffoff can turn off all diffmode windows in current tab

Commentary ( External Plugin Default)

gcc
commen­t/u­nco­mment current line
10gcc
comment next 10 lines
gcu
comment block
gcap
comment the paragrah
gc
comment selection (visual mode)
   
 

Metadata

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  • Published: 13th June, 2018
  • Last Updated: 18th December, 2019

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