Real Vim ninjas count every keystroke - do you?

Pick a challenge, fire up Vim, and show us what you got.

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$ gem install vimgolf
$ vimgolf setup
$ vimgolf put [challenge ID]

Played Challenges

Replace pattern with 1, 2, 3, ... on each line - 1098 entries

For each line replace a search pattern (in this case $) with numbers starting at 1 and then increasing by 1 for each replaced match. a$b$c$ -> a0b1c2

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #54 / 225
  • Number of attempts: 8
Simple, Practical, and Common - 33385 entries

Simple things we do all the time should be able to be done with very few keystrokes, but sometimes I find something I need to do makes me go, "There MUST be a better way." This challenge is just a simple movement and entering text at a certain place.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #4456 / 7364
  • Number of attempts: 6
Hogwarts Email Sorting - 877 entries

Given a list of emails, get the students full name and their associated house.

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #31 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 6
Get mail address from outlook format - 621 entries

Create a mail list space separated of mail list formatted by outlook

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #35 / 196
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reconstruct the actual output from my unit test tool report - 151 entries

When a test fails, my unit test tool reports differences between the actual output and the expected output as follow: - line in the expected output but missing in the actual output are prefixed with a dash - unexpected lines in the actual output are prefixed with a plus sign - comments added by the unit test tool are prefixed with a question mark - common lines are showed `as-is` (well, almost;) From that "diff" format, I would like to reconstruct the actual output.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #14 / 51
  • Number of attempts: 8
Swap values - 4543 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #323 / 1257
  • Number of attempts: 6
prepend * to every non-blank line - 6208 entries

Prepend an asterisk to every non-blank line in the input file.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #146 / 1517
  • Number of attempts: 13
One number per line - 18616 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #646 / 3842
  • Number of attempts: 14
Quote modules - 1054 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #59 / 274
  • Number of attempts: 7
Aliases for cd - 849 entries

Create these beautiful aliases with as few strokes as possible. Are you up for the challenge?

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 46
  • Position: #82 / 150
  • Number of attempts: 4
Quote modules (ver.2) - 211 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #29 / 56
  • Number of attempts: 9
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #85 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 8
Unsemantic linewrapping - 890 entries

[Inspired by a blog post I read: https://scott.mn/2014/02/21/semantic_linewrapping/. Text adapted.] Sometimes when editing a Markdown file, I wrap the lines semantically. Instead of inserting a newline at 70 columns (or whatever), or making paragraphs one long line, I put in newlines at a point that seems logical to me. This may seem silly, but it produces better diffs. Semantic linewrapping also makes editing snappier. I can delete, edit or insert sentences easily using linewise operations. Code-oriented text editors like Vim and [REDACTED] are really good at this kind of manipulation. Editing text that hasn't been wrapped semantically is a pain, though:

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #67 / 224
  • Number of attempts: 7
V to the i - 4751 entries

Input is 99 V's. Output is 100 i's.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #726 / 1879
  • Number of attempts: 3
Applying same text modification in several lines - 2845 entries

Remove identical text at the beginning of several lines and the closing parenthesis.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #231 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 5
Refactor typescript arrow function type - 302 entries

Make arrow function type less verbose and easier to read

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #16 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 10
Add string initializers to an enum - 862 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #47 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 6
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1181 entries

Convert strings in SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case. Examples: EMPLOYEE_NAME -> Employee Name REVENUE_YEAR_TO_DATE -> Revenue Year To Date SALARY -> Salary

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #41 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 4
Add semicolons - 10792 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #522 / 3044
  • Number of attempts: 6
Bad Copy Syntax - 2001 entries

Copy should be from right to left, but sometimes you type it wrong.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #188 / 516
  • Number of attempts: 5
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3537 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #757 / 1144
  • Number of attempts: 3
Com(m)a Trouble - 3675 entries

Someone was real stupid when placing his commas. Can you fix it?

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #112 / 827
  • Number of attempts: 7
Box it - 7828 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #327 / 1865
  • Number of attempts: 8
Cool or not? - 793 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #57 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 7
multiple cursor alternative - 1474 entries

from: https://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/6w5pfa/crosspost_from_remacs_how_would_you_do_this_in_vim/

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #86 / 376
  • Number of attempts: 7
html paragraph to table - 590 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 48
  • Position: #17 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 18
From argument to object - 1474 entries

This task typifies those programmers endure while coding. This C-family pseudocode needs a function argument to be repurposed as an object call. Simply search and replace? Repeat a pattern of edits?

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #133 / 450
  • Number of attempts: 5
Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 735 entries

Clean and group.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #48 / 174
  • Number of attempts: 10
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #64 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 8
Copy three lines - 2840 entries

If the site is up (by some miracle), make the text under every header identical.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #161 / 635
  • Number of attempts: 9
Extract argument from function - 2314 entries

The aim is to see if you can do some refactoring very fast.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #249 / 744
  • Number of attempts: 4
Search and Replace 0 - 4792 entries

Replace every instance of 'aaa' with 'xaaax'.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #649 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 3
That hyphen - 2556 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #271 / 695
  • Number of attempts: 4
Just the middle - 11360 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #1377 / 4164
  • Number of attempts: 5
Team names - 1805 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #258 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 4
Vice versa - 7805 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #547 / 2101
  • Number of attempts: 8
One to Ten - 2165 entries

Generate the sequence of numbers from 1 to 10, one number per line. Inspired by this Reddit thread: https://redd.it/ak4it2

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #492 / 662
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 639 entries

Change the middle part of the function name in multiple places, preferably using the next and dot commands.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #57 / 203
  • Number of attempts: 4
Line under headers - 2004 entries

Put a line under each header, and remove the other markdown formatting.

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #167 / 496
  • Number of attempts: 3
Increment each number - 977 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 39
  • Position: #227 / 242
  • Number of attempts: 6
Delete to the end of the current line - 791 entries

Delete to the end of the current line, but keep the character under the cursor.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #226 / 385
  • Number of attempts: 3
Array transposition - 2378 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #29 / 443
  • Number of attempts: 26
convert yml into java pojo field - 829 entries

How fast vim can create fields for java pojo i.e class declaration referring to a (simple) yml file

  • Best score: 29
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #83 / 223
  • Number of attempts: 6
Collect List - 4264 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #478 / 1186
  • Number of attempts: 8
I forgot quotes - 15931 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #1026 / 4161
  • Number of attempts: 11
-a-b-c- - 3176 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #403 / 1129
  • Number of attempts: 4
Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1120 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #204 / 293
  • Number of attempts: 6
Mess in revision history - 1161 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #61 / 247
  • Number of attempts: 17
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10628 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1512 / 3667
  • Number of attempts: 3
quotes inside quotes - 3125 entries

taken from tip 85 of the very good book 'Practical Vim: Edit Text at the Speed of Thought' ! I'd be interested what people use :)

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #340 / 1072
  • Number of attempts: 6
Words in parens - 12858 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1093 / 3946
  • Number of attempts: 7
Coordinates placeholder - 64 entries

Place coordinates instead of target search.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #32 / 37
  • Number of attempts: 4
Alphabet soup - 419 entries

Create a column of all alphabet characters organized in a funky way

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #61 / 103
  • Number of attempts: 3
switch variable - 5036 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #610 / 1736
  • Number of attempts: 2
Simple text editing with Vim - 12290 entries

Make the pairs of lines match up by making each second line same as first

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #627 / 3581
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6560 entries

A simple case of removing unneeded code and fixing broken indentation.

  • Best score: 32
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #263 / 1616
  • Number of attempts: 6
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