vi Commands List

A listing of vi commands currently implemented in Code Editor.

Table 1. Cursor movement
Keystrokes Description
hlkj character left, right; line up, down
bw 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
BW space-separated word left, right
gE E end of space-separated word left, right
HML 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
ia insert before, after cursor
IA insert at beginning of first character, end
of line
gI (g + Capital I) insert text in first column/go to first
column
oO 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
xX 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
pP put register after, before cursor position
Table 6. Undoing, Repeating and Registers
Keystrokes Description
uU 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