This is all fine and dandy, but, even in notepad we can select, copy, delete, etc. multiple lines at once; how can we perform these operations in ViM? We’ll discuss selecting several lines at a time later, but we now discuss how to delete a line. Please move your cursor to the fourth line and type
ddJust like that the line is gone. Notice the similarity between “dw” and “dd”; in general, if a command required a movement (such as ‘d’, ‘c’, and soon ‘y’), we can perform the operation on an entire line by repeating that command. After moving to the first line, please delete all three lines in one command. See the table below if you forget how.
Ah! All our precious work is gone! We could retype it...
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or, I could tell you that “delete” operations (‘d’) are actually more equivalent to “cut” operations than their name would appear. To “paste” what we just cut, try
pPerhaps unexpectedly, the lines previously deleted are placed on the second line rather than the first. Try alternative version of paste, ‘P’. How are these commands different? If you are unsure, try deleting one line and pasting it near the middle of the document first with ‘p’ and then ‘P’.
A command that is related to “delete” is “yank” the equivalent of “copy”. Yank (‘y’) operates identically to ‘d’, except the words, lines, etc. that you copy are not deleted. Try rearranging the three lines with combinations of
yyand ‘p’. It might be useful to note that the paste, yank, and delete operations work with any movement (we can paste words, letters (after deleting with ‘x’, for example), lines, etc.). Please delete any duplicate lines and rearrange the words within one of the lines using only delete, yank, and paste.
It’s important that we stop here to note that the buffer that ViM copies and pastes from is not the operating system’s buffer. Hence, you cannot copy text from this webdocument and paste it into ViM with the ‘p’ command (this is a bit misleading, as it is possible since ViM has several dozen buffers, including one that has access to the system buffer, but for simplicity, let’s assume it does not). If we need to copy information from another program, a simple solution is to enter insert mode and use the terminal’s paste operation (or middle-click).
| Mode | Command | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Command | xdd | Delete x lines and place them in the buffer Similar to “cut” Ex. 5dd deletes the next 5 lines |
| Command | xcc | Delete x lines and enter Insert mode Ex. 2cc deletes the next 2 lines and enters Insert mode |
| Command | p | Place whatever is in the buffer (“clipboard”) after the cursor. If the buffer contains a line or more, place the contents of the buffer on the line following the current line. |
| Command | P | Place whatever is in the buffer (“clipboard”) before the cursor. If the buffer contains a line or more, place the contents of the buffer on the line above the current line. |
| Command | y[movement] | Yank movement (add it to the buffer) Similar to “copy” Ex. y4w yanks 4 words |
| Command | xyy | Yanks x (places them in the buffer) Similar to “copy” Ex. 5yy yanks the next 5 lines |