Vim Commands Cheatsheet

Overview

Vim’s learning curve is real but front-loaded. Once the modal model clicks, editing speed compounds. This card covers the motions, operators, and commands worth internalizing. For terminal multiplexing alongside Vim, see tmux-commands.

Modes

Every keystroke’s meaning depends on the current mode.

Mode	How to enter	Purpose
Normal	Esc or Ctrl-[	Navigate and operate. The default mode.
Insert	i, a, o, I, A, O	Type text.
Visual	v (char), V (line), Ctrl-v (block)	Select text for an operation.
Command	:	Enter ex commands (save, quit, substitute).
Replace	R	Overwrite characters in place.

Return to Normal with Esc from any mode. When confused, press Esc twice.

Motions

Motions move the cursor. Prefix with a count: 3w moves three words forward.

Motion	What it does
h j k l	Left, down, up, right.
w / W	Forward one word / WORD (whitespace-delimited).
b / B	Back one word / WORD.
e / E	Forward to end of word / WORD.
0	Start of line.
^	First non-blank character of line.
$	End of line.
gg	First line of file.
G	Last line of file.
{ / }	Previous / next empty line (paragraph).
%	Jump to matching bracket, paren, or brace.
f{c} / F{c}	Jump to next / previous occurrence of character c on the line.
t{c} / T{c}	Jump to just before / after c.
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u	Scroll half page down / up.
:42	Jump to line 42.

f then ; to repeat the search forward; , to repeat backward.

Operators

Operators act on a motion: operator + motion or operator + text-object.

Operator	Action
d	Delete (cut).
c	Change (delete and enter Insert).
y	Yank (copy).
> / <	Indent / de-indent.
=	Auto-indent.
gU / gu	Uppercase / lowercase.

Doubles apply to the whole line: dd deletes a line, yy yanks a line, cc changes a line.

Common text objects used with operators:

Text object	Selects
iw / aw	Inner word / a word (includes surrounding space).
i" / a"	Inside / around double quotes.
i( / a(	Inside / around parentheses.
i{ / a{	Inside / around braces.
it / at	Inside / around an HTML tag.
ip / ap	Inner / a paragraph.

ci" changes everything inside double quotes. da( deletes a parenthesized expression including the parens.

Search and replace

Search is a motion; use it to drive operators.

Command	What it does
/pattern	Search forward. n next, N previous.
?pattern	Search backward.
* / #	Search forward / backward for the word under cursor.
:%s/old/new/g	Replace all occurrences in the file.
:%s/old/new/gc	Replace with confirmation at each occurrence.
:10,20s/old/new/g	Replace in lines 10 to 20.
:'<,'>s/old/new/g	Replace in visual selection (populated automatically after V).
:noh	Clear search highlight.

Patterns use Vim regex. Use \v (very magic mode) for PCRE-like syntax: :%s/\v(\w+)@(\w+)/\1 at \2/g.

Registers and macros

Registers are named clipboards; macros record keystrokes into a register.

Command	What it does
"ayy	Yank a line into register a.
"ap	Paste from register a.
"+y	Yank to the system clipboard.
"+p	Paste from the system clipboard.
:reg	Show all register contents.
qa	Start recording a macro into register a.
q	Stop recording.
@a	Play macro a.
10@a	Play macro a ten times.
@@	Replay the last macro.

Design macros to be repeatable: end with a motion that positions the cursor for the next invocation.

Common gotchas

• Pressing u in Insert mode undoes a character; in Normal mode it undoes the last change. If your undos feel too granular, break insert sessions with Esc between logical chunks.
• x deletes into the unnamed register, overwriting your last yank. Yank into a named register ("ay) before deleting if you need to paste the yanked text later.
• :q! discards unsaved changes without confirmation. Use :wqa to write all buffers and quit.
• dd on a blank line still puts the newline in the register. "_dd sends the delete to the black-hole register and leaves the clipboard alone.
• Vim regex is not PCRE. + requires \+ without \v. Use \v at the start of a pattern to enable very magic mode and write +, (), | without backslashes.
• :set paste before pasting from the system clipboard in Insert mode to prevent autoindent from mangling indentation. Reset with :set nopaste. Neovim does not need this.

Related

• tmux-commands
• regex-patterns
• bash-one-liners
• find-grep-awk-sed
• shell
• Cheatsheets