VIM

jump to the blank lines in a file. Useful for large files.

:g/^$/normal! j`

Yank entire file to clipboard

:%y+

Search and replace text

The % means to "search the whole document. The g means global so it will replace all the found words all at once.

:%s/foo/bar/g

Adding Newline from Search and Replace

This step might not need to be done. I didn't have to do it...

First, set your Vi(m) session to allow pattern matching with special characters (i.e.: newline). It's probably worth putting this line in your .vimrc file:

:set magic

Next, do:

:s/,/,^M/g

To get the ^M character, type Ctrl + V and hit Enter. Under Windows, do Ctrl + Q, Enter.

repeat characters to a specific column

In the following example, x is whatever characters you want to repeat.

80Ax<ESC>d80|

output:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

open vim on a specific line number

nvim filename +123
# 123 is line number

vim-markdown

Mappings

The following work on normal and visual modes:

  • gx: open the link under the cursor in the same browser as the standard gx command. <Plug>Markdown_OpenUrlUnderCursor

    The standard gx is extended by allowing you to put your cursor anywhere inside a link.

    For example, all the following cursor positions will work:

    [Example](http://example.com)
^  ^    ^^   ^       ^
1  2    34   5       6

<http://example.com>
^  ^               ^
1  2               3

    Known limitation: does not work for links that span multiple lines.

  • ge: open the link under the cursor in Vim for editing. Useful for relative markdown links. <Plug>Markdown_EditUrlUnderCursor

    The rules for the cursor position are the same as the gx command.

  • ]]: go to next header. <Plug>Markdown_MoveToNextHeader

  • [[: go to previous header. Contrast with ]c. <Plug>Markdown_MoveToPreviousHeader

  • ][: go to next sibling header if any. <Plug>Markdown_MoveToNextSiblingHeader

  • []: go to previous sibling header if any. <Plug>Markdown_MoveToPreviousSiblingHeader

  • ]c: go to Current header. <Plug>Markdown_MoveToCurHeader

  • ]u: go to parent header (Up). <Plug>Markdown_MoveToParentHeader

A few helpful shortcuts related to executing things in the shell:

  • :! By itself, runs the last external command (from your shell history)

  • :!! Repeats the last commands

  • :silent !{cmd} Eliminates the need to hit enter after the command is done

  • :r !{cmd} Puts the output of $cmd into the current buffer.

  • :r !{cmd} > filename writes the output to a new file

Using tabs in Vim

  • Create a new tab with :tabnew

  • Open file in new tab :tabnew filename

  • Open files in tabs from the command line

vim -p file1 file2 file3

  • Search for open file in tabs with :tabf filename

  • Search tabs with auto completion with :tabn filename

  • Navigate tabs: Next = :tabn Previous = :tabp First tab = :tabfirst Last Tab = :tablast

  • See list of open tabs with :tabs

  • Move tab to a different position with :tabm <ntab number> is 0-whatever number tabs

  • Running commands in tabs:

Let’s say you’re editing six or seven files in Vim and realize that you need to replace a variable name with a new one. Using the :tabdo command, you can run a search and replace through all of the tabs at once rather than changing each file individually. For instance, if you want to replace foo with bar, you’d run this:

:tabdo %s/foo/bar/g

That will run through each open tab and run the search and replace command (%s/foo/bar/g) in each one.

Adding character before selected block of text

  • Press Esc to enter 'command mode'

  • Use Ctrl + v to enter visual block mode

  • Move Up/Down to select the columns of text in the lines you want to comment.

  • Then hit Shift + i and type the text you want to insert.

  • Then hit Esc, wait 1 second and the inserted text will appear on every line.

Saving output to a file

Typically the output of the above commands will span several pages. You can use the following set of commands to redirect the output to the vim_maps.txt file:

:redir! > vim_maps.txt
:map
:map!
:redir END

A vim “delete blank lines” command

To delete blank lines in vim (empty lines), use this vim command in “last line mode”:

:g/^$/d

Here’s a brief explanation of how this vim “delete blank lines” command works:

  • The : character says, “put vim in last-line mode.”

  • The g character says, “perform the following operation globally in this file.” (Operate on all lines in this file.)

  • The forward slash characters enclose the pattern I’m trying to match. In this case I want to match blank lines, so I use the regular expression ^$. Here the ^ means “beginning of line,” and $ means “end of line,” so with no characters in between them, this vim regex means “blank line.” (If I had typed ^abc$, that would mean, “find a line with only the sequence of characters ‘abc’”.)

  • The d at the end of the command says, “When you find this pattern, delete the line.”

Delete columns of characters

  1. Place cursor on first or last character you want to delete

  2. Press Ctrl + v to enter Visual Block mode

  3. Use arrow keys to select the characters you want to delete (or the other "first few characters")

  4. Press x to delete them all at once

Writing to file with sudo

:w !sudo tee %

Add this to .vimrc or .config/nvim/init.vim:

" Allow saving of files as sudo when I forgot to start vim using sudo.
cmap w!! w !sudo tee > /dev/null %

Copying whole document to clipboard

On Windows & OS X there is no difference between + and *, since these systems only have a single clipboard, and both registers refer to the same thing (it doesn't matter which one you use).

You can use these registers as any register. For example, using the PRIMARY clipboard * with the y and p commands:

  • "*yy

  • "*p

Pretty Print JSON

When working with JSON files, you will generally have a big mess of data that needs to be human readable. Here's how:

Type the following into the vim command line:

:%!python -m json.tool

Comparing edits to original file

:w !diff % -

Changing 3 Number Color to rgb() Colors

Use this command to search, for example: 111,288,105

:%s/\([0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\}\)/rgb(\1\)/g

Now your numbers will look like rgb(111,288,105)

I used this technique to view the color highlights of colorscheme.ini files for colortool

Split View

Yes, vim has the ability to split both horizontally using :split and vertically using :vsplit which both work just like :edit for opening a file, except they open it in a horizontal / vertical split respectively.

You can either split vim windows by opening multiple files using -o, -O, -o2 parameters.

Add a list of sequential numbers

How to generate a number sequence in file using vi or Vim?

Starting with Vim 7.4.754 one can use g Ctrl-a, see :help CTRL + A

Go to line you want to start with, use CTRL + Y to blockwise select the first character, go down as many lines as you want, press Shift + I, enter 0 (this is 0, followed bySpace) andEsc to exit insert mode.

Now use g v to re-select the previously selected area. Press g CTRL + A to create a sequence. I start with a 0 here, so I can re-select by g v. If you start with a 1, you need to re-select by hand while omitting the first 1.

Use 2 g CTRL + A to use a step count of 2.

How to Visualize Tabs in Vim

(This is an excerpt taken from the post: Tabs & Spaces in Vim: How to Make Conscious Use of Both)

It will be presented two ways to visualize Tabs in Vim.

Searching for the Tab Character

A quick way to visualize whether there is a Tab character is by searching for it using Vim’s search-commands:

  • In NORMAL mode, type / and hit <Enter>. It will search for the Tab character () and highlight the results.

Although it may be good for a quick check, if you need persistent Tabs visibility plus the ability to use the search-commands for other purposes, you might need another solution.

Activating list Mode

Vim’s list mode displays on screen unprintable characters (<Tab>, EOF, EOL, etc…) with strings defined by the listchars option.

By default, it will display ^I for a Tab character but this default representation breaks screen alignment so, the suggestion is to set a string representation to be used for the Tab character:

  • In NORMAL mode, type :set listchars=tab:▷▷⋮ or add set listchars=tab:▷▷⋮ to your .vimrc file.

  • Toggle list mode by typing :set invlist in NORMAL mode.

The command above defines the strings that Vim will display (▷▷⋮) for a Tab character. Vim’s behavior is to repeat or omit the second character (▷), which means:

A Tab character on a file that the indentation is set to occupy two screen spaces, will display ▷⋮.

A Tab character on a file that the indentation is set to occupy four screen spaces, will display ▷▷▷⋮.

Extra: Create a Mapping to Toggle list Mode Quickly

Add the following line to your .vimrc file:

noremap <Leader><Tab><Tab> :set invlist<CR>
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