VI/VIM cheat sheet pt.1, by MeaTLoTioN November 12, 2021


NORMAL MODE:
- Cursor movement
  Left one char         = H / Left Arrow
  Right one char        = L / Right Arrow
  Up one char           = K / Up Arrow
  Down one char         = J / Down Arrow

  Left one word         = b
  Right one word        = w
  Move to Start of line = 0
  Move to End of line   = $

- String manipulation

  to change a word, in NORMAL mode, move cursor to beginning of the word you 
  wish to change, and type CW (for Change Word)

  - (VIM) the word will be deleted and you will be in INSERT mode ready for 
    you to replace the word
  - (VI) a $ will appear at the end of the word, and when you start typing it 
    will overwrite the word until you get to and surpass the $ sign.
  - When you are done typing your new word, press escape to enter NORMAL mode.

  to change the text within some quotes, move the cursor to anywhere on the
  line that has the quoted text you wish to change, and type CI" or CI'
  (depending on the type of quotes used " or ')
  - (VIM) the text within the next set of quotes from your cursor position
    (if not already inside the quoted text) will disappear and you will be
    in INSERT mode ready to type your new quoted text.

  if you wish to append text to the end of any line, just position your cursor
  anywhere on the line you wish to append to the end, and type A (shift+a)

  likewise, if you wish to insert text at the beginning of any line, position
  your cursor to the line you wish to insert text at the beginning, and type
  I (shift+i)

  to find a word or substring in your document, just type / followed by the
  word you wish to find, and press return. the cursor will move to the next
  word that matches your search term. use n and N to search forward and back

  If you want to delete a line, move the cursor to the line you wish to delete
  and type dd and the line will disappear. If you wish to delete multiple
  lines, move the cursor to the first line, and type Xdd where X is a number
  of lines you wish to delete. For example, if you want to delete 6 lines
  including the line you're on then type 6dd and those 6 lines will go.
  You can also delete a single word, using dw once your cursor is over the
  first character.

  If you want to copy text into the buffer, you need to yank. you can yank
  various things, if you want to yank the entire line, just type yy or if
  you want to yank a word, move the cursor to the word and press yw.

  To paste any yanked text, move the cursor to where you wish to paste, and
  press p to paste _after_ the cursor or P to paste from the cursor. You can
  also paste lines and words that were deleted with dd or dw

  Visual editing, is useful to visually highlight text, either by row or
  by column, example to select a paragraph of text, move the cursor to the top
  line of the paragraph, and press shift+v and then down arrow until the
  highlight is at the last line of the text you want selected. Press y to
  yank that text into the buffer.

COMMAND mode:
  to substitute substrings in your document, type : to enter COMMAND mode and
  type %s/ (for substitution) followed by a word or substring to match against
  then type / and then type a substring to replace it with, finish off with
  /g to make it global as in any matches throughout the document. example;
  :%s/substitute/change/g would change all instances of the word substitute
  with the word change in this document.

  Did you know you can time travel in vim. No? let me explain.
  If you were editing a document, and you realised that you made an error some
  10 minutes ago, and everything you edited after is useless, just press escape
  to go into NORMAL mode, then type :earlier 10m
  If you overshot, and want to go ahead nearer the present, just type :later 5m
  to go ahead 5 minutes. Valid times are minutes (m) seconds (s) hours (h)