Vim commands for improved productivity

• July 20, 2014
• vim  
• linux  

title: Introduction

I would like to describe my favourite Vim commands that I use on a daily basis, in order to share some tips that could help you if you are new in this editor, or to improve your experience even if you use it.

• J : Useful when organizing code, this will join the line below to the current one.
• ci) ("change inside ')'): Actually, the closing bracket could be changed by any other thing (like ']', '}', etc.). This will erase everything within the brackets and set you in insert mode (the c could also be changed for d for example if you just want to delete). Again, this is very useful when refactoring code, if you want to change the parameters of a function definition, or whatever is in a block, etc.
• (select some code with visual mode and then) zf : will fold the selected code. zd for unfolding.
• % : alone or along with some other operator, is useful for operating with matching brackets in the code. It will match the closing bracket of the one you have the cursor in.
• C or D : if you want to change or delete from the current position up to the end of the line, respectively.
• t, (or any other character instead of comma) will point you until that character. The good about this, is that is possible to chain it with other commands, for example: "ct," will change all the content until the next comma.
• < or > will indent the code following the "arrow" direction (according to what is set in shiftwidth).
• = Automatically indents code (useful when highlighting code in visual mode).
• w, e or b will point you to the next word, to the end of the word, or back to the previous word, respectively. The nice thing about these operators is when they work combined with others, for example:
  • cw will change the next word.
  • db will delete the previous word.
• { or } for moving up or down through paragraphs, respectively.

In addition, note that you do not need to know all possible commands, just those that will help you with your normal activities. This means that is could be enough with a small subset of all the features (the list I wrote is very short indeed). And this is precisely the idea behind this post: to show how some few commands applied in the right context, might make you edit faster.

All in all, Vim is a great editor, full of amazing features. Learning it is actually worth it, in the sense that you will get an amazing productivity in return (you'll type and edit code faster).