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

EDN reformat - 1026 entries

The goal is to make the code more readable and concise while maintaining its functionality.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #76 / 144
  • Number of attempts: 1
Poorly indented Python comments - 1160 entries

Fix the alignment of some Python comments as quickly as possible.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #85 / 202
  • Number of attempts: 2
Many duplicates - 1251 entries

Quick and easy

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #74 / 410
  • Number of attempts: 1
2 quick changes and a numbered list - 599 entries

The ascii will not be lost, but rather numbered in 4 digit blocks with leading zeros.

  • Best score: 37
  • Best player score: 56
  • Position: #95 / 145
  • Number of attempts: 1
delete swap - 1522 entries

delete all swap

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #341 / 476
  • Number of attempts: 1
Generate a very basic Python constructor (fixed) - 1172 entries

Original by @BiddulphCaleb (http://www.vimgolf.com/challenges/6019f1c4642668000cee11e8) - had some extra spaces in output file.

  • Best score: 29
  • Best player score: 41
  • Position: #103 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 3
Fix the shell script! - 2328 entries

Fix the shell script with the fewest keystrokes!

  • Best score: 26
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #86 / 539
  • Number of attempts: 5
Visual block training - 1001 entries

You see the input. You see the output. Go.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #72 / 183
  • Number of attempts: 4
Put a newline after every 10 lines in vim - 1574 entries

Goal is to put a newline after every 10 lines in vim.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #130 / 523
  • Number of attempts: 3
Fill in the chess board - 905 entries

Fill in the name of each square using its file (a-h) and rank (1-8).

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #95 / 175
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make list of numbers from 1 to 30 more compact, but more confusing - 90 entries

Change the naming logic of numbers to end up with less lines.

  • Best score: 74
  • Best player score: 91
  • Position: #10 / 36
  • Number of attempts: 5
Change double quotes to single quotes, but with a twist - 281 entries

Although this challenge is in the context of a Python function, you don't need to know Python to do this challenge. It is to add contexts and interesting constraints. The file contains a function that prints a multi-line string literal. I wrote the string literal with double quotes, but then I decided to use single quotes instead, and that's your challenge. However, interestingly enough, the string itself contains single and double quotes. This means, inside the string literal, the originally escaped double quotes no longer need to be escaped, but the single quotes now need to be escaped. Note that the triple double quotes in the docstring should be left alone.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #3 / 53
  • Number of attempts: 4
C to python code snippet - 78 entries

C code can be easily translated into Python code. However, the difference in syntax can make this process tedious and time-consuming. Can Vim help you here?

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 53
  • Position: #10 / 27
  • Number of attempts: 10
Python: Def to Lambda - 423 entries

LAMBDA!!!

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #102 / 149
  • Number of attempts: 1
Turn the x - 297 entries

Turn the x to a +

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #24 / 77
  • Number of attempts: 1
Format the CSS - 115 entries

You just copied some CSS color names from the web and need to add them to your python module. Create the COLORS variable and assign a dict() with the names as keys and hex-colors as values. BEWARE OF THE TABS!!

  • Best score: 41
  • Best player score: 43
  • Position: #12 / 43
  • Number of attempts: 2
Rural Post - 4362 entries

Simple challenge to remove all but the post code on each line

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #474 / 1071
  • Number of attempts: 5
Levenshtein distance - 104 entries

Compute distance for each pair. Notice that this recursive implementation is very inefficient. Wagner-Fischer algorithm is iterative and much faster. #vimscript

  • Best score: 27
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #28 / 36
  • Number of attempts: 1
Satisfy the go linter - 2328 entries

You just came up with this briliant go vars package. But dang, you forgot to add comments to the exported variables. Can you add a comment over each variable with a TODO-placeholder?

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #324 / 456
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add quotes to ansible playbook - 926 entries

You created an ansible playbook, but forgot to add quotes. Can you fix it?

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #219 / 295
  • Number of attempts: 1
Multiline to Single Line - 668 entries

Convert a multiline, indented file to a single line with no whitespace

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #66 / 292
  • Number of attempts: 1
Data reformat - 271 entries

Reformat this copy-paste data! #csv

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #21 / 60
  • Number of attempts: 3
xrandr outputs and dashes - 652 entries

uh oh, different video drivers identify display outputs with more dashes. Quick, need to change this xrandr script!

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #194 / 213
  • Number of attempts: 1
From a Thunderlink to a Markdown link - 747 entries

ThunderLinks are durable hyperlinks to specific email messages generated from Thunderbird in HTML format. Leverage the power of vim to make them suitable for a markdown-formatted file.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #108 / 166
  • Number of attempts: 2
Capitalize the Names - 361 entries

I want to capitalize the names in quotes, but just the people's names, not the file names.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #49 / 91
  • Number of attempts: 2
Yo To Hello - 1112 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #192 / 516
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 27
  • Position: #107 / 225
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple, Practical, and Common - 33379 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: 29
  • Position: #4921 / 7363
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 22
  • Position: #151 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 16
  • Position: #110 / 196
  • Number of attempts: 3
Swap values - 4543 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #408 / 1257
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 11
  • Position: #610 / 1517
  • Number of attempts: 4
One number per line - 18616 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #2775 / 3842
  • Number of attempts: 1
Right Align Part of the line - 117 entries

The challenge is to right align a part of the line - this is useful in some SQL queries where it's more clear which are the fields displayed

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #28 / 38
  • Number of attempts: 3
Quote modules - 1053 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #105 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 7
add line and index - 88 entries

a missed line and index names need to be added

  • Best score: 44
  • Best player score: 49
  • Position: #12 / 27
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 45
  • Position: #73 / 150
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #266 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 10
  • Position: #139 / 224
  • Number of attempts: 3
V to the i - 4751 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1457 / 1879
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 14
  • Position: #464 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add string initializers to an enum - 862 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #91 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 20
  • Position: #96 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 3
Add semicolons - 10792 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1528 / 3044
  • Number of attempts: 3
Bad Copy Syntax - 2001 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #296 / 516
  • Number of attempts: 1
Split line with dots - 2125 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #73 / 630
  • Number of attempts: 5
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3537 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #787 / 1144
  • Number of attempts: 1
Com(m)a Trouble - 3668 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #310 / 826
  • Number of attempts: 4
Box it - 7827 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #1101 / 1864
  • Number of attempts: 2
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #290 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: #166 / 635
  • Number of attempts: 5
Just the middle - 11358 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #2240 / 4163
  • Number of attempts: 2
Team names - 1805 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #263 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 2
Basic renumbering - 5587 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #230 / 1258
  • Number of attempts: 6
ninja substitution - 1372 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #155 / 261
  • Number of attempts: 4
Vice versa - 7797 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #561 / 2099
  • Number of attempts: 4
C Reformatting - 688 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 57
  • Position: #110 / 161
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: #494 / 662
  • Number of attempts: 1
Line under headers - 2004 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #232 / 496
  • Number of attempts: 4
Increment each number - 977 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #79 / 242
  • Number of attempts: 6
Put the months in order - 932 entries

Our contractor thought that months should be in alphabetical order. Put them in calendar order please.

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #34 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reorder the groups - 1137 entries

Change the order so that the groups of fruit come before the vegetables.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #114 / 259
  • Number of attempts: 3
Array transposition - 2378 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #163 / 443
  • Number of attempts: 5
Collect List - 4264 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #664 / 1186
  • Number of attempts: 4
I forgot quotes - 15931 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #2352 / 4161
  • Number of attempts: 1
-a-b-c- - 3176 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #410 / 1129
  • Number of attempts: 4
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10624 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #2456 / 3666
  • Number of attempts: 2
attr_aligner - 3444 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #188 / 692
  • Number of attempts: 15
Words in parens - 12854 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1823 / 3945
  • Number of attempts: 3
Alphabet soup - 419 entries

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

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #65 / 103
  • Number of attempts: 4
switch variable - 5031 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #978 / 1735
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple text editing with Vim - 12281 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1836 / 3580
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6557 entries

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

  • Best score: 32
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #464 / 1614
  • Number of attempts: 2
Martin Bielik
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Full-stack software engineer • OSS and AI enthusiast

entered into 73 challenges

contributed 0 challenges