Movements and Operators

vim is built on actions that are mostly built on 2 types, an operator and a movement.

Basic binds

  • i - enter Insert mode
  • a - enter insert mode After the cursor
  • I - enter Insert mode at the beginning of the line
  • A - enter insert mode at the end of the line (same as a but for the entire line)
  • o - insert new line below
  • O - insert new line above
  • u - Undo, check out undotree
  • Ctrl-r - Redo
  • zz - Recenter the screen, there are more binds for screen actions but this is the most important one

Basic movements

Arrows

  • h - left
  • j - down
  • k - up
  • l - right

It takes some time getting used to it but it's worth it, I recommend disabling the arrow keys for movement and try the game hjkl in vim-be-good.

-- Disable arrows movement
map('', '<Up>', '<Nop>')
map('', '<Down>', '<Nop>')
map('', '<Left>', '<Nop>')
map('', '<Right>', '<Nop>')

Multiply Movement

You can multiply every movement by entering a number before the movement.
For example: 3j will jump 3 lines down

Words

  • w - jump Word forward
  • b - jump word Backwards
  • e - jump forward to the End of the word
  • ge - jump to the End of the previous word

Capital will change the behavior from word to WORD, read :help word and :help WORD to understand the differences

Generics

  • 0 - go to the beginning of the line
  • $ - go to the end of the line
  • <C-u> - go Up half a page
  • <C-d> - go Down half a page
  • % - jump to the pair of the bracket/quote/ifdef your cursor on
  • <C-o> - jump to the previous position you jumped from (you can do it multiple times)
  • <C-i> - jump to the next position you jumped to (you can do it multiple times)

Pair Movments

The standard way to jump forward to something is ] and backward is [.

Some examples

  • ]m / [m - Jump to Method
  • ]] / [[ - Jump to section
  • } / { - Jump to paragraph
  • ]c / [c - Jump to diff (Change)

I suggest to install vim-unimpaired which adds more pair movements.

Searching

Search across the file

These are not movements!

  • / - to start a forward search
  • ? - to start a backward search
  • n - go to the Next occurrence
  • N - go to the previous occurrence
  • * - forward search the current word under cursor
  • # - backward search the current word under cursor

I recommend to remap n and N to nzz and Nzz, zz centers the screen by the line you are on, these binds will go to the next/prev occurrence and center the screen.

map('n', 'n', 'nzz') -- Auto recenter after n
map('n', 'N', 'Nzz') -- Auto recenter after N

If you enabled opt.ignorecase you can add \C at the end of your search to re-enable case.

These are movements! You will need to enter a char after the quick search key.

  • f - jump to the next char, I remember it as Find
  • F - jump to the previous char, I remember it as Find
  • t - jump Till the next char (1 char before the occurrence)
  • T - jump Till the prev char (1 char after the occurrence)

These movements are very useful to manipulate text in the same line. This is the reason I enable opt.wrap in vim.

I highly recommend installing clever-f.vim it will help you get used to these awesome movements fast.

Operators

The main ones

  • y - Yank (copy)
  • d - Delete
  • c - Change, delete the text and enters insert mode
  • < - remove indentation (left)
  • > - add indentation (right)
  • = - auto indent
  • gc - Comment/Uncomment, done with Comment.nvim

Capital (shift) will apply the operation starting from the cursor to the end of the line, e.g: D deletes the line from the cursor to the end of the line.
Repeating the operator key will apply the operation for the entire line, e.g: yy yanks the entire current line.

Action

Action is an operator + movement
For example:

  • y3k - yank 2 lines above the cursor, including the current line.
  • ct, - change the text until ,, very useful to change function arguments and more.

This is why you must have relativenumber on, it will make your life much easier.

"Special" actions

  • Hit the operator twice to activate it on the current line. yy will yank the entire line you are on.
  • Shift+operator to activate the operator from the cursor the end of the line. C will change the line from the cursor to the end.

One char actions

Actions without movement

  • x - delete the char you are on.
  • X - delete 1 char before the cursor.
  • r - Replace 1 char

How should I remember all those binds?

Think of a key sequence as an English sentence.

For example: when I'm using y3j/y3<Enter> I'll think of it as yank 3 down, in my mind I "speak" with the editor rather than remembering which keys to press.

There are many more movements and operators but these are the ones I feel is the most important, it takes some time getting used to work with this method, but once you understand it, it'll stick well.