Vim Cheat Sheet — Modes, Motions, Edits, Search/Replace

A practical Vim cheat sheet — the commands you'll use after the first hour, organized by what you're trying to do. Tested on Vim 8 and Neovim.

The modes

Mode	Enter from Normal	What it's for
Normal	Esc from anywhere	Default; navigate + run commands
Insert	i a o O I A	Type text
Visual	v (char) V (line) Ctrl-v (block)	Select text
Command	:	Save, search, run external
Replace	R	Overwrite as you type

Save & quit (Command mode)

Command	Effect
:w	Write (save)
:w newname	Save as new name
:q	Quit (errors if unsaved changes)
:q!	Quit, discard changes
:wq / :x / ZZ	Save + quit
:e file	Open another file
:e!	Reload current file from disk
:qa / :qa!	Quit all buffers

Motions (navigate without arrow keys)

Key	Move
h j k l	Left, down, up, right
w / W	Next word / WORD (W ignores punctuation)
b / B	Previous word / WORD
e / E	End of word / WORD
0	Start of line
^	First non-whitespace on line
$	End of line
gg	Top of file
G	Bottom of file
123G	Go to line 123
{ / }	Previous / next paragraph
( / )	Previous / next sentence
%	Jump to matching bracket / paren / brace
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u	Half page down / up
Ctrl-f / Ctrl-b	Full page down / up
H M L	Top / middle / bottom of screen
zz	Center current line on screen
``	Jump back to previous position (two backticks)
Ctrl-o / Ctrl-i	Jump back / forward in jump list

Insert mode entry

Key	Effect
i	Insert before cursor
a	Insert after cursor
I	Insert at start of line (first non-whitespace)
A	Insert at end of line
o	Open new line below + insert
O	Open new line above + insert
s	Delete char + insert
S	Delete line + insert
cc	Change line
cw	Change word

Operators (combine with motions)

Pattern: operator + motion. Example: d (delete) + w (word) = dw (delete word).

Op	Means	Example
d	Delete (cut)	d$ delete to end of line
c	Change (delete + insert)	ciw change inner word
y	Yank (copy)	yy yank line
> / <	Indent right / left	>> indent line
=	Auto-indent	gg=G auto-indent whole file
~	Toggle case	~ toggle char
gU / gu	Upper / lower case	gUw uppercase word

Text objects (use with operators)

Object	Means
iw / aw	Inner word / a word (with surrounding space)
i" / a"	Inside / around double quotes
i' / a'	Inside / around single quotes
i( / i) / ib	Inside parens
i{ / i} / iB	Inside braces
i[ / i]	Inside brackets
i< / it	Inside angle brackets / HTML tag
ip / ap	Paragraph
is / as	Sentence

Combine: ci" = change inside double quotes. dap = delete a paragraph. yi( = yank inside parens.

Copy / paste / undo

Key	Effect
yy / Y	Yank (copy) line
p	Paste after cursor
P	Paste before cursor
"+y / "+p	Yank/paste from system clipboard
u	Undo
Ctrl-r	Redo
.	Repeat last change (the killer feature)

Search

Key	Effect
/pattern	Search forward
?pattern	Search backward
n / N	Next / previous match
* / #	Search word under cursor forward / backward
:noh	Clear highlight

Replace

:s/old/new/         Replace first on line
:s/old/new/g        Replace all on line
:%s/old/new/g       Replace all in file
:%s/old/new/gc      Replace all, confirm each
:%s/\<old\>/new/g    Replace whole word only
:5,20s/old/new/g    Replace in lines 5-20

Test patterns first with the regex tester — Vim's regex flavor is similar to PCRE with some quirks.

Visual mode

Key	Effect
v	Character-wise selection
V	Line-wise selection
Ctrl-v	Block-wise (column) selection
o	Move cursor to other end of selection
gv	Re-select last visual selection
(after selecting) d y c > < ~	Apply operator to selection

Buffers, windows, tabs

Command	Effect
:ls	List buffers
:b name	Switch to buffer by name
:bn / :bp	Next / prev buffer
:bd	Close buffer
:split / :sp	Horizontal split
:vsplit / :vs	Vertical split
Ctrl-w h/j/k/l	Move between splits
Ctrl-w =	Equalize splits
Ctrl-w q	Close split
:tabnew	New tab
gt / gT	Next / prev tab

Macros (record + replay)

qa          Start recording macro into register a
... do stuff ...
q           Stop recording
@a          Play macro a
@@          Replay last macro
20@a        Run macro 20 times

Useful one-shots

Command	Effect
:e .	Browse current directory
:r file	Read file content into current buffer
:r !date	Insert output of shell command
:!cmd	Run shell command
:set number / :set nonu	Toggle line numbers
:set relativenumber	Relative line numbers (great with motions)
:set ignorecase / :set smartcase	Case-insensitive search
:syntax on	Syntax highlighting
:set list	Show invisible characters (tabs, EOL)
:retab	Convert tabs ↔ spaces per current settings

Related tools

Test substitution patterns before using :%s/.../.../: regex tester. Compare two files line-by-line: diff checker.

Master pattern: think operator + motion + repeat. 3dd deletes 3 lines. 5cw changes 5 words. 10@a runs macro a 10 times. The . command repeats your last change — pair it with motions for surgical edits.