Vim strategic motions

Vertical Motion

• Go to specified line:

  • line number + gg
    Example: 25gg (go to line 25)

• Move up/down with relative line numbers:

  • 10k → go up 10 lines
  • 9j → go down 9 lines

• Move the cursor line on the screen in normal mode:

  • zz – center the line
  • zt – move to the top
  • zb – move to the bottom

• Scroll half a screen:

  • CTRL + d → half screen down
  • CTRL + u → half screen up

• Scroll a screen:

  • CTRL + f → a screen down
  • CTRL + b → a screen up

Horizontal Motion

• Jump by whitespace:

  • B → previous whitespace
  • W → next whitespace

• f-jumps (character search within a line):

  • f<char> → jump to the first occurrence of <char> in the line.
    Press ; to go to the next occurrence.
  • F<char> → jump backwards to the previous occurrence of <char> in the line.
    Press ; to go to the next occurrence.

Pattern Jumping

• vi( → visually highlight inside ()
• vi" → visually highlight inside ""
• yi( → yank inside ()
• va( → visually highlight around ()
• ya( → yank around ()

Jump List

• CTRL + o ↔ CTRL + i
  Jump between last cursor positions