Vi/Vim Tips

These are some things I always seem to forget and have to look up again; they don't seem to all be in the same place anywhere, or stated as succinctly.  Some are VIM only.

(type :help

Marking

m  : set a mark at the current position in this file(a-z) (per-file)
m  : set a *global* mark at the current position, reachable from different files.
:marks  : list marks
:marks aF : list marks a, F

Movement

(precede any of these with a number to repeat it that many times)
` : move to the position of a mark in this file (see "Marking")
' : move to the line of a mark in this file (see "Marking")
` : move to the position of a (global) mark in another file (see "Marking")
' : move to the line of a (global) mark in another file (see "Marking")
h   : move one character left
l   : move one character right
k   : move one character/row up
j   : move one character/row down
w   : move to beginning of next word after punctuation
W   : move to beginning of next word after whitespace
b   : move to beginning of previous word after punctuation
B   : move to beginning of previous word after whitespace
e   : move to end of this word
E   : move to the end of this word before whitespace
0   : move to beginning of the current line (column 0)
^   : move to the non-whitespace beginning of the current line
_   : move to the non-whitespace beginning of the current line with count (e.g. 5_)
$   : move to the end of a line
g_  : move to the last non-whitespace character of the line, with count (e.g. 5g_)
gg  : move to first line
G   : move to last line
ng  : move to line number "n"
H   : move to the first line of the screen (home)
M   : move to the middle line of the screen
L   : move to the last line of the screen
z   : re-center the screen on the current line (with the cursor)
zt  : re-center the screen with the current line (with the cursor) at the top
zb  : re-center the screen with the current line (with the cursor) at the top
ctrl-D : move a half-page down
ctrl-U : move a half-page up
ctrl-B : page up (back)
ctrl-F : page down (forward)
ctrl-o : return to last cursor position
ctrl-i : go to next cursor position
%    : jump to the matching (){}[]

Basic Editing

u    : undo last edit
U    : return last changed line to its former state
ctrl-R : redo last undone edit
cw   : change text of current word
c : replace one character
c`: change text from current position to position of marker
c': change text from current line to line of marker

Copy/Cut/Paste

p    : put/paste following this line
P    : put/paste preceding this line
dd   : delete/cut the current line
D    : delete/cut from current character to the end of the line
yy   : copy (yank) the current line
y$   : copy from current position to the end of the line
*y$  : copy from current position to the end of the line, place in system clipboard
*p   : paste from system clipboard to following line


d`: delete from current position to position of marker a-z
d': delete from current line to line of marker a-z
y`: copy (yank) text from current position to position of marker
y': copy (yank) text from current line to line of marker

Search / Replace

/string : search forward for "string"
?string : search backward for "string"
n    : find next occurrence of the search string (in the same direction as the search)
N    : find previous occurrence of the search string
*    : find the next occurrence of the word currently under the cursor
#    : find the previous occurrence of the word currently under the cursor
g*   : find the next occurrence of the search pattern under the cursor
g#   : find the previous occurrence of the search pattern under the cursor

Change Case

~    : Changes the case of current character 
guu  : Change current line from upper to lower. 
gUU  : Change current LINE from lower to upper. 
guw  : Change to end of current WORD from upper to lower. 
guaw : Change all of current WORD to lower. 
gUw  : Change to end of current WORD from lower to upper. 
gUaw : Change all of current WORD to upper. 
g~~  : Invert case to entire line

Global settings

(many of these can be permanently placed in your ~/.vimrc file)
set tabstop=4  : set how wide a "tab" is

Sources:

http://vim.wikia.com

http://stackoverflow.com/a/2966034 

http://stackoverflow.com/a/7764203