Vim Key Mappings

Objective

Show useful builtin and custom keyboard shortcuts.

Table of Contents

• Mapping Keys
• Key Commands

Mapping Keys

map vs <…>map

• The below example will cause an infinite recursive process
  because when x is pressed it will be mapped to y and then
  the next map will do the opposite.

  map x y
  map y x
  

• The below example will cause a non-recursive process so an
  infinite recursive process will not occur and the mappings
  will only apply once.

  noremap x y
  noremap y x
  

• The following characters at the beginning of map and noremap for example
  the character i correspond to specific modes in vim. Running
  :help map in vim will provide the following:

       COMMANDS                    MODES ~
  :map   :noremap  :unmap     Normal, Visual, Select, Operator-pending
  :nmap  :nnoremap :nunmap    Normal
  :vmap  :vnoremap :vunmap    Visual and Select
  :smap  :snoremap :sunmap    Select
  :xmap  :xnoremap :xunmap    Visual
  :omap  :onoremap :ounmap    Operator-pending
  :map!  :noremap! :unmap!    Insert and Command-line
  :imap  :inoremap :iunmap    Insert
  :lmap  :lnoremap :lunmap    Insert, Command-line, Lang-Arg
  :cmap  :cnoremap :cunmap    Command-line
  :tmap  :tnoremap :tunmap    Terminal
  

• Some helpful mappings include:

  " NOTE: <leader> corresponds to `\` in linux and <c-h> corresponds to
  " `ctrl + h`
  " Force use of hjkl-style movement and pageup(c-b)/pagedown(c-f)
  map <up> <nop>
  map <down> <nop>
  map <left> <nop>
  map <right> <nop>
  map <pageup> <nop>
  map <pagedown> <nop>
  map <home> <nop>
  map <end> <nop>
  
  imap <up> <nop>
  imap <down> <nop>
  imap <left> <nop>
  imap <right> <nop>
  imap <pageup> <nop>
  imap <pagedown> <nop>
  imap <home> <nop>
  imap <end> <nop>
  
  " Command line mode without shift+:
  noremap ; :
  
  " Faster split window navigation
  noremap <c-h> <c-w><c-h>
  noremap <c-j> <c-w><c-j>
  noremap <c-k> <c-w><c-k>
  noremap <c-l> <c-w><c-l>
  
  " Search word under cursor
  nnoremap <leader>w :grep! "\b<c-r><c-w>\b"<cr>:cw<cr>
  
  " Mappings for quickfix list
  nmap <silent> <c-n> :cn<cr>zv
  nmap <silent> <c-p> :cp<cr>zv
  
  " Remove highlight after search
  nnoremap <leader>h :nohls<cr>
  
  " Buffer Mappings
  nnoremap <leader>b :buffers<cr>:buffer<space>
  nnoremap <leader>t :e#<cr>
  

Key Commands

Character search

• Move to char: f[char]
• Move back to char: F[char]
• Move before char: f[char]
• Move back before char: F[char]
• Repeat char search forward/back: ;/,

Mark text

• Text Objects: v + p,w,s,[,(,{,<,’,”,`
• Text Inner Objects: vi + p,w,s,[,(,{,<,’,”,`
• Note: p = paragraph, w = word, s = sentence

Modify during insert mode

• Delete character before cursor: ctrl + h
• Delete word before cursor: ctrl + w
• Indent once right: ctrl + t
• Indent once left: ctrl + d
• Insert contents of register (a-z): ctrl + r\<register\>
• Enter normal mode to issue one command only: ctrl + o\<command\>

Move back/forward in file one full screen

• Up: ctrl + b
• Down: ctrl + f

Change occurrences of a word

• *
• cw
• Type new word
• esc
• n
• .
• Repeat n then .

Change/Delete inside <x>=(,{,w,…

• Change: ci\<x\>
• Delete: di\<x\>