VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33236 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: 22
Position: #971 / 7330
Number of attempts: 12

Swap values - 4513 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 15
Position: #868 / 1250
Number of attempts: 2

One number per line - 18559 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 19
Position: #1594 / 3830
Number of attempts: 4

Wget failed to download redirections - 181 entries

Output of a wget session, where 302 where not properly handled due to certificate problems, has been saved to a file. Keep the correct URLs to start again downloading.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 18
Position: #30 / 62
Number of attempts: 4

Separate the lines - 171 entries

Every other line is mixed up. Separate them into their original texts.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 14
Position: #61 / 87
Number of attempts: 1

Split line with dots - 2113 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #240 / 625
Number of attempts: 2

multiple cursor alternative - 1460 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: 25
Position: #297 / 374
Number of attempts: 4

From argument to object - 1448 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: 22
Position: #374 / 443
Number of attempts: 1

Every other line - 2869 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 15
Position: #333 / 695
Number of attempts: 5

Extract argument from function - 2283 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 17
Position: #609 / 739
Number of attempts: 1

Search and Replace 0 - 4766 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #440 / 1578
Number of attempts: 3

That hyphen - 2530 entries

"vim vi improved"

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #123 / 690
Number of attempts: 5

comment and uncomment code inline - 1039 entries

It's very useful to be able to comment out a block of code in a quick edit. And likewise to uncomment the code. This operation often involves multi-line stanzas and even large blocks. With just line-wise navigation and insert mode this would cost you about 4 keystrokes per line. Master this hole of VimGolf and you'll quickly drop your key count in day to day Vim as well.

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #165 / 306
Number of attempts: 3

Just the middle - 11318 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #2174 / 4152
Number of attempts: 1

Team names - 1795 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #1 / 578
Number of attempts: 5

Make HTML List - 997 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

Best score: 33
Best player score: 46
Position: #133 / 265
Number of attempts: 4

Un"finnish"ed Work - 105 entries

Replace å by a, ä by a and ö by o.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #28 / 55
Number of attempts: 1

Todo list specification - 375 entries

The every item on the todo list must be done today. Modify the list to reflect that.

Best score: 37
Best player score: 37
Position: #14 / 171
Number of attempts: 2

Sort yaml structures alphabetically by root key names - 35 entries

sometimes we want to sort structures alphabetically in yaml files

Best score: 31
Best player score: 91
Position: #17 / 17
Number of attempts: 1

Text to HTML Table - 157 entries

Turn the plain text table to an HTML table.

Best score: 52
Best player score: 52
Position: #13 / 46
Number of attempts: 4

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: 41
Position: #67 / 361
Number of attempts: 5

Remember VimGolf Rules ! - 254 entries

Rules, ... and don't forget !

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #63 / 136
Number of attempts: 1

Back to the roots - 47 entries

Johnny has a file with more integers. He wants to change each number with its square root. Can you help him?

Best score: 23
Best player score: 23
Position: #17 / 33
Number of attempts: 1

Missing Library and a Typo - 838 entries

I forgot to add a c library, please add it for me. Also I'm bad at typing so fix my typo too.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 23
Position: #176 / 206
Number of attempts: 2

Basic renumbering - 5514 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 16
Position: #543 / 1249
Number of attempts: 5

Simple addition - 301 entries

The right side of the equation is already there. We just need the left one now.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 15
Position: #94 / 112
Number of attempts: 1

Hidden Message - 74 entries

Find the hidden message and replace all other characters with spaces.

Best score: 33
Best player score: 45
Position: #21 / 28
Number of attempts: 1

create arrows in a list - 98 entries

Add arrow at same distance

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #40 / 67
Number of attempts: 1

Adam's challenge - 928 entries

Change both normal to bold and 4 by 2. Adam Wathan challenge this on twitter . He did it in 11 keystrokes on Sublime.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #35 / 261
Number of attempts: 5

Create Leading Zeros - 208 entries

Create leading zeros only for id columns. Please use generic approach!

Best score: 23
Best player score: 44
Position: #58 / 78
Number of attempts: 2

42-header - 36 entries

Rush 42mexican-standoff at 42 school

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #3 / 13
Number of attempts: 7

Create a table - 318 entries

Convert the given input into a formatted table

Best score: 16
Best player score: 18
Position: #65 / 102
Number of attempts: 2

Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 832 entries

Get rid of the '%' symbols and shift the decimal place. This is the easier version - all the columns line up.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #82 / 283
Number of attempts: 2

Combines all items - 298 entries

For each line that starts with the same number I want to combine its contents

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #119 / 134
Number of attempts: 1

replace 2nd column blanks with values in same column if blank - 226 entries

Where ,SOMELOGB and ,SOMELOGC replaces each /r carriage return if 2nd column is blank. The replace only happens if 2nd column is blank though and should replace up to the non blank row.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 18
Position: #62 / 78
Number of attempts: 1

Vice versa - 7675 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #717 / 2078
Number of attempts: 5

Pretty multi-line bash - 218 entries

Bash line continuations are much prettier when they're column aligned.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 21
Position: #42 / 75
Number of attempts: 3

C Reformatting - 688 entries

You may use Visual mode... or not. #uppercase

Best score: 30
Best player score: 47
Position: #79 / 161
Number of attempts: 4

Sorting a glossary - 118 entries

Sort a glossary. Glossary head contains a header phrase ending with ':' and glossary body has multi line text indented with a tab.

Best score: 6
Best player score: 6
Position: #43 / 76
Number of attempts: 2

Order and join - 913 entries

There's something special about the input order.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #109 / 248
Number of attempts: 4

Paragraph breaks - 497 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #73 / 163
Number of attempts: 2

comments galore - 982 entries

Basic comment reformatting

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #164 / 414
Number of attempts: 2

Replace and keep the case - 405 entries

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

Best score: 26
Best player score: 29
Position: #73 / 114
Number of attempts: 3

Change attribute to getter - 127 entries

Wrap attributes with a getter method.

Best score: 24
Best player score: 25
Position: #35 / 53
Number of attempts: 2

Scrambled numbers - 775 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 23
Position: #86 / 181
Number of attempts: 6

Alsa configuration - 485 entries

I'm tweaking my ~/.asoundrc file!

Best score: 22
Best player score: 23
Position: #56 / 123
Number of attempts: 7

Align commas - 1049 entries

There are 15,000 aligning challenges on vimgolf.com, and they're all exactly the same. I hope this one is a little different.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 17
Position: #161 / 241
Number of attempts: 4

Manual SQL - 114 entries

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

Best score: 49
Best player score: 65
Position: #23 / 44
Number of attempts: 5

mp3 - Cutlist - 28 entries

An audio CD was accidentally ripped into one single mp3 file. A dummy cue-file now needs to be filled out with the correct values to get single mp3 files.

Best score: 67
Best player score: 115
Position: #5 / 11
Number of attempts: 1

Hello ${world} - 298 entries

Migrate a JavaScript String from concatenation to ES6 interpolation.

Best score: 24
Best player score: 27
Position: #52 / 93
Number of attempts: 4

Array transposition - 2345 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 18
Position: #186 / 439
Number of attempts: 10

Mirror Symmetry - 793 entries

Add backslashes.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 13
Position: #211 / 265
Number of attempts: 2

From A to B - 562 entries

Mirror and change this text block

Best score: 16
Best player score: 21
Position: #120 / 154
Number of attempts: 3

Collect List - 4228 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #210 / 1179
Number of attempts: 9

camel riding - 765 entries

add a prefix on some camelCase variables

Best score: 15
Best player score: 18
Position: #233 / 273
Number of attempts: 1

readability - 310 entries

Make the code readable by adding some spaces

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #70 / 147
Number of attempts: 3

Interleave lines - 143 entries

This is some kind of « paste -d'\n' c b a ». There are many ways to achieve this.. just find the shortest!

Best score: 17
Best player score: 35
Position: #43 / 56
Number of attempts: 4

Space out the alphabet - 1610 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #191 / 438
Number of attempts: 4

remove all lines in first part - 190 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: 15
Position: #29 / 65
Number of attempts: 4

Merge blank lines and properly capitalize - 72 entries

Here you need complete 2 tasks: 1. Remove all unwanted continuous blank lines and leave only 1 blank line between paragraphs. 2. Properly capitalize the sentences.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 43
Position: #16 / 22
Number of attempts: 1

Fix the XML - 962 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 32
Position: #252 / 280
Number of attempts: 1

Line 'em up! - 387 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: 30
Position: #89 / 108
Number of attempts: 1

Mute the second method of this script - 447 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #110 / 237
Number of attempts: 3

Condensed Cases - 777 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: 13
Position: #91 / 240
Number of attempts: 3

increment by column in XML - 146 entries

modify an arbitrary "column" in an xml table by incrementing a an arbitrary placeholder string

Best score: 19
Best player score: 26
Position: #38 / 53
Number of attempts: 2

Pretty format for variable declarations - 150 entries

Project standards demand the equal signs must be aligned for better readability.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 19
Position: #47 / 59
Number of attempts: 2

Happy TvvO - 396 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #111 / 197
Number of attempts: 4

I forgot quotes - 15880 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 12
Position: #1276 / 4146
Number of attempts: 2

-a-b-c- - 3160 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #160 / 1124
Number of attempts: 4

Suffix sort - 244 entries

Sort from the end of the line, as if the letters in each line were reversed.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 24
Position: #34 / 64
Number of attempts: 3

NBCU Weekly Challenge - Test - 243 entries

Just testing.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #52 / 114
Number of attempts: 2

Gray area - 713 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #16 / 265
Number of attempts: 5

Don't know what this is - 1961 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: 12
Position: #207 / 576
Number of attempts: 10

Mess in revision history - 1157 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 30
Position: #203 / 245
Number of attempts: 1

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10584 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #954 / 3653
Number of attempts: 4

attr_aligner - 3408 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 23
Position: #223 / 689
Number of attempts: 10

Letter case trickery - 1588 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 / 509
Number of attempts: 5

quotes inside quotes - 3105 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: 15
Position: #469 / 1066
Number of attempts: 2

Words in parens - 12821 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 16
Position: #2301 / 3938
Number of attempts: 1

Block Fun 1 - 188 entries

Manipulate the columns to produce desired result.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 25
Position: #62 / 72
Number of attempts: 3

abcd > a b c d - 279 entries

transform the single spaces into 4 spaces repeat for each line

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #163 / 217
Number of attempts: 1

NATO phonetic alphabet - 498 entries

Transform the series of words into a list.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 22
Position: #116 / 189
Number of attempts: 1

Extract text from xml - 106 entries

Extract text from xml file (ignoring commented out elements) and create a one line regex.

Best score: 28
Best player score: 28
Position: #5 / 43
Number of attempts: 5

SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1550 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: #232 / 435
Number of attempts: 5

Saving the hashes(#) - 1977 entries

The following file is copied from vimcasts.org(Its only for learning purpose,hope the site owner doesn't mind it), its probably the easiest of challenges.Our goal is to delete every line which doesn't contain a hash signs. The remaining hash signs with numbers are then sorted to get the final output.

Best score: 20
Best player score: 25
Position: #179 / 470
Number of attempts: 6

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: 48
Position: #51 / 55
Number of attempts: 1

Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1066 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 9
Position: #299 / 436
Number of attempts: 2

Enharmonic Equivalents - 55 entries

Transform # and b to digraphs

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #12 / 34
Number of attempts: 2

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: #356 / 727
Number of attempts: 7

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: #390 / 759
Number of attempts: 4

Switch function arguments - 2019 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #289 / 637
Number of attempts: 3

Append semicolon after expressions - 986 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #229 / 397
Number of attempts: 5

Reverse and double space - 475 entries

Reverse the order of the given lines and double space everything

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #80 / 191
Number of attempts: 4

Remove semicolons after expressions - 602 entries

A follow-up for http://vimgolf.com/challenges/4fc9d767d3a0d4000100000e.

Best score: 6
Best player score: 8
Position: #217 / 253
Number of attempts: 2

switch variable - 5012 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #884 / 1728
Number of attempts: 6

Make it more readable - 1930 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

Best score: 13
Best player score: 17
Position: #471 / 636
Number of attempts: 4

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: 23
Position: #65 / 96
Number of attempts: 2

Numbering a List - 1849 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #24 / 636
Number of attempts: 7

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: 12
Position: #82 / 394
Number of attempts: 7

Shebangs for all - 1846 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: #365 / 486
Number of attempts: 3

A Simple One - 978 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: #456 / 636
Number of attempts: 1

Ruby 1.9 compat - 608 entries

Remember when Ruby supported `when <expr> :`? Well, it doesn't in 1.9, so let's make sure we use `then`, without ruining our lovely new hash syntax!

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #111 / 229
Number of attempts: 5

Reverse Simple Deletion - 824 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #322 / 450
Number of attempts: 2

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

Vim likes macros

Best score: 10
Best player score: 12
Position: #315 / 393
Number of attempts: 2

The Cake is a Lie - 1266 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #236 / 506
Number of attempts: 2

Make Fancy Header - 996 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #109 / 335
Number of attempts: 3

Reverse characters in a line - 701 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: 13
Position: #68 / 248
Number of attempts: 6

Reformat most common surnames - 613 entries

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

Best score: 23
Best player score: 42
Position: #157 / 193
Number of attempts: 1

Change the content of a string - 1425 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #158 / 542
Number of attempts: 5

Sort and add attributes - 1273 entries

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

Best score: 33
Best player score: 34
Position: #332 / 510
Number of attempts: 2

Reconstruct the Sentence - 1265 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: #209 / 366
Number of attempts: 4

Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3136 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 31
Position: #497 / 699
Number of attempts: 1

Flodder-challenge - 1006 entries

Replace the text the most efficient and win!

Best score: 27
Best player score: 33
Position: #98 / 294
Number of attempts: 4

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: #527 / 1561
Number of attempts: 2

Contributed Challenges

Add Go XML to structure tags - 151 entries

The Go programming language can directly map XML to structure fields. Add the correct XML tag after each field.