Anybody using Git straight out of the box on the command line is likely to have found themselves suddenly stuck in a Vim editor. If you’re not used to Vim, this can be a highly discombobulating experience. Here’s how to escape!

• Quick Guide:
  • Type i to get into insert mode
    • (no need for colon)
    • (if it’s worked, you’ll see “– INSERT –” at bottom of screen
  • Type your commit message
  • Click Esc
  • Type :wq to save and quit
    • Or type :q! to quit without saving
  • Hit Enter

Changing your Default Git Editor

• You don’t have to have Vim as your default editor! You can change to an editor of your choice (eg Notepad)
• Note that these instructions were written for Windows. I don’t know about other operating systems but I’m guessing it’ll be similar
  • Find and open your .gitconfig file
    • (probably here: C:\Users\[user-name])
  • Add this section to the bottom:
    • [core]
    • editor = ‘C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe’
  • Save and close the file.
  • When you’re committing with git, just write git commit and press Enter. It will pop open Notepad++.
  • Write your commit message at the top of the file, and save and close the file. Done!
    • …but it doesn’t always work like that, in which case you might have to go back to VIM and just learn the VIM basics
• More here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2596805/how-do-i-make-git-use-the-editor-of-my-choice-for-commits

(Note that this was written after I spent a few months learning Vim. If you’re just stuck in Vim and want to get out, see What to do when you get stuck in a Vim editor).

I’m publishing my notes on the things that are useful in Vim but that I keep forgetting. My notes are split into four sections, so I’ll publish four posts:

• Miscellaneous Vim Stuff
• Vertical Columns in Vim (“visual blocks”)
• Navigating files, lines, blocks
• Searching in Vim

This is the fourth post, and it’s about searching  and search / replace in Vim.

Search for term in file

• Like this: /[search term – regex]
• Type n to get next search result
• Type N to get previous search result
• For case insensitive search, add \c to the command (either at start or end)
• If you then get highlighting which won’t go away, type :noh
  • For a more permanent solution which means you can clear it by hitting Esc, see here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/657447/vim-clear-last-search-highlighting

Search and replace

• Like this: :%s/[search term]/[replacement]/g
  • %s means whole file, /g means every occurrence on every line
  • If you want it to ask you for confirmation on every replacement, add c as well: :%s/foo/bar/gc
  • More here: https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Search_and_replace
  • And here: https://www.linux.com/learn/vim-tips-basics-search-and-replace
  • If your strings contain forward slashes, then you can replace the forward slashes in the command with any other character!
  • For case insensitive search, add \c to the command (either at start or end)
  • To do it on whole words only: :%s/\<word\>/newword/g – you have to delimit the word with \< and \>

Find character on this line

• f – find character on this line
  • Add a number to do multiple
  • Eg 2f_ will find the second underscore character on this line

Find the word under the cursor

• This: *
  • This works on words containing underscores
  • By default it won’t work on words containing hyphens
    • You can change this by adding set iskeyword+=- to .vimrc
    • Or just type :set isk+=- in Vim

Find whatever text you have highlighted (in visual mode)

• See solution here, which I have in both my vim configs: https://github.com/nelstrom/vim-visual-star-search/blob/master/plugin/visual-star-search.vim
• To use it, hit v to get in visual mode, highlight the text you want to search for, then hit *

(Note that this was written after I spent a few months learning Vim. If you’re just stuck in Vim and want to get out, see What to do when you get stuck in a Vim editor).

I’m publishing my notes on the things that are useful in Vim but that I keep forgetting. My notes are split into four sections, so I’ll publish four posts:

• Miscellaneous Vim Stuff
• Vertical Columns in Vim (“visual blocks”)
• Navigating files, lines, blocks
• Searching in Vim

This is the third post, and it’s about navigating files, lines and blocks in Vim.

Navigating lines

• Go to end of line: $ or A (which also puts you in insert mode)
• Go to start of line: 0
• Remap Ctrl+a and Ctrl+e to take you to start / end of line while in Insert mode: https://coderwall.com/p/fd_bea/vim-jump-to-end-of-line-while-in-insert-mode

Navigating files

• Go to top of file: gg
• Go to end of file: shift + g
• Go to line number: line-number + shift + g
• Navigation within chars / lines: j = down, k = up, h = left, l = right

Navigating blocks delineated by {}, (), [], <> or “”

• The diff between % and [{ always confuses me cos it’s not explained well in Vim Adventures:
  • % will take you to the matching bracket if you are already ON a bracket. It only works on {}, () and [] (not <>)
  • [{ will search backwards for the enclosing { if you are already IN a {} block – so it takes you to the start of your current scope
    • ]} will move forwards and take you to the end of your current scope
    • ]{ is meaningless (I think)
    • [( and )] will also work in the same way
    • [< does not work, [“ does not work, and [[ does something totally different
    • If you want to move back to blocks that enclose your current block, use numbers
      • So for instance, 3[{ will take you to the beginning of this snippet of code if your cursor is in the innermost scope:
      • {
        • {
          • {I am here}
        • }
      • }
    • In Vim Adventures type :help [{

If you want to navigate inside a block delineated by [], <> or “”

• You can use % to find the matching brace if you are on [ or ] but not < or >
• You can use visual mode to select the contents of {}, [], (), <> or “”
  • Use a to select the contents AND the delineators
  • Use i to select the inner contents (ie without the delineators)
  • Use the OPENING delineator to indicate what your scope is
  • These are all the possible commands: va{, vi{, va[, vi[, va(, vi(, va<, vi<, va”, vi”
  • If you want to select blocks that enclose your current block, use numbers
    • So for instance, v3a{ will select this whole snippet of code if your cursor is in the innermost scope:
    • {
      • {
        • {I am here}
      • }
    • }
  • Once you’re in visual mode you can use commands like i, p, c, a, s
  • In Vim Adventures type :help a{ or help i{
    • You can use c to select the contents of {}, [], (), <> or “” and then it will put you into Insert mode to replace what was there
      • Same principles as with v (see above)
      • These are all the possible commands: ca{, ci{, ca[, ci[, ca(, ci(, ca<, ci<, ca”, ci”
      • As with v you can use numbers to select multiple enclosing blocks (see above) but the number comes BEFORE c, like this: 3ca{
      • (There are others too, like caw and ciw for words – in Vim Adventures type :help aw and :help iw)

(Note that this was written after I spent a few months learning Vim. If you’re just stuck in Vim and want to get out, see What to do when you get stuck in a Vim editor).

I’m publishing my notes on the things that are useful in Vim but that I keep forgetting. My notes are split into four sections, so I’ll publish four posts:

• Miscellaneous Vim Stuff
• Vertical Columns in Vim (“visual blocks”)
• Navigating files, lines, blocks
• Searching in Vim

This is the second post, and it’s about vertical columns of text (“visual blocks”). It’s the same functionality that you get using alt + click in a lot of other text editors.

• Ctrl + v takes you into “visual block” mode, then use the up and down arrows.
• Commands like x will work instantly
• But if you want to do something like substitute (s) or append (A only, a won’t work) or change (c), you need to execute the full command first – at which point it will look like it’s only worked on one line – and then press Esc twice – and finally your change will appear on multiple lines.
• If you want to type replacement text, you use insert mode but it has to be I instead of i (upper case instead of lower case). As with s, a and c you won’t see the full effect until you exit Insert mode AND visual mode (press Esc twice).
• To insert one vertical column of text in front of another one:
  • Go to the place you’re copying from
  • Use ctrl+v to go into visual block mode
  • Use y to copy the highlighted text
  • Go to your destination
  • Use ctrl+v to select a column of text consisting of the first character of the place you want your new column to go in front of
  • Use I to go into insert mode, and type one space
  • Press Esc, and you’ll see you have inserted a column of single spaces
  • Now use ctrl+v again to highlight the column of spaces
  • Use p to paste your original column selection
  • There is an explanation here for why you can’t do it without typing the extra space: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31893732/vim-how-do-i-paste-a-column-of-text-from-clipboard-after-a-different-column-o

Note that this was written after I spent a few months learning Vim. If you’re just stuck in Vim and want to get out, see What to do when you get stuck in a Vim editor.

This will be another notey one. Really I just want to stick this somewhere I can easily access it. I’m going to publish my notes on the things that are useful in Vim but that I keep forgetting. My notes are split into four sections, so I’ll publish four posts:

• Miscellaneous Vim Stuff
• Vertical Columns in Vim (“visual blocks”)
• Navigating files, lines, blocks
• Searching in Vim

Before I get going though, a mildly funny anecdote: A colleague messaged me recently and mentioned that his vim had been upset by some house renovation work, and I wondered how said renovation could have such an impact on his command-line text editor…. before I realised that he meant vim as in “vim and vigour”.

OK, so here is some miscellaneous Vim stuff:

• Vim cheat sheet – http://hamwaves.com/vim.tutorial/images/vim.en.png
• Great online “Vim Adventures” game you can use to learn Vim: https://vim-adventures.com/
• If you make changes to ~/.vimrc and want to reload:
  • Type :so $MYVIMRC
  • …but actually you can just type $MY and then tab to autocomplete.
• Searching:
  • See Searching in Vim
• Navigating files, lines, blocks
  • See Navigating files, lines, blocks
• Copy / paste:
  • Copy current line (“yank”): yy – which is the same as Y
  • Paste current line below the line you are on (“put”): p
  • To replace one line with another: Y to yank a line, then go to the line you want to replace and type Vp
    • V puts the whole line into visual mode, and then p pastes the register into the visual selection (the whole line).
• Append, Substitute and Change
  • Append is a to append after current character or A to append at end of line
    • (puts you into insert mode)
  • Substitute is s to substitute current character and S to substitute current line
    • (puts you into insert mode)
  • Change is c to replace whatever you specify – eg aw for a word, iw for inner word (word without leading space)
    • (puts you into insert mode)
    • C is to replace from cursor to end of line
    • See also separate section below on navigating blocks
• Replace current word with contents of register: viwp
  • v is visual mode
  • iw is inner word
  • p is put
  • You might want to explicitly use the “0 register (like this: viw”0p), otherwise what’s in the default register might get replaced and if you try to repeat the action you get unexpected results
    • But for this to work, you will have to have used “0y (or whatever) first, to get your text into the correct register
• Select a vertical column of text (like alt click)
  • See Vertical Columns in Vim (“visual blocks”)
• Text objects:
  • aw is a word
  • iw is an inner word
  • daw means delete a word
  • More here: https://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/10/17/vim-text-objects-the-definitive-guide/
  • In Vim adventures, try :help aw
• To see line numbers: :set number
  • To make that change (or any other change) permanent:
    • Cmd: vim ~/.vimrc
    • Type the line :set number into the file
    • It will take effect immediately
  • To turn line numbers off temporarily (for copy/pasting): :se nonu (then :se number to turn them back on again)
• Do one command while in Insert mode, then return to Insert mode: Ctrl + o
  • This takes you to normal mode for one command
• Most commands in vim take a function and then an argument
  • Eg j is a movement argument – so dj is the delete command with a “down” argument
  • Commonly repeat the function if there is no argument – so dd means just delete
• u – undo
• Ctrl + r – Redo
• o – insert new line below (O = above)
  • Note this will also put you in insert mode
• Tab (indent) left or right: < and > – eg << to just tab left
  • To indent a whole block: Use v to go into visual mode, then up and down keys to select lines, then < and > to indent in or out
• Select an entire function definition
  • I used a{ and i{ but I never got quite what I wanted
  • I think the answer might lie here but I didn’t have the patience to read through all the suggested solutions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11723169/selecting-entire-function-definition-in-vim/11723259
• Set to use spaces instead of tabs
  • Cmd: :set expandtab ts=2 sw=2
  • ts = tabstop
    • Note this means that you can use the tab command and it will automatically insert 2 spaces
    • It also defines how he file will be displayed if it contains tab characters
  • sw = Shiftwidth
    • Something to do with what happens when you press enter, – automatic indentations?
• Multiples
  • Add number at start
  • Eg 2f_ – find the second instance of underscore on this line
• Delete characters – x for the char in front, X for the char behind (like backspace)
• d – delete line
  • dd – delete current line
  • 4dd – delete 4 lines
  • dG – Delete all lines from current line to end of file
  • Shift+d – delete to end of line
  • Shift+c – delete to end of line and go into insert mode
  • dw – delete a word
• J to join text that’s split across lines to turn it into one long string
  • Eg This…
    • Hey
      • Hello
        • You
      • And also
    • Goodbye
  • … becomes this:
    • Hey Hello You And also Goodbye