usr_03 Moving around
Before you can insert or delete text the cursor has to be moved to the right place. Vim has a large number of commands to position the cursor. This chapter shows you how to use the most important ones. You can find a list of these commands below Q_lr.
- 03.1 Word movement
- 03.2 Moving to the start or end of a line
- 03.3 Moving to a character
- 03.4 Matching a paren
- 03.5 Moving to a specific line
- 03.6 Telling where you are
- 03.7 Scrolling around
- 03.8 Simple searches
- 03.9 Simple search patterns
- 03.10 Using marks
Next chapter: usr_04.txt Making small changes Previous chapter: usr_02.txt The first steps in Vim Table of contents: usr_toc.txt
03.1 Word movement
To move the cursor forward one word, use the w command. Like most Vim commands, you can use a numeric prefix to move past multiple words. For example, 3w moves three words. This figure shows how it works (starting at the position marked with x):
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Notice that w woves to the start of the next word if it already is at the start of a word.
The b command moves backword to the start of the previous word:
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There is also the e command that moves to the next end of a word and ge, which moves to the previous end of a word:
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If you are at the last word of a line, the w command will take you to the first word in the next line. Thus you can use this to move through a paragraph, much faster than using l. b does the same in the other direction.
A word ends at a non-word character, such as a ., - or ). To change what Vim considers to be a word, see the iskeyword option. If you try this out in the help directory, iskeyword needs to be reset for the examples to work:
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It is also possible to move by white-space separated WORDs. This is not a word in the normal sense, that’s why the uppercase is used. The commands for moving by WORDs are also uppercase, as this figure shows:
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With this mix of lowercase and uppercase commands, you can quickly move forward and backward through a paragraph.
03.2 Moving to the start or end of a line
The $ command moves the cursor to the end of a line. If your keyboard has an <End> key it will do the same thing.
The ^ command moves to the first non-blank character of the line. The 0 command (zero) moves to the very first character of the line, and the <Home> key does the same thing. In a picture (. indicates a space):
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(the ….. indicates blanks here)
The $ command takes a count, like most movement commands. But moving to the end of the line several times doesn’t make sense. Therefore it causes the editor to move to the end of another line. For example, 1$ moves you to the end of the first line (the one you’re on), 2$ to the end of the next line, and so on.
The 0 command doesn’t take a count argument, because the 0 would be part of the count. Unexpectedly, using a count with ^ doesn’t have any effect.
03.3 Moving to a character
One of the most useful movement commands is the single-character search command. The command fx searches forward in the line for the single character x. Hint: f stands for Find.
For example, you are at the beginning of the following line. Suppose you want to go to the h of human. Just execute the command fh and the cursor will be positioned over the h:
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This also shows that the command fy moves to the end of the word really.
You can specify a count; therefore, you can go to the l of foul with 3fl:
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The F command searches to the left:
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The tx command works like the fx command, except it stops one character before the searched character. Hint: t stands for To. The backward version of this command is Tx.
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These four commands can be repeated with ;. , repeats in the other direction. The cursor is never moved to another line. Not even when the sentence continues.
Sometimes you will start a search, only to realize that you have typed the wrong command. You type f to search backward, for example, only to realize that you really meant F. To about a search, press <Esc>. So f<Esc> is an aborted forward search and doesn’t do anything. Note: <Esc> cancels most operations, not just searches.
03.4 Matching a parenthesis
When writing a program you often end up with nested () constructs. Then the % command is very handy: It moves to the matching paren. If the cursor is on a ( it will move to the matching ). If it’s on a ) it will move to the matching (.
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This also works for [] and {} pairs. (This can be defined with the matchpairs option.)
When the cursor is not on a useful character, % will search forward to find one. Thus if the cursor is at the start of the line of the previous example, % will search forward and find the first (. Then it moves to its match:
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03.5 Moving to a specific line
If you are a C or C++ programmer, you are familiar with error messages such as the following:
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This tells you that you might want to fix something on line 33. So how do you find line 33? One way is to do 9999k to go to the top of the file and 32j to go down thirty-two lines. It is not a good way, but it works, A much better way of doing things is to use the G command. With a count, this command positions you at the given line number. For example, 33G puts you on line 33. (For a better way of going through a compiler’s error list, see usr_30.txt, for information on the :make command.)
With no argument, G positions you at the end of the file. A quick way to go to the start of a file use gg. 1G will do the same, but is a tiny bit more typing.
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Another way to move to a line is using the % command with a count. For example 50% moves you to halfway the file. 90% goes to near the end.
The previous assumes that you want to move to a line in the file, no matter if it’s currently visible or not. What if you want to move to one of the lines you can see? This figure shows the three commands you can use:
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HintsL H stands for Home, M for Middle and L for Last. Alternatively, H for high, M for Middle and L for low.
03.6 Telling where you are
To see where you are in a file, there are three ways:
- Use the
CTRL-Gcommand. You get a message like this (assuming theruleroption is off):
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This shows the same of the file you are editing, the line number where the cursor is, the total number of lines, the percentage of the way through the file and the column of the cursor.
Sometimes you will see a split column number. For example, col 2-9. This indicates that the cursor is positioned on the second character, but because character one is a tab, occupying eight spaces worth of columns, the screen column is 9.
- Set the
numberoption. This will display a line number in front of every line:
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To switch this off again:
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Since number is a boolean option, prepending no to its names has the effect of switching it off. A boolean option has only these two values, it is either on or off.
Vim has many options. Besides the boolean ones there are options with a numerical value and string options. You will see examples of this where they are used.
- Set the
ruleroption. This will display the cursor position in the lower right corner of the Vim window:
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Using the ruler option has the advantage that it doesn’t take much room, thus there is more space for your text.
03.7 Scrolling around
The CTRL-U command scrolls down half a screen of text. Think of looking through a viewing window at the text and moving this window up by half the height of the window. Thus the window moves up over the text, which is backward in the file. Don’t worry if you have a little trouble remembering which end is up. Most users have the same problem.
The CTRL_D command moves the viewing window down half a screen in the file, thus scrolls the text up half a screen.
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To scroll one line at a time use CTRL-E (scroll up) and CTRL-Y (scroll down).
Think of CTRL-E to give you one line Extra. (If you use MS-Windows compatible key mappings CTRL-Y will redo a change instead of scroll.)
To scroll forward by a whole screen (except for two lines) use CTRL-F. To scroll backwards, use CTRL-B. These should be easy to remember: F for forwards and B for Backwards.
A common issue is that after moving down many lines with j your cursor is at the bottom of the screen. You would like to see the context of the line with the cursor. That’s done with the zz command.
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The ztcommand put the cursor line at the top, zb at the bottom. There are a few more scrolling commands, see Q_sc. To always keep a few lines of context around the cursor, use the scrolloff option.
03.8 Simple searches
To search for a string, use the /string command. To find the word include, for example, use the command:
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You will notice that when you type the / the cursor jumps to the last line of the Vim window, like with colon commands. That is where you type the word. You can press the backspace key (backarrow or <BS>) to make corrections. Use the <Left> and <Right> cursor keys when necessary.
Pressing <Enter> executes the command.
Note:
The characters .*[]^%/\?~$ have special meanings. If you want to use them in a search you must put a \ in front of them. See below.
To find the next occurrence of the same string use the n command. Use this to find the first #include after the cursor:
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And then type n several times. You will move to each #include in the text.
You can also use a count if you know which match you want. Thus 3n finds the third match. You can also use a count with /: 4/the goes to the fourth match of the.
The ? command works like / but searches backwards:
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The N command repeats the last search the opposite direction. Thus using N after a / command searches backwards, using N after ? searches forwards.
IGNORING CASE
Normally you have to type exactly what you want to find. If you don’t care about upper or lowercase in a word, set the ignorecase option:
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If you now search for word, it will also match Word and WORD. To match case again:
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HISTORY
Suppose you do three searches:
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Now let’s start searching by typing a simple / without pressing <Enter>. If you press <Up> (the cursor key), Vim puts /three on the command line. Pressing <Enter> at this point searches for three. If you do not press <Enter>, but press <Up> instead, Vim changes the prompt to /two. Another press of <Up> moves you to /one.
You can also use the <Down> cursor key to move through the history of search commands in the other direction.
If you know what a previously used pattern starts with, and you want to use it again, type that character before pressing <Up>. With the previous example, you can type /o<Up> and Vim will put /one on the command line.
The commands starting with : also have a history. That allows you to recall a previous command and execute it again. These two histories are separate.
SEARCHING FOR A WORD IN THE TEXT
Suppose you see the word TheLongFunctionName in the text and you want to find the next occurrence of it. You could type /TheLongFunctionName, but that’s a lot of typing. And when you make a mistake Vim won’t find it.
There is an easier way: Position the cursor on the word and use the * command. Vim will grab the word under the cursor and use it as the search string.
The # command does the same in the other direction. You can prepend a count: 3* searches for the third occurrence of the word under the cursor.
SEARCHING FOR WHOLE WORDS
If you type /the it will also match there. To only find words that end in the use:
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The \> item is a special marker that only matches at the end of a word.
Similarly \< only matches at the begining of a word. Thus to search for the word the only:
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This does not match there or soothe. Notice that the * and # commands use these start-of-word and end-of-word markers to only find whole words (you can use g* and g# to match partial words).
HIGHLIGHTING MATCHES
While editing a program you see a variable called nr. You want to check where it’s used. You could move the cursor to nr and use the * command and press n to go along all the matches.
There is another way. Type this command:
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If you now search for nr, Vim will highlight all matches. That is a very good way to see where the variable is used, without the need to type commands.
To switch this off:
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Then you need to switch it on again if you want to use it for the next search command. If you only want to remove the highlighting, use this command:
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This doesn’t reset the option. Instead, it disables the highlighting. As soon as you execute a search command, the highlighting will be used again. Also for the n and N commands.
TUNING SEARCHES
There are a few options that change how searching works. These are the essential ones:
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This makes Vim display the match for the string while you are still typing it. Use this to check if the right match will be found. Then press <Enter> to really jump to that location. Or type more to change the search string.
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This stops the search at the end of the file. Or, when you are searching backwards, it stops the search at the start of the file. The wrapscan option is on by default, thus searching wraps around the end of the file.
INTERMZZO
If you like one of the options mentioned before, and set it each time you use Vim, you can put the command in your Vim startup file.
Edit the file, as mentioned at not-compatible. Or use this command to find out where it is:
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Edit the file, for example with:
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Then add a line with the command to set the option, just like you typed it in Vim. Example:
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G Moves to the end of the file. o starts a new line, where you type the :set command. You end insert mode with <Esc>. Then write and close the file:
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If you now start Vim again, the hlsearch option will already be set.
03.9 Simple search patterns
The Vim editor uses regular expressions to specify what to search for.
Regular expressions are an extremely powerful and compact way to specify a search pattern. Unfortunately, this power comes at a price, because regular expressions are a bit tricky to specify.
In this section we mention only a few essential ones. More about search patterns and commands can be found in chapter 27 usr_27.txt. You can find the full explanation here: pattern
BEGINING AND END OF A LINE
The ^ character matches the begining of a line. On an English-US keyboard you find it above the 6. The pattern include matches the word include anywhere on the line. But the pattern ^include matches the word include only if it is at the begining of a line.
The $ character matches the end of a line. Therefore, was$ matches the word was only if it is at the end of a line.
Let’s mark the places where /the matches in this example line with xs:
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Using /the$ we find this match:
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And with /^the we find this one:
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You can try searching with /^the$; it will only match a single line consisting entirely of the. White space does matter here, thus if a line contains a space after the word, like the , the pattern will not match.
MATCHING ANY SINGLE CHARACTER
The . (dot) character matches any existing character. For example, the pattern c.m matches a string whose first character is a c, whose second character is anything, and whose third character is m. Example:
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MATCHING SPECIAL CHARACTERS
If you really want to match a dot, you must avoid its special meaning by putting a backslash before it.
If you search for ter., you will find these matches:
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Searching for ter\. only finds the second match.
03.10 Using marks
When you make a jump to a position with the G command, Vim remembers the position from before this jump. This position is called a mark. To go back where you came from, use this command:
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This ` is a backtick or open single-quote character.
If you use the same command a second time you will jump back again. That’s because the ` command is a jump itself, and the position from before this jump is remembered.
Generally, every time you do a command that can move the cursor further than within the same line, this is called a jump. This includes the search commands / and n (it doesn’t matter how far away the match is). But not the character searches with fx and tx or the word movements w and e.
Also, j and k are not considered to be a jump, even when you use a count to make them move the cursor quite a long way away.
The `` command jumps back and forth, between two points. The CTRL-O command jumps to older positions (Hint: O for older). CTRL-I then jumps back to newer positions (Hint: for many common keyboard layouts, I is just next to O).Consider this sequence of commands:
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You first jump to line 33, then search for a line that starts with The.Then with CTRL-O you jump back to line 33. Another CTRL-O takes you back to where you started. If you now use CTRL-I you jump to line 33 again. And to the match for The with another CTRL-I.
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Note:CTRL-I is the same as <Tab>.
The :jumps command givesa list of positions you jumped to. The entry which you used last is marked with a >.
NAMED MARKS
Vim enables you to place your own marks in the text. The command ma marks the place under the cursor as mark a. You can place 26 marks (a through z) in your text. You can’t see them, it’s just a position that Vim remembers.
To go to a mark, use the command `{mark}, where {mark} is the mark letter. Thus to move to the a mark:
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The command ‘mark (single quotation mark, or apostrophe) moves you to the begining of the line containing the mark. This differs from the `mark command, which also moves you to the marked column.
The marks can be very useful when working on two related parts in a file. Suppose you have some text near the start of the file you need to look at, while working on some text near the end of the file.
Move to the text at the start and place the s (start) mark there:
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Then move to the text you want to work on and put the e (end) mark there:
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Now you can move around, and when you want to look at the start of the file, you use this to jump there:
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Then you can use ’’ to jump back to where you were, or ’e to jump to the text you were working on at the end.
There is nothing special about using s for start and e for end, they are just easy to remember.
You can use this command to get a list of marks:
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You will notice a few special marks. These include:
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Next chapter: usr_04.txt Making small changes