redcurry / practical-vim

Notes from the book "Practical Vim, 2nd Edition"

Notes for Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

The Alt command in the following table is a remapping of the original command for the Dvorak keyboard or Visual Studio.

Command [Alt]	Description
s	Change the current letter to anything.
S	Change from the beginning of the line to anything.
I	Insert from the begining.
;	Repeat last search used with the f or F commands.
,	Reverse the last search used with the f or F commands.
?<pattern>	Search for <pattern> backwards.
:%s/<word>/<replace>/g	Replace <word> with <replace> in the whole document.
:s/<word>/<replace>/g	Replace <word> with <replace> for the selected lines in Visual mode.
*	Search for the current word under the cursor.
n [-]	Search for the next match.
N [_]	Serach for the previous match.
db [eb]	Delete word backwards.
daw [eaw]	Delete "a word".
Ctrl+a	Add 1 to the current or next number under the cursor.
Ctrl+x	Subtract 1 from the current or next number under the cursor.
W	Move by words separated by spaces (not punctuation).
g~, gU, gu	Swap case, make uppercase, or make lowercase; followed by motion (e.g., gUaw to capitalize an entire word).
Ctrl+w	While in Insert mode, delete back one word.
Ctrl+u	While in Insert mode, delete back to the start of the line.
Ctrl+o	While in Insert mode, switch to Normal mode for one command, then back to Insert mode.
Ctrl+r<register> [Ctrl+y]	While in Insert mode, paste from the given register.
Ctrl+r, = [Ctrl+y, =]	While in Insert mode, calculate expression after =
Ctrl+v<code>	While in Insert mode, insert the character by the 3-digit code <code>
Ctrl+v, u<code>	While in Insert mode, insert the Unicode character by the 4-digit code <code>
ga	Show a character's decimal, hex, and octal numerical code
Ctrl+v<char>	While in Insert mode, insert the <char> literally (e.g., tab)
Ctrl+k<code>	While in Insert mode, insert the character represented by the 2-digit digraph <code>
R	Replace mode (instead of Insert mode); use gR to treat single tab character as spaces
Insert	Toggle between Replace and Insert mode
v, V, <Ctrl+v>	Character-wise, line-wise, or block-wise Visual mode
gv	Reselect last visual selection
o	In Visual mode, go to the other end of the selection
vit	Select text inside an HTML tag
U	In Visual mode, make selected text uppercase

When deleting many words, using dw and repeating with . is more granular than using a count with dw. This will make it easier to undo. But for replacing many words, using a count, like c3w, is probably better.

Typically, when an operator is invoked in duplicate it applies to the current line. For example gUgU capitalizes the current line (gUU is a shortcut).

When using the dot command in Visual mode, it repeats the command on the same range of text, which may not be desired when the text to act on is longer or shorter than the original. Instead, use an equivalent command in Normal mode.

Replace every character in the selection (in any visual mode) with r<char> where <char> is the new character.

In block-wise Visual mode, use c to change the topmost selected word and automatically change all selected words below.

Similarly, in block-wise Visual mode, use A to append to each line selected, even if the lines don't end in the same column.

In Command-Line mode, you can use many of the same commands as in Insert mode, such as Ctrl+w and Ctrl+u.

Ex and Shell Commands

Command [Alt]	Shortcut	Description
:[range]delete <x>	:d	Delete specified lines into register <x>.
:[range]copy <address>	:t	Copy lines in [range] to <address> (e.g., :t$ copies the current line to the end of the file).
:[range]move <address>	:m	Move lines in [range] to <address>.
@:		Repeat the last Ex command.
:[range]normal <command>	:norm	Execute a vim command in normal mode on the range (e.g., :%normal i// comments all lines).
Ctrl+D and/or <tab>		Show auto-completed commands.
:Ctrl+r Ctrl+w		Copy the word under the cursor to the Ex command-line.
q:		Open Ex command-line history window.
q/		Open search history window.
:!<cmd> %		Run <cmd> on the shell, passing the current file (%).
:read !<cmd>	:r	Send output of <cmd> to current file in vim.
:write !<cmd>	:w	Send all lines from vim to <cmd> as standard input.
:[range]write !<cmd>		Send lines in [range] to <cmd> as stdout.
:write !sh		Since sh executes commands, it executes every line from vim.
[range]!<cmd>		Send lines in [range] to stdin of <cmd>, and replace lines in [range] with output of <cmd>.
!<motion>		Automatically fills in the range represented by the motion.
:source <file.vim>		Execute each Ex command from the script <file.vim>.

The [range] can be a single line number or a range in the form of <start>,<end>.

The . symbol represents the current line and the $ symbol represents the last line, so a range of .,$ represents everything from the current line to the end of the file.

% represents all the lines in the current file (equilavent to 1,$).

In Visual mode, typing : will automatically prepopulate the "visual" range, so one can just start typing the Ex command.

The <start> and <end> may also be patterns in the form of /<pattern>/. It may also be a mark, using '<m> where <m> is the mark.

Add or subtract from <start> or <end>, e.g., .,/void/+3 represents the lines starting at the current to the line containing void plus 3.

In the command-line history window (opened by q: or q/), you can use vim commands to navigate and edit the history and execute edited commands by pressing Enter.

Note: Use https://github.com/tomtom/tcomment_vim to add comment operation to vim.

Working with Files

Command [Alt]	Shortcut	Description
:ls		List the buffers loaded by vim (when run like vim *.txt).
:bnext, bprev		Switch to the next or previous buffer, respectively.
:bfirst, blast		Switch to the first or last buffer, respectively.
Ctrl+^ or Ctrl+6		Switch to the alternate buffer.
:buffer <n>	:b	Switch to the buffer <n>, which could be a number (listed by :ls) or name (file name).
:bufdo		Execute an Ex command to all buffers
:bdelete <n1> <n2> ...	:bd	Delete buffers <n1>, <n2>, and so on from memory (does not delete the files).
:<n>,<m> bdelete		Delete buffers from <n> to <m>.
:args		Show all files (arguments) opened by vim (when run like vim *.cs).
:first		Go to the first file in the argument list.
:next		Go to the next file in the argument list.
:prev		Go to the previous file in the argument list.
:argdo <cmd>		Execute <cmd> on all files in the argument list (such as applying a script file).
:args <file1> <file2> ...		Set the argument list to the given values, which may be wildcards (e.g., *.txt) or a shell command enclosed in backticks.

In vim, a buffer is the contents of a file loaded into memory.

In the list shown by the :ls command, the % symbol is the current buffer and the # symbol is the alternate file.