Vi and Vim Quick References: A One Page Cheat Sheet

Last updated: 2022-03-20

Have you ever felt slow working with Vi/Vim?

Vim is a free and open-source, screen-based text editor program inspired by Vi. It may be difficult for newcomers and even long-term users to remember all the different commands. This one-page cheat sheet will help you get back to work quickly and improve your velocity while working in Vi/Vim: Vi & Vim Cheat Sheet in PDF format.

This post covers the core essentials Vi & Vim cheat sheet, including brief references of Vi insert mode, edit commands, ex commands, navigation, search and substitute, etc. The cheat sheet is also available in an easy-to-print pdf and jpg format. You may also want to check my post on the Differences Between Vi and Vim.

Vi & Vim Cheat Sheet - Essentials References

👉 You have to use the ESC (escape key) to get into the vi command mode. You will need to press the RETURN Key for executing a command starting with the ponctuation character : or / or ?. Use CTRL+c to cancel a command. Use . to repeat your last command and :!cmd to execute a shell command (where cmd is the command to execute).

Insert & Replace


i	insert text before the cursor
a	insert text after the cursor
I	insert text at the beginning of the current line
A	insert text at the end of the current line
o	insert text in a new line below the cursor
O	insert text in a new line above the cursor
r	replace a character at the cursor position
R	replace characters starting at the cursor position

Cursor Motion


h or ←	move cursor left
l or →	move cursor right
k or ↑	move cursor up
j or ↓	move cursor down
G	goto the end of file
nG or :n	goto the line number n
0	move to the beginning of the line
$	move to the end of the line
CTRL+f	move one screen view forward
CTRL+b	move one screen view backward

Ex Commands


:q	quit current open file
:q!	force to quit without saving changes
:w	save file
:w file	save file as file
:wq!	force to save file then quit
:x,yw file	write from line x to line y into file
:w » file	append buffer to file
:e file	edit another file
:e! file	edit another file without saving current changes
:r file	insert file content at the current cursor position
:n	edit next file in vi arguments file list
CTRL+G	display current file name and position

Search & Substitute


/string	search forward for string
?string	search backward for string
n	repeat the last search
*:,$s/str1/str2/gc*	search and substitute str1 by str2 from the current line to the end of file. A line number can be specified before the comma “,”. The “c” ask for confirmation before each substitution
*:%s/str1/str2/g*	replace all str1 by str2 in all the file without prompting for confirmation
*:%s/str1/str2/*	replace str1 by str2 on the first occurrence in each line of the file

Undo, Delete, and Copy


u	undo last change
CTRL+r	redo last undo change
mA	set mark A to current position. Marks can be the letter [a-z] and [A-Z]
y’A	yank (copy) from current line to mark A
d’A	delete from current line to mark A
P	put the buffer content before the cursor
p	put the buffer content after the cursor
x	delete character at cursor position
dW	delete first word after cursor position
d$ or D	delete from cursor position to end of line
dd	delete current line
J	join current line with following line

Going Further

:map for mapping a key in command mode to a group of commands. Example: :map de :1,$d^M will delete all lines when using the :de command.
:set to define or show your editor options. Example: :set number will make vi display line numbers, and “:set all” will display all current vi options.
:ab to define a text abbreviation in insert mode. Example: :ab VIM Vi Improved will auto-complete “VIM” in insert mode for the phrase “Vi Improved”.