VIM Cheatsheet - Essential Commands

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Basic Movement

h Move cursor left
j Move cursor down
k Move cursor up
l Move cursor right
w Move to next word
b Move to previous word
0 Move to beginning of line
$ Move to end of line

Editing

i Insert before cursor
a Insert after cursor
o Open new line below
O Open new line above
x Delete character
dd Delete line
yy Copy line
p Paste after cursor

Search & Replace

/text Search forward for "text"
?text Search backward for "text"
n Next search result
N Previous search result
:%s/old/new/g Replace all "old" with "new"

File Operations

:w Save file
:q Quit VIM
:wq Save and quit
:q! Quit without saving
:e file Open file

Visual Mode

v Start visual mode
V Start line visual mode
Ctrl+v Start block visual mode
d Visual Delete selection
y Visual Copy selection

Navigation

gg Go to first line
G Go to last line
:n Go to line n
Ctrl+f Page down
Ctrl+b Page up

VIM Modes

Normal Default mode for navigation and commands

Insert Mode for typing text (Enter with 'i', 'a', 'o', etc.)

Visual Mode for selecting text (Enter with 'v', 'V', Ctrl+v)

Command Mode for executing commands (Enter with ':')

Press ESC to return to Normal mode from any other mode