What Vim features do you use?

Question

I spend almost all day programming in Vim and I am sure that a lot of you do too. What features do you use that make your day to day coding that much better? One that I use is gv, which will let you reselect the previously selected text. It is great for reindenting!

Answer 1

:%s/x/y/g

This command replaces all instances of x in the current file with y. This is basically just a find and replace, but I use it so often since I've learned it at work that it has become invaluable.

Also, /search string

then n to navigate through all instances of the search string within the file. Great for doing manual tweaks a lot more easily, especially if you can't apply a rule to the entire file.

Answer 2

== does nice auto-indenting on the current line.

Normally, though, I use = with a motion, like =G to indent to the end of the file, or =i} to indent inside the current set of curly braces.

Answer 3

=% for auto-indenting everything within a block of code.

Answer 4

The :! command - invaluable for lsing, and the "sudo tee" trick.

I've been asked to explain the tee trick. Basically, it allows you to save a text file with admin priveleges, even if you didn't start VIM as root:

:w !sudo tee %

Answer 5

Use * in command mode to search for the word under the cursor.

Answer 6

.

Hitting the . key repeats the previous command. Lovely for, say, editing an .ini, or so.

Answer 7

syntax color highlighting

Answer 8

I am always using gq to re-do line breaks on email, text files, etc. Really useful when replying to email (I use pine) and editing multiple previous replies.

Answer 9

ZZ save and exit (instead of :wq!)

Answer 10

Where to start... Here's the things I can recall I've used in the last 5 minutes or so.

• NERD Tree - File exploring. Makes VIM more like an IDE.
  • One huge thing for me is the ability to cd to a directory and then drop to a shell prompt through my shell mappings (below).
• ci for emptying whatever you're stuck between.
• :! for launching standard apps.
  • I have mappings for launching a shell prompt, mysql client, apache log files, etc.
  • Subversion integration is always nice. Quick diffs, stats, etc.
• :abbr for making repetitive typing of large blocks go away.
• Tabs. Need I say more?
• Splitting out files, always good. :Sex is always nice.
• :set paste! to keep from having auto-indent run amok.

Answer 11

I heavily use following commands while writing or traversing C/Tcl/Perl code:

copy-paste code

CTRL-f and CTRL-b for page forward and backward traversal
% for block-by-block traversal
^ goto start of line
$ goto last end of line

start selecting code using command v (visual mode) and any of the traversal key above
y for copy
p for paste

s to delete a character and goto insert mode to type new text.

Code level traversals (requires coding style discipline)

]] for start of next function
[[ for start of prev function

CTRL-] to jump to definition of a variable/function/macro if tags are available.

Search

* => search word (or text selected using v) in forward direction
# => search word (or text selected using v) in backward direction
n => execute previous search command in forward direction
N => execute previous search command in backward direction

All the above commands can be prepend with a number to signify how many times to execute it. The realization of the power of this additional dimension comes slowly as one uses vim more and more and challenges oneself to improve.

Answer 12

I'm a former user of TextPad, and had memorized many of that program's accelerator keys. One of the first things I did in Vim was learning the map function to keep consistency (F5 search, F8 replace, etc.). I created my personal colorscheme, and borrowed alot from others' vimrc files. Viva Vim! Configurable to any degree.

Answer 13

I just enter Text. Everything else is just ... Sugar.