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

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33535 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: 24
  • Position: #2965 / 7397
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values - 4606 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #556 / 1265
  • Number of attempts: 2
One number per line - 18705 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #2581 / 3855
  • Number of attempts: 1
V to the i - 4796 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1143 / 1891
  • Number of attempts: 1
Extract argument from function - 2354 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #341 / 751
  • Number of attempts: 2
Search and Replace 0 - 4952 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1001 / 1615
  • Number of attempts: 2
That hyphen - 2595 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #452 / 701
  • Number of attempts: 1
Just the middle - 11417 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #2142 / 4181
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make HTML List - 1050 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 48
  • Position: #163 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 1
Python Hello World! Reformatting - 989 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: 40
  • Position: #31 / 379
  • Number of attempts: 1
Basic renumbering - 5643 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #899 / 1261
  • Number of attempts: 1
JS notation to Immutable.js notation - 186 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: 36
  • Position: #24 / 63
  • Number of attempts: 3
Add to end of each line... kinda - 333 entries

Visual-block mode can be used to add something to the end of each line, even if they are of differing lengths. However, what if it's not quite at the end?

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #77 / 174
  • Number of attempts: 2
underscore_to_camelCase - 173 entries

Pointy haired boss decided we need to switch to camelCase. Let's get this over with.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #46 / 82
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vice versa - 7891 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #1225 / 2121
  • Number of attempts: 1
7th Birthday - 202 entries

We have a bunch of numbers written from 0 to 9 in the order present in the text input file. The task is to create 7 by replacing the numbers with dashes.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #44 / 75
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vim's not included features - 240 entries

Filter not included (-) features in a hypothetical installation of vim.

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #37 / 65
  • Number of attempts: 2
comments galore - 1041 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #344 / 423
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mirrored text - 177 entries

backward and forward, and long enough to be challenging

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #44 / 71
  • Number of attempts: 2
lipsum lines - 273 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #68 / 94
  • Number of attempts: 1
Inner hyphens - 136 entries

Yet another hyphen challenge. Adding 5 hyphens to a file shouldn't be too hard.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #49 / 82
  • Number of attempts: 1
Replace and keep the case - 437 entries

Replace all instance of plugin and Plugin to device and Device.

  • Best score: 26
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #75 / 118
  • Number of attempts: 2
Scrambled numbers - 807 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #114 / 184
  • Number of attempts: 1
Alsa configuration - 513 entries

I'm tweaking my ~/.asoundrc file!

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #100 / 128
  • Number of attempts: 1
Manual SQL - 160 entries

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

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 57
  • Position: #21 / 50
  • Number of attempts: 1
Restore order to the alphabet - 201 entries

The numbers are OK. The letters are wonky.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #35 / 72
  • Number of attempts: 2
Mirror Symmetry - 822 entries

Add backslashes.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #209 / 269
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap assigned value - 643 entries

Simple problem but looking for interesting solutions.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #183 / 253
  • Number of attempts: 2
Collect List - 4298 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #713 / 1190
  • Number of attempts: 1
VimGolfNight - 555 entries

Based on "The name of the game".

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #235 / 345
  • Number of attempts: 1
camel riding - 793 entries

add a prefix on some camelCase variables

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #123 / 281
  • Number of attempts: 3
Space out the alphabet - 1657 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #281 / 444
  • Number of attempts: 1
Fix the XML - 1035 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #164 / 289
  • Number of attempts: 1
Line 'em up! - 420 entries

It can be so hard to keep everything neatly lined-up. Somebody clearly hasn't bothered here. Tidy it up, please!

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #90 / 113
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shuffled numbers - 246 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 / 96
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mute the second method of this script - 455 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #207 / 239
  • Number of attempts: 1
Condensed Cases - 800 entries

Apple's new programming language, Swift, allows two style of case statements: 1) one Enum case on each line, or 2) multiple Enum cases on a single line. Convert the following from the first case (no pun intended) to the second type.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #169 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 15954 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1640 / 4170
  • Number of attempts: 1
-a-b-c- - 3213 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #814 / 1137
  • Number of attempts: 1
Count both ways - 1022 entries

Right AND down.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #246 / 354
  • Number of attempts: 1
Lisp Condense - 460 entries

Reduce 4 cons selection operations down to one function call.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #134 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 1
120 Degrees - 493 entries

Rotate that triangle.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #80 / 145
  • Number of attempts: 2
Gray area - 747 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #90 / 271
  • Number of attempts: 4
Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1158 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #161 / 300
  • Number of attempts: 4
Two become one - 713 entries

We have two c arrays and want to make one two dimensional out of it. Can we do that?

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #159 / 208
  • Number of attempts: 1
Where should I put the Newline? - 881 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #377 / 437
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vim tetris - 353 entries

Vim can play tetris too!

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #65 / 102
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mess in revision history - 1183 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #150 / 249
  • Number of attempts: 2
Split the words - 357 entries

Add the spaces manually if you must, but if you use Vim's spell checking feature wisely, I think you'll save a LARGE number of strokes.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #63 / 109
  • Number of attempts: 4
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10654 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #2762 / 3678
  • Number of attempts: 1
attr_aligner - 3498 entries

Two attr keywords. Two separate indentations. Align the colons.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #432 / 696
  • Number of attempts: 1
Letter case trickery - 1619 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: #345 / 515
  • Number of attempts: 2
quotes inside quotes - 3154 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: #629 / 1075
  • Number of attempts: 1
Words in parens - 12918 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #2659 / 3957
  • Number of attempts: 1
Pairs of numbers - 362 entries

Line 1 represents x, line 2 y-data. Bring the corresponding pairs in the form "[x,y]\n"

  • Best score: 26
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #94 / 135
  • Number of attempts: 1
Hole-in-one - 1017 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: 19
  • Position: #184 / 303
  • Number of attempts: 2
Prefixes and suffixes - 629 entries

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

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #91 / 196
  • Number of attempts: 1
The name of the game - 665 entries

End up with the name of the game.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #210 / 360
  • Number of attempts: 1
SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1606 entries

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

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #228 / 446
  • Number of attempts: 1
Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1118 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #288 / 445
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vertical Limit - 2522 entries

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

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #364 / 751
  • Number of attempts: 2
Exchanging Quotes - 851 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #120 / 228
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 2987 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #474 / 774
  • Number of attempts: 1
Switch function arguments - 2117 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #283 / 657
  • Number of attempts: 3
Append semicolon after expressions - 1046 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #233 / 413
  • Number of attempts: 2
Remove noise from HTTP log - 717 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: 16
  • Position: #187 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5061 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1399 / 1743
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make it more readable - 1982 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #476 / 645
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove dupes from array - 1347 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: 22
  • Position: #179 / 334
  • Number of attempts: 1
Numbering a List - 1929 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #267 / 651
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1228 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: 14
  • Position: #239 / 403
  • Number of attempts: 2
Assignment Alignment - 875 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #102 / 218
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shebangs for all - 1961 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: 18
  • Position: #375 / 506
  • Number of attempts: 1
A Simple One - 1037 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: #427 / 657
  • Number of attempts: 1
Table Reshuffle - 409 entries

Fix the column order in this table... also append the new 'username' column.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #71 / 138
  • Number of attempts: 2
The Cake is a Lie - 1330 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #371 / 523
  • Number of attempts: 5
Make Fancy Header - 1045 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #239 / 342
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reverse characters in a line - 750 entries

You have everything you need, just not in the right order. Mastermind would give you 26 white pegs.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #141 / 261
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat most common surnames - 691 entries

Reformat copy-pasted table into a list of the most common surnames

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #141 / 205
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change the content of a string - 1541 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #508 / 577
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sort and add attributes - 1418 entries

Sort the states and add the attribute country to each record.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #352 / 551
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reconstruct the Sentence - 1467 entries

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

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #221 / 403
  • Number of attempts: 3
Braces or Brackets? - 957 entries

Someone forgot whether to use braces or brackets and you have to clean up their code!

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 50
  • Position: #229 / 306
  • Number of attempts: 1
Flodder-challenge - 1219 entries

Replace the text the most efficient and win!

  • Best score: 27
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #197 / 327
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple text editing with Vim - 12627 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1505 / 3653
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6825 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 43
  • Position: #1027 / 1673
  • Number of attempts: 2
Chenut Ludovic
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entered into 86 challenges

contributed 0 challenges