Vim a beginning

 

Contents

Introduction Mode of Operations Commands for basic Operations Opening a File Inserting Text Moving around Copy & Paste Undo & Redo Search & Replace Save & Quit Splitting windows Advance Options Conclusion

 

Introduction

The VI editor is a one of the most powerful text editor which has a very extensive functionalities to allow developer enabling to edit files with a minimum of keystrokes. This power and functionality comes as a cost. This article I am going to explain basic command which helps you to put your hands on in VIM editor to write your program.

Mode of Operations

VIM has three modes of operation.

1. Command Mode : This is the mode VIM starts in by default. In this mode, most keys on the keyboard are defined to specific command. At any time, pressing the ESC key and typing colon : returns the user to command mode.
2. Insert Mode: This mode allows a user to start inputing data into file. To reach this mode, press i or o
3. Visual Mode: This mode allows you to do the visual operation which is common in grapical editors like selecting punch of lines copy/pasting/deleting the text in the editor. Pressing v will enters you in visual mode.

Commands for basic Operations

• Opening a File

 

Commands Descriptions vim This will start the empty vim editor vim [File name] (eg. vim hello.c) This will start vim editing the specified file(or create a new file if no file specified vim [File name] : [Line No] (eg. vim hello.c :5) This will open the specified file with the cursor point to the given line number. vim [File name] / [expression] This will open the specified file with the place where the expression matches

 

• Inserting Text

  
  

  Commands Descriptions i Insert a text in after the current cursor position I Insert a text before the cursor position o Insert a text one line below the cursor position O Insert a text one line above the cursor position a Append a text after the cursor A Append a text before the cursor

 

• Moving around

  
  

  Commands Descriptions k Go up j Go down h Go left i Go right w Go write a word b Go left a word gg Go to the beginning of the file G Go to the end of the file 22j Go to the line no 22 1 Go to start of the line $ Go to end of the line

 

• Copy & Paste

  
  

  Commands Descriptions v Press v to enter visual mode Use Arrow keys [k, j h, I ] To select the text to copy y To copy the selected text p To paste the text d To cut the text followed by y to paste d To delete the selected text yy To copy a Line yw To copy a word dd To delete/cut a Line dw To delete/cut a word x To delete a character r To replace a character cw To replace a word

 

• Undo & Redo

  
  

  Commands Descriptions u Undo the changes Ctrl + R Redo the changes

 

• Search & Replace

  
  

  Commands Descriptions /<keyword> after the slash put whatever you want to find and press the enter key) n Find next N Find previous * Pressing star on top of the word you want to search automatically show the search result :noh Turn off highlighting (after a search) :%s/search/replace/gc It will search and replace the text in the entire document [g mean global] [c mean confirm before replacing the text] :1,5s/search/replace/ci It will only replace the text in between line number 1 and 5. [I mean ignore case]

 

• Save & Quit

  
  

  Commands [see colon is there before ] Descriptions :w Save the file :!w Save it forcefully to override the readonly files :q Close the file :q! Close the unsaved file forcefully : :wq save and close the file :wq! Save and Close the file forcefully :x Save and close the file

 

• Splitting windows

  
  

  Commands Descriptions : sp Split the window into two buffer : sp filename open the new file in the window : vsp Vertically split the window : vsp filename Open the file in vertical window ctrl + w w Switch between windows

 

• Advance Options

Commands Descriptions Indentation Press v and then arrow keys (or h,j,k,l,w,$) to highlight lines of text. Type > or < to indent right or left. : set et Use space for indenting instead of tab : set ai set auto-indenting : set si set smart indenting context sensitive indentation : set nu set numbering in the file : set nonu Remove the numbering [add “no” to any command to remove it ] : syntex on Based on the programming the syntex will be enabled. : ! cmd (eg. :!e filename) opens new file in vim : !sh Go to shell prompt ctrl + G Tell the file name and current line number

 

Conclusion

This article provides a very basic command which is used in VIM for day to  day work. As I told VIM is so powerful text editor It has more than 150 commands which provides the different functionality. VIM can be configured as better than modern IDE. It has support of editing all the modern programming language. Please feel free to give your comments in the below section. If you have any query feel free to send a mail to sentenwin@gmail.com