vi Commands List

A listing of vi commands currently implemented in Code Editor.

Table 1. Cursor movement

Keystrokes	Description
h l k j	character left, right; line up, down
b w	word/token left, right
ge e	end of word/token left, right
0 ^ $	beginning, first, last character of line
nG/:n ngg	line n, default the last, first
B W	space-separated word left, right
gE E	end of space-separated word left, right
H M L	Top, middle, bottom of screen
g0 gm	beginning, middle of screen line
g^ g$	first, last character of screen line
fc Fc	next, previous occurrence of character c
tc Tc	before next, previous occurrence of c

Table 2. Insertion and Replace (insert mode)

Keystrokes	Description
i a	insert before, after cursor
I A	insert at beginning of first character, end of line
gI (g + Capital I)	insert text in first column/go to first column
o O	open a new line below, above the current line
rc	replace character under cursor with c
R	replace characters starting at the cursor
cm	change text of movement command m
cc or S	change current line
C	change to the end of line

Table 3. Deletion

Keystrokes	Description
x X	delete character under (right), before (left) cursor
dm	delete text of movement command m
dd D	delete current line, to the end of line
J gJ	join current line with next, without space
:rd	delete range r lines

Table 4. Search and Substitution

Keystrokes	Description
/s← ?s←	search forward, backward for s
n or /←	repeat forward last search
N or ?←	repeat backward last search
# *	search backward, forward for complete word under cursor
g# g*	same, but also find partial matches
gd gD	local, global definition of symbol under cursor
:rs/f /t/x	substitute f by t in range r; x: g -- all occurrences, c -- confirm changes

Table 5. Copying

Keystrokes	Description
ym	yank the text of movement command m
yy/:y or Y	yank current line into register
:ry	yank r range of lines
p P	put register after, before cursor position

Table 6. Undoing, Repeating and Registers

Keystrokes	Description
u U	undo last command, restore last changed line
.	repeat last changes
.n	repeat last changes with count replaced by n

Table 7. Standard Mode Formatting / Filtering

Keystrokes	Description
~	switch case and advance cursor
g~m gum gUm	switch case, lc, uc on movement m

Table 8. Insert Mode

Keystrokes	Description
esc or ^]	abandon editing → command mode

Table 9. Marks, Motions, and Tags

Keystrokes	Description
mc	mark current position with mark c ∈ [a Z]
'c 'C	go to mark c in current, C in any file

Table 10. Misc IO related commands

Keystrokes	Description
:e f	edit file f, reload current file if no f
:rw f	write range r to file f (current file if no f ) (:w, :w f)
:q :q!	quit and confirm, quit and discard changes
:wq or :x or ZZ	write to current file and exit
:r f	insert content of file f below cursor
:n	next file
:p	previous file
:n,kw >> file1	append lines n-k into another file file1.

Table 11. Ranges

Keystrokes	Description
, ;	separates two line numbers, set to first line
:n,m	lines n to m
n	an absolute line number n
. $	the current line, the last line in file
% *	entire file, visual area (exclude)
't	position of mark t
/p/ ?p?	the next, previous line where p matches
+n -n	+n, −n to the preceding line number

Table 12. Folding

Keystrokes	Description
zo zc zO zC	open, close one fold; recursively
[z ]z	move to start, end of current open fold
zj zk	move down/up to start/end of next/previous fold
zm zM	fold more, close all folds
zr zR	fold less, open all folds