Real Vim ninjas count every keystroke - do you?

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

Changelog, Rules & FAQ, updates: @vimgolf, RSS.

Your VimGolf key: please sign in

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

Played Challenges

Simple, Practical, and Common - 34012 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: 26
  • Position: #3490 / 7513
  • Number of attempts: 3
vim = 22 / 7 - 491 entries

pi square vim

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #78 / 136
  • Number of attempts: 2
V to the i - 4883 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #1640 / 1914
  • Number of attempts: 1
Extract argument from function - 2427 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #450 / 772
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 5159 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #1415 / 1674
  • Number of attempts: 1
That hyphen - 2646 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #615 / 711
  • Number of attempts: 1
Just the middle - 11616 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #3414 / 4255
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make HTML List - 1072 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 59
  • Position: #259 / 276
  • Number of attempts: 1
Python Hello World! Reformatting - 1048 entries

A novice Python using prints Hello World! and a pro shows him different way. Using vim to get into pro style from novice, win the challenge.

  • Best score: 39
  • Best player score: 44
  • Position: #247 / 398
  • Number of attempts: 2
Extended Customer 2 - 59 entries

Format the chars

  • Best score: 47
  • Best player score: 65
  • Position: #10 / 22
  • Number of attempts: 1
Acute accents - 42 entries

Featuring all 17 lowercase letters with an acute accent digraph. Find a way to automate the digraphs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #10 / 28
  • Number of attempts: 1
Basic renumbering - 5736 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #1129 / 1280
  • Number of attempts: 3
JS notation to Immutable.js notation - 196 entries

Now Immutable.js made its way into many frontends. This challenge consists of a typical refactoring that many of us are facing now.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 44
  • Position: #51 / 65
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vice versa - 8019 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #1181 / 2157
  • Number of attempts: 2
comments galore - 1100 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #122 / 433
  • Number of attempts: 1
lipsum lines - 315 entries

Convert a quoted block of text into strings in a list.

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #63 / 98
  • Number of attempts: 1
Angular naming conventions - 359 entries

In angular, a directive name follows the camelCase convention. When the directive is used in an HTML template, the words are instead separated by a dash. Go from to the other the fastest!

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #104 / 124
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sudoku table - 123 entries

Make this simple sudoku table look nice and legible.

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 59
  • Position: #19 / 37
  • Number of attempts: 1
Alsa configuration - 551 entries

I'm tweaking my ~/.asoundrc file!

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #112 / 132
  • Number of attempts: 1
Manual SQL - 179 entries

Change select and insert queries to simulate inserting a new record.

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 81
  • Position: #46 / 53
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mirror Symmetry - 844 entries

Add backslashes.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #261 / 272
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap assigned value - 694 entries

Simple problem but looking for interesting solutions.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #174 / 263
  • Number of attempts: 1
Entries sort - 108 entries

It cames to my mind a weird idea : sorting parts of my .vimrc. Take few minutes to sort out this, it's easy !

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #32 / 43
  • Number of attempts: 1
Collect List - 4341 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #922 / 1200
  • Number of attempts: 1
VimGolfNight - 602 entries

Based on "The name of the game".

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #226 / 356
  • Number of attempts: 1
swap or reverse - 130 entries

Try to swap or reverse the line as needed.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #63 / 70
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove all lines in first part - 223 entries

From the second part, remove all lines in the first part. It can be useful when you have done something from a long list, you want to know what is not done yet!

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #62 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 1
Fix the XML - 1050 entries

The challenge consists in having a valid xml from an incomplete source.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #244 / 291
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shuffled numbers - 254 entries

Each number is paired with the number it should follow. That's enough information to put them in order.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #79 / 98
  • Number of attempts: 1
ASCII box - 378 entries

Don't forget to fix typos!

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #81 / 111
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mute the second method of this script - 464 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #98 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 2
Sorting database text output - 236 entries

Sometimes it is nice to be able to quickly take column-formatted text output from the SQL command line and turn it into a list of useful data. In this case we want a unique, sorted list of the values from the second column combined into one comma-separated list. What is the fewest strokes you can do this in?

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #67 / 87
  • Number of attempts: 1
Happy TvvO - 439 entries

Don’t forget the past, learn from it. Happy New Year.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #199 / 211
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 16237 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #3175 / 4224
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shift down - 237 entries

Number words are back.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #60 / 71
  • Number of attempts: 1
learn vim in short time - 247 entries

so happy to learn vim.because vim is awesome

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #79 / 167
  • Number of attempts: 1
vim1001 - 327 entries

change number 1001 into a "vim1001 sequence". (My first challenge, hope it is not too bad... )

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #90 / 112
  • Number of attempts: 1
-a-b-c- - 3241 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #1088 / 1146
  • Number of attempts: 1
Count both ways - 1052 entries

Right AND down.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #241 / 361
  • Number of attempts: 1
NBCU Weekly Challenge - Test - 264 entries

Just testing.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #102 / 120
  • Number of attempts: 1
Lisp Condense - 484 entries

Reduce 4 cons selection operations down to one function call.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #122 / 162
  • Number of attempts: 2
120 Degrees - 517 entries

Rotate that triangle.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #129 / 147
  • Number of attempts: 1
Refactor static member invocation - 233 entries

Someone used a static method. Refactor the method into a static import while fixing the assertion.

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 41
  • Position: #56 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 1
Don't know what this is - 2067 entries

Replace contents of brackets with matching number of spaces. Don't ask what the format's supposed to be.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #508 / 595
  • Number of attempts: 1
Where should I put the Newline? - 911 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #367 / 450
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vim tetris - 390 entries

Vim can play tetris too!

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 41
  • Position: #96 / 108
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shuffle puzzle - 377 entries

Sort the lines in each indent group, and sort the groups. That's the pattern. Or just move lines around manually to get a better score.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #97 / 108
  • Number of attempts: 1
Going underground.... - 376 entries

Simple reformatting: in this case changing from the format London underground supplies its customers with, to the format that Google Calendar likes...

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #88 / 130
  • Number of attempts: 1
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10757 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #3109 / 3716
  • Number of attempts: 1
Letter case trickery - 1686 entries

This file is in a downright esoteric format, consisting of hexadecimal numbers, non-hexadecimal keywords, and "Z" indicating end-of-line. Make the hexadecimal numbers lowercase.

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #351 / 525
  • Number of attempts: 1
quotes inside quotes - 3202 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: 16
  • Position: #626 / 1093
  • Number of attempts: 2
Words in parens - 13053 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #2904 / 3991
  • Number of attempts: 1
Hole-in-one - 1040 entries

Lets take this golf thing literally.. Drive off the tee into the hole, and of course you don't strike the ball completely clean.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #221 / 307
  • Number of attempts: 1
Prefixes and suffixes - 668 entries

Generate all prefixes of "vimchallenge", then all suffixes.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #158 / 207
  • Number of attempts: 1
The name of the game - 696 entries

End up with the name of the game.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #199 / 369
  • Number of attempts: 1
lamb had a little Mary - 659 entries

"Mary" and "lamb" are swapped. Unswap them. Fast as you can.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 39
  • Position: #137 / 179
  • Number of attempts: 1
SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1642 entries

Oh no, this line is longer than 80 chars... put each 'vim' on a new line.

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #377 / 457
  • Number of attempts: 1
Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1162 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #288 / 459
  • Number of attempts: 1
Enharmonic Equivalents - 74 entries

Transform # and b to digraphs

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #34 / 41
  • Number of attempts: 2
Vertical Limit - 2637 entries

transform a succession of one word lines to a an array of strings

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #607 / 778
  • Number of attempts: 1
Exchanging Quotes - 878 entries

Sometimes you need to exchange a choice of quotes in some code.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 39
  • Position: #175 / 234
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 3067 entries

replace each line's ../assets/js with /javascripts

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #548 / 789
  • Number of attempts: 1
Switch function arguments - 2229 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #417 / 684
  • Number of attempts: 3
Append semicolon after expressions - 1086 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #349 / 426
  • Number of attempts: 1
Remove noise from HTTP log - 758 entries

This piece of log (from the year 2000) contains some irrelevant data. We only want to see the HTTP method and resource.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #233 / 281
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5128 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #1191 / 1764
  • Number of attempts: 1
The meaning - 588 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #255 / 368
  • Number of attempts: 2
Make it more readable - 2039 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #577 / 658
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove dupes from array - 1377 entries

given a random string that contains a ruby-esque array, make sure that there are no duplicate elements

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #248 / 341
  • Number of attempts: 1
Numbering a List - 1969 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #415 / 661
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1312 entries

Rubyists talk about being cutting edge but how many are using 1.9 in production? Time to convert those verbose 1.8 hashes in to symbolic, succinct 1.9 beauties!

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #306 / 419
  • Number of attempts: 1
Assignment Alignment - 909 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #191 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shebangs for all - 2103 entries

We've all seen or used a shebang once or twice. Ditch the specific paths and leave just a dynamic Ruby and Python bath behind.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #412 / 533
  • Number of attempts: 1
A Simple One - 1091 entries

Here is a very simple one - just to illustrate/introduce a vim feature that some people seem to miss...

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #417 / 680
  • Number of attempts: 1
Increment, increment, increment.... - 706 entries

Vim likes macros

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #325 / 416
  • Number of attempts: 1
The Cake is a Lie - 1418 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #459 / 543
  • Number of attempts: 2
Make Fancy Header - 1108 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #295 / 356
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat some Python - 657 entries

Fix some very bizarrely laid-out code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 47
  • Position: #170 / 247
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change the content of a string - 1799 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #526 / 655
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reconstruct the Sentence - 1745 entries

Get the sentence back in the proper order, remove duplicate lines, and then combine the separate lines into one.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #372 / 457
  • Number of attempts: 1
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 4044 entries

Convert tabs to spaces, strip empty lines and trailing whitespace.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #501 / 862
  • Number of attempts: 2
Simple text editing with Vim - 13626 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #3364 / 3902
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7681 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #1046 / 1889
  • Number of attempts: 1
Gerald Tilma
Twitter:

Software engineer, pseudo-linguist. Prestidigitator.

entered into 83 challenges

contributed 0 challenges