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- *usr_03.txt* For Vim version 6.0. Last change: 2001 Sep 03
-
- VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
-
- 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:
-
- This is a line with example text ~
- --->-->->----------------->
- w w w 3w
-
- Notice that "w" moves to the start of the next word if it already is at the
- start of a word.
- The "b" command moves backward to the start of the previous word:
-
- This is a line with example text ~
- <----<--<-<---------<---
- b b b 2b b
-
- 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:
-
- This is a line with example text ~
- <- <--- -----> ---->
- ge ge e e
-
- 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.
- 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:
-
- ge b w e
- <- <- ---> --->
- This is-a line, with special/separated/words (and some more). ~
- <----- <----- --------------------> ----->
- gE B W E
-
- 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 nonblank character of the line. The "0"
- command (zero) moves to the very first character of the line. The <Home> key
- does the same thing. In a picture:
-
- ^
- <------------
- .....This is a line with example text ~
- <----------------- --------------->
- 0 $
-
- (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:
-
- To err is human. To really foul up you need a computer. ~
- ---------->--------------->
- fh fy
-
- 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":
-
- To err is human. To really foul up you need a computer. ~
- --------------------->
- 3fl
-
- The "F" command searches to the left:
-
- To err is human. To really foul up you need a computer. ~
- <---------------------
- Fh
-
- 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".
-
- To err is human. To really foul up you need a computer. ~
- <------------ ------------->
- Th tn
-
- 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 abort 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 paren
-
- 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 "(".
-
- %
- <----->
- if (a == (b * c) / d) ~
- <---------------->
- %
-
- 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:
-
- if (a == (b * c) / d) ~
- ---+---------------->
- %
-
- ==============================================================================
- *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:
-
- prog.c:33: j undeclared (first use in this function) ~
-
- 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 thirtytwo 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.
-
- | first line of a file ^
- | text text text text |
- | text text text text | gg
- 7G | text text text text |
- | text text text text
- | text text text text
- V text text text text |
- text text text text | G
- text text text text |
- last line of a file V
-
- 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:
-
- +---------------------------+
- H --> | text sample text |
- | sample text |
- | text sample text |
- | sample text |
- M --> | text sample text |
- | sample text |
- | text sample text |
- | sample text |
- L --> | text sample text |
- +---------------------------+
-
- Hints: "H" stands for Home, "M" for Middle and "L" for Last.
-
- ==============================================================================
- *03.6* Telling where you are
-
- To see where you are in a file, there are three ways:
-
- 1. Use the CTRL-G command. You get a message like this (assuming the 'ruler'
- option is off):
-
- "usr_03.txt" line 233 of 650 --35%-- col 45-52~
-
- This shows the name 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.
-
- 2. Set the 'number' option. This will display a line number in front of
- every line: >
-
- :set number
- <
- To switch this off again: >
-
- :set nonumber
- <
- Since 'number' is a boolean option, prepending "no" to its name 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.
-
- 3. Set the 'ruler' option. This will display the cursor position in the
- lower right corner of the Vim window: >
-
- :set ruler
-
- 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.
-
- +----------------+
- | some text |
- | some text |
- | some text |
- +---------------+ | some text |
- | some text | CTRL-U --> | |
- | | | 123456 |
- | 123456 | +----------------+
- | 7890 |
- | | +----------------+
- | example | CTRL-D --> | 7890 |
- +---------------+ | |
- | example |
- | example |
- | example |
- | example |
- +----------------+
-
- 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.
-
- To scroll forward by a whole screen (except for two lines) use CTRL-F. The
- other way is backward, CTRL-B is the command to use. Fortunately CTRL-F is
- Forward and CTRL-B is Backward, that's easy to remember.
-
- 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.
-
- +------------------+ +------------------+
- | some text | | some text |
- | some text | | some text |
- | some text | | some text |
- | some text | zz --> | line with cursor |
- | some text | | some text |
- | some text | | some text |
- | line with cursor | | some text |
- +------------------+ +------------------+
-
- The "zt" command puts 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: >
-
- /include
-
- 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 meaning. 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: >
-
- /#include
-
- 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. Using a count with "/" doesn't work.
-
- The "?" command works like "/" but searches backwards: >
-
- ?word
-
- The "N" command repeats the last search the opposite direction. Thus using
- "N" after a "/" command search backwards, using "N" after "?" searches
- forward.
-
-
- 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: >
-
- :set ignorecase
-
- If you now search for "word", it will also match "Word" and "WORD". To match
- case again: >
-
- :set noignorecase
-
-
- HISTORY
-
- Suppose you do three searches: >
-
- /one
- /two
- /three
-
- 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: >
-
- /the\>
-
- The "\>" item is a special marker that only matches at the end of a word.
- Similarly "\<" only matches at the begin of a word. Thus to search for the
- word "the" only: >
-
- /\<the\>
-
- 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: >
-
- :set hlsearch
-
- 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: >
-
- :set nohlsearch
-
- 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: >
-
- :nohlsearch
-
- 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:
- >
- :set incsearch
-
- 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.
- >
- :set nowrapscan
-
- This stops the search at the end of the file. Or, when you are searching
- backwards, at the start of the file. The 'wrapscan' option is on by default,
- thus searching wraps around the end of the file.
-
-
- INTERMEZZO
-
- 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: >
-
- :scriptnames
-
- Edit the file, for example with: >
-
- :edit ~/.vimrc
-
- Then add a line with the command to set the option, just like you typed it in
- Vim. Example: >
-
- Go:set hlsearch<Esc>
-
- "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 the file: >
-
- ZZ
-
- 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 in chapter 27 |usr_27.txt|. You can find the full
- explanation here: |pattern|.
-
-
- BEGINNING AND END OF A LINE
-
- The ^ character matches the beginning 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 beginning of a line.
- The $ character matches the end of a line. Therefore, "was$" matches the
- word was only if it is at the end of a line.
-
- Let's mark the places where "the" matches in this example line with "x"s:
-
- the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~
- xxx xxx xxx
-
- Using "/the$" we find this match:
-
- the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~
- xxx
-
- And with "/^the" we find this one:
- the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~
- xxx
-
- You can try searching with "/^the$", it will only match a single line
- consisting 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 the third character is m. Example:
-
- We use a computer that became the cummin winter. ~
- xxx xxx xxx
-
-
- 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:
-
- We use a computer that became the cummin winter. ~
- xxxx xxxx
-
- 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: >
-
- ``
- 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: I is just next to O on the keyboard). Consider this sequence
- of commands: >
-
- 33G
- /^The
- CTRL-O
-
- 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.
-
-
- | example text ^ |
- 33G | example text | CTRL-O | CTRL-I
- | example text | |
- V line 33 text ^ V
- | example text | |
- /^The | example text | CTRL-O | CTRL-I
- V There you are | V
- example text
-
- Note:
- CTRL-I is the same as <Tab>.
-
- The ":jumps" command gives a 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:
- >
- `a
-
- The command 'mark (single quotation mark, or apostrophe) moves you to the
- beginning of the line containing the mark. This differs from the `mark
- command, which moves you to 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: >
-
- ms
-
- The move to the text you want to work on and put the e (end) mark there: >
-
- me
-
- Now you can move around, and when you want to look at the start of the file,
- you use this to jump there: >
-
- 's
-
- 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: >
-
- :marks
-
- You will notice a few special marks. These include:
-
- ' The cursor position before doing a jump
- " The cursor position when last editing the file
- [ Start of the last change
- ] End of the last change
-
- ==============================================================================
-
- Next chapter: |usr_04.txt| Making small changes
-
- Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
-