VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Search and Replace 0 - 4766 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 16
Position: #1105 / 1578
Number of attempts: 2

Interweave two blocks of text - 615 entries

Suppose you've got data on a list of things from multiple sources. They're all in separate chunks, so how might you create a tabular output?

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #80 / 210
Number of attempts: 2

Python Hello World! Reformatting - 930 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: 42
Position: #87 / 361
Number of attempts: 3

Shuffle and Sort - 201 entries

The values where sorted incorrectly. Get them back to how they are supposed to be

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #5 / 63
Number of attempts: 5

Complete the circuit grid! - 80 entries

Continuing from the last challenge, add additional rows to the grid. Change each of the names from 'A1'...'A10' to 'B1'...'B10', 'C1'...'C10', etc, and for each new row add 0.7 to the X values in the (X Y) at the end of each line.

Best score: 49
Best player score: 70
Position: #16 / 27
Number of attempts: 3

Stairs Indenting - 442 entries

Indent each line with <line number> whitespaces.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #65 / 191
Number of attempts: 2

Python to Ruby - 193 entries

Convert this Python code to Ruby. NOTE: This program likely won't run.

Best score: 24
Best player score: 27
Position: #20 / 57
Number of attempts: 4

Convert pandoc unordered list to a numbered list - 157 entries

I know it's possible to use #. in pandoc to auto-generate numbered lists, but then it's not easy to tell how many items there are when reading it in Markdown. How fast can you make the switch?

Best score: 20
Best player score: 24
Position: #17 / 55
Number of attempts: 3

Vertical Limit - 2399 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 25
Position: #300 / 727
Number of attempts: 5

Make the circuit grid! - 83 entries

Copy this command for a circuit layout program to create 10 total smd commands. Increment the number in quotes to name each pad, and add 0.7 to each of the (X Y) coordinates at the end of each line.

Best score: 26
Best player score: 26
Position: #7 / 46
Number of attempts: 2

replacing each line of a block selection - 2901 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 21
Position: #308 / 759
Number of attempts: 5

switch variable - 5012 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #81 / 1728
Number of attempts: 3

Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 953 entries

convert an ugly spreadsheet copy/paste into a CSV format.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 36
Position: #106 / 184
Number of attempts: 3

PHP <--> Java class conversion Part 1 - 211 entries

Convert this tiny php class to adequate java one.

Best score: 65
Best player score: 91
Position: #29 / 61
Number of attempts: 4

formatted text to markdown - 181 entries

You're converting some posts from an old blog to markdown. The formatted text is far closer to the finished product than the html markup, so it seems like a good place to start. Word wrapping seems to be the main area for optimization.

Best score: 70
Best player score: 79
Position: #37 / 66
Number of attempts: 2

Make it more readable - 1930 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

Best score: 13
Best player score: 18
Position: #495 / 636
Number of attempts: 1

Line Zipper - 449 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #66 / 209
Number of attempts: 3

PHP Array Syntax -> MailChimp Merge Syntax - 505 entries

I recently needed to send an e-mail to our marketing department listing allowed merge tags for our MailChimp campaigns. The allowed merge tags were determined from a PHP array in one of our PHP classes. I transformed the PHP class to MailChimp's syntax and sent the e-mail. It was, however, a long, laborious process. I'm still fairly new to Vim and would love to see how an expert Vim user would tackle one of my own, real-world problems. Thanks and have fun!

Best score: 23
Best player score: 33
Position: #83 / 146
Number of attempts: 6

Case preserving word replacement - 444 entries

Half way through my project, my people turned into dogs. Now I have to change everything in my source.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #16 / 178
Number of attempts: 5

Complete the hex array data (Part II) - 151 entries

Do not use external tools(e.g. tac, seq) [My interpretation of Rule #7]

Best score: 20
Best player score: 26
Position: #39 / 67
Number of attempts: 1

Sort entries based on date - 359 entries

Sort some entries in a Ledger-file based on date.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #25 / 113
Number of attempts: 5

Generate Fibonacci Numbers - 256 entries

Use your super vim powers to generate Fibonacci Numbers.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 25
Position: #73 / 97
Number of attempts: 1

It'ss tooo coold too typpe todaay - 211 entries

My hands are numb with cold. It's hard to type correctly.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 25
Position: #90 / 96
Number of attempts: 2

HTML to Haml - 838 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

Best score: 23
Best player score: 39
Position: #101 / 201
Number of attempts: 4

Reformat long lines - 336 entries

Rearrange this ruby method call to put each parameter on its own line. Could become a useful macro.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #32 / 130
Number of attempts: 7

Generate English Alphabets - 456 entries

Start with a, get up to z.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 24
Position: #50 / 198
Number of attempts: 3

Numbering a List - 1849 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 19
Position: #217 / 636
Number of attempts: 5

Solve the Sokoban - 161 entries

A wink for all Vimgolfers that play Nethack too.

Best score: 25
Best player score: 32
Position: #55 / 71
Number of attempts: 3

Java Array2List - 218 entries

Convert an java array initializer into a list.

Best score: 67
Best player score: 105
Position: #44 / 82
Number of attempts: 4

The holy-grail may help - 339 entries

Can you find it in less than 20 strokes, Arthur?

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #10 / 204
Number of attempts: 1

Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1202 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: 17
Position: #308 / 394
Number of attempts: 5

82 bottles of beer on the wall - 296 entries

Take them down. (sorry, only 82 bottles because the problem size is limited!)

Best score: 107
Best player score: 132
Position: #74 / 138
Number of attempts: 2

Table Reshuffle - 366 entries

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

Best score: 22
Best player score: 46
Position: #120 / 132
Number of attempts: 2

Reverse and count - 432 entries

Someone typed things upside down and now a Vim ninja needs to reverse the lines and count how many there are.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 24
Position: #48 / 168
Number of attempts: 5

Letters are numbers - 149 entries

Letters and numbers are interchangeable. A lot of programming languages give you simple ways to convert individual letters to hex, binary and decimal but does Vim?

Best score: 20
Best player score: 32
Position: #48 / 73
Number of attempts: 2

Reverse Simple Deletion - 824 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #115 / 450
Number of attempts: 1

Increment, increment, increment.... - 626 entries

Vim likes macros

Best score: 10
Best player score: 12
Position: #113 / 393
Number of attempts: 1

The Cake is a Lie - 1266 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #292 / 506
Number of attempts: 1

Almost encrypted - 196 entries

Convert the first paragraph to be even less readable.

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #64 / 144
Number of attempts: 1

Make Fancy Header - 996 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

Best score: 16
Best player score: 27
Position: #309 / 335
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat most common surnames - 613 entries

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

Best score: 23
Best player score: 33
Position: #121 / 193
Number of attempts: 1

Remember FizzBuzz? - 634 entries

Output FizzBuzz to 100. Start with nothing.

Best score: 39
Best player score: 63
Position: #113 / 173
Number of attempts: 2

Get rid of html tags - 356 entries

Want to read more about Vim's background? Then get rid of those html tags...

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #36 / 213
Number of attempts: 1

Sort and add attributes - 1273 entries

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

Best score: 33
Best player score: 33
Position: #69 / 510
Number of attempts: 4

Braces or Brackets? - 779 entries

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

Best score: 34
Best player score: 41
Position: #83 / 268
Number of attempts: 2

Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3136 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 19
Position: #167 / 699
Number of attempts: 9

Simple text editing with Vim - 11962 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #65 / 3502
Number of attempts: 7

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6336 entries

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

Best score: 32
Best player score: 37
Position: #479 / 1561
Number of attempts: 7

Peter Anselmo
Twitter: @peter_anselmo

I build websites.