Advanced vim tips and tricks

gg -> go to the top of the file.

G -> go to the bottom.

:set splitright -> makes :vs open the file on the right

:set splitbottom -> makes :sp open on the bottom

Ctrl-w cycles through split windows. Ctrl-[h,j,k,l] goes to the window in that direction [left, down, up, right].

When either :vs or :sp are invoked without filenames, they open the current buffer. Very useful for looking at 2 sections of the same file at once.

:tabe [file] -> how could this get forgotten? Opens the file in a new tab.

:set number -> shows line numbers.

[Line#]G -> jumps to that line.

O -> capital oh, inserts a blank line above the current line and goes into insert mode. Perfect for comments.

:set ic -> ignores case for searching, usually useful. :set noic makes searching case sensitive again. (:set no[setting] turns that setting off)

:set lbr -> visual word wrap.

Text objects are also damn cool. In visual mode (v):

i" -> selects the contents of quotes.

i( -> select the contents of parens.

i[ -> selects the contents of square brackets.

i{ -> selects the contents of curly brackets.

Using a instead of i for the above commands selects the delimiter also.

>> -> indents. << does the opposite.

% -> goes to matching paren/bracket. Great for debugging.

* -> go to next instance of current word. # to go to previous instance. Good for cycling through function definitions.

Edit: formatting, more commands.

Here's another one a Byte of Vim, also free on a CC license, but not as good as the Vim Recipes I've found.

vimtutor is good for getting started too.

Vim tips wiki: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

The best collection of vim scripts: http://www.vim.org

#vim on freenode