Mastering Vim Editor on Termux

A Comprehensive Cheat Sheet 📝

Vim is a powerful text editor that is widely used for programming and text editing. If you’re using Termux, you can easily install and use Vim for your editing needs. This blog post will provide you with a comprehensive cheat sheet to master Vim.

Installing Vim in Termux 🖥️

To install Vim in Termux, follow these steps:

1. Open Termux: Launch the Termux app on your device. 📱
2. Update Package Lists: It’s a good idea to update your package lists to ensure you have the latest information about available packages. Run:

   pkg update
   

3. Install Vim: Use the following command to install Vim:

   pkg install vim
   

Once the installation is complete, you can start using Vim by typing vim in the terminal. 🚀

Basic Modes ⚙️

• Normal Mode: Used for navigation and commands. Press Esc to enter this mode.
• Insert Mode: Used for inserting text. Enter this mode by pressing i.
• Visual Mode: Used for selecting text. Enter this mode by pressing v.

Basic Navigation 🧭

• h: Move left
• j: Move down
• k: Move up
• l: Move right
• 0: Move to the beginning of the line
• $: Move to the end of the line
• gg: Go to the top of the file
• G: Go to the bottom of the file
• :n: Go to line number n

Editing Text ✍️

• i: Insert before the cursor
• I: Insert at the beginning of the line
• a: Append after the cursor
• A: Append at the end of the line
• o: Open a new line below
• O: Open a new line above
• x: Delete the character under the cursor
• dw: Delete word
• dd: Delete the entire line
• d$: Delete from the cursor to the end of the line
• u: Undo the last action
• Ctrl + r: Redo the last undone action
• yy: Copy (yank) the current line
• p: Paste after the cursor
• P: Paste before the cursor

Multi-Line Comments 💬

To add multi-line comments in Vim, you typically use the comment syntax of the programming language you are working with. For example:

• In Python, you can use triple quotes:

  """
  This is a multi-line comment
  that spans multiple lines.
  """
  

• In C/C++, you can use /* */:

  /*
  This is a multi-line comment
  that spans multiple lines.
  */
  

You can also visually select multiple lines and then insert the comment syntax at the start of each line.

Searching and Replacing 🔍

• /: Search forward
• ?: Search backward
• n: Repeat the search in the same direction
• N: Repeat the search in the opposite direction
• :%s/old/new/g: Replace all occurrences of old with new in the file

Saving and Exiting 💾

• :w: Save the file
• :q: Quit Vim
• :wq: Save and quit
• :q!: Quit without saving

Working with Files 📂

• :e filename: Open a file named filename
• :saveas filename: Save the current file as filename
• :bnext: Switch to the next buffer
• :bprev: Switch to the previous buffer
• :ls: List all open buffers

Visual Mode 👀

• v: Start visual mode for character selection
• V: Start visual line mode for line selection
• Ctrl + v: Start visual block mode for block selection
• y: Yank (copy) selected text
• d: Delete selected text

• : Indent selected text

• <: Unindent selected text

Miscellaneous 📋

• :set number: Show line numbers
• :set nonumber: Hide line numbers
• :syntax on: Enable syntax highlighting
• :help: Open Vim help

Conclusion 🎉

Mastering Vim can be incredibly beneficial for your coding and text editing workflow. With this cheat sheet, you now have a handy reference to help you navigate and utilize Vim effectively in Termux. Happy editing! ✨