Vim motions: move by word, line and character

Stop pressing l twenty times. A motion is a command that moves the cursor, and Vim has one for nearly every place you want to go: the next word, the end of the line, the next comma, line 120, the matching bracket. This guide covers about thirty of them, and you can practise every one for free in the game.

Each example shows a line of text, the keys and where the cursor ends up. Columns are counted from 0, so the first character of a line is column 0. Vim's ruler starts at 1, so add one when you compare. Every example was replayed in the Vim engine that runs the game and checked in Neovim.

Characters and lines: h j k l and counts

h and l move one character left and right. j and k move one line down and up. They are on the home row, so your hands stay put.

Put a number in front of a motion to repeat it. On the quick brown fox, 4l moves four characters right, onto the q. Counts work with almost every motion in this guide, such as 3w, 5j and 2f, (jump to the second comma). The exceptions are G and gg, where the number is a line number, and 0, which takes no count.

j and k remember the column you started from. Start on column 12 of the first line here and press j twice:

Pressing a key more than twice in a row usually means there is a shorter motion.

Vim word motions: w, b, e, ge and WORDs

Vim has two ideas of a word:

• By default, a word is a run of letters, digits and underscores, or a run of other non-blank characters. In user.name, user, . and name are three words. An empty line also counts as a word.
• A WORD is a run of non-blank characters. user.name is one WORD.

Here is where each press of w lands on user.name = get_name(id);, starting at column 0:

user → . → name → = → get_name → ( → id → );

On the same line, W takes two presses to do what w did in seven: user.name → = → get_name(id);. Use w when you want to stop at punctuation, and W when you want to jump over a whole chunk like get_name(id);.

w, b and e keep going across line breaks, so w at the end of a line takes you to the first word of the next one.

Line edges: 0, ^, $, g_

Take     return total;   , with four spaces of indent and three trailing spaces:

In code you almost always want ^ rather than 0, and g_ rather than $ when a line may have trailing spaces. 0 only works as a motion when no count is being typed: in 10j it is the second digit of ten.

Jump to a character: f, t, F, T, ; and ,

f followed by a character jumps onto the next copy of that character in the line. t jumps till it, stopping one column before. F and T do the same backwards. ; repeats the last one and , repeats it in the other direction.

On print("one", "two", "three"), starting at column 0:

Notice t,;: after a t, Vim's ; skips the comma right next to the cursor and goes to the one after it, so repeating t does not get stuck. f and t only search the current line. To search the whole file, use / (see search in the cheat sheet).

Go to a line: gg, G and :N

:42 is a command, so it needs Enter. 42G does the same in one key less. Line numbers start at 1, and :set number shows them on the left.

In Vim, gg, G and :42 land on the first non-blank character of the line, so you arrive on code, not on indentation. Neovim leaves the column unchanged, because its startofline option is off by default. Run :set startofline to get Vim's behaviour.

Paragraphs and brackets: {, } and %

Paragraphs. } jumps to the next empty line, and { to the previous one. In code that is usually the gap between two functions. A line that holds only spaces does not count as empty, so } goes straight past it. If there is no empty line below, } goes to the end of the last line.

Brackets. % jumps to the bracket that matches the one under the cursor. It works on ( ), [ ] and { }, across lines. If the cursor is not on a bracket, % uses the first bracket to its right on the line. Take this code:

if (items.length > 0) {
  send(items);
}

With a count, % means something else: 50% goes to the line halfway through the file.

Pick the motion with the fewest keys

Most places can be reached several ways. Counting keys is a good habit, and it is how Vimrealm scores every quest. Here the cursor starts on column 0 of const total = price * quantity; and the target is the q of quantity, column 22:

A rule of thumb:

• You can see the character you want: f or t it. If it appears earlier on the line too, add ;.
• It is the start or end of a nearby word: w, b or e, with a count if it is two or three words away.
• It is at the edge of the line: ^, $ or g_. Don't press l to get there.
• It is on another line far away: :42 or 42G when you know the line number, } to skip a block, % to cross a bracket.

Motions are half of every edit

Everything above also works after an operator. d deletes, c changes and y copies over whatever the motion covers. In each row the cursor starts at column 0:

Read them as verb + motion. f,d$ moves to the comma, then deletes to the end of the line. In the last row, ct, changes everything till the comma, "uno" is the text you type, and Esc ends it. The t and f rows show the difference between the two: dt) stops before the ) and keeps it, while df) deletes it too.

Every new motion you learn is also a new way to delete, change and copy. That is why it pays to learn the motions first. The operators guide covers d, c, y and the case operators, text objects add targets such as "inside the quotes", and the dot command repeats the whole edit.

Real Vim has more

A few motions are worth knowing once these feel natural. Vimrealm does not teach them yet:

• H, M, L: the top, middle and bottom line of the screen
• Ctrl-d, Ctrl-u: half a screen down or up
• Ctrl-o: jump back to where you were before a big jump such as G or %
• gj, gk: move by screen line when a long line wraps

The free chapters: 1 Meadow of Motion (h j k l and counts), 2 Forest of Words (w b e ge W B E gE), 3 Cliffs of Line's End (0 ^ $ g_), 4 Seeker's Cave (f F t T ; ,), 5 Mountain of Lines (gg G :N { } %). Operators are in chapter 8, which is part of the full version ($7.99, one payment). See how the course works or keep the cheat sheet open while you practise.