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 - 33385 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: #1300 / 7364
  • Number of attempts: 12
Swap values - 4543 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #721 / 1257
  • Number of attempts: 4
One number per line - 18616 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #1887 / 3842
  • Number of attempts: 4
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #322 / 569
  • 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: 7
  • Position: #538 / 1879
  • Number of attempts: 6
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: #293 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add semicolons - 10792 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #878 / 3044
  • Number of attempts: 2
Box it - 7827 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #137 / 1864
  • Number of attempts: 4
From argument to object - 1474 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: 21
  • Position: #367 / 450
  • Number of attempts: 1
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #10 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 10
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: 16
  • Position: #263 / 635
  • Number of attempts: 3
Array propagate - 319 entries

Complete the array with the keys as part of the value

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #7 / 115
  • Number of attempts: 7
Search and Replace 0 - 4790 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #506 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 4
That hyphen - 2556 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #470 / 695
  • Number of attempts: 2
comment and uncomment code inline - 1069 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: 9
  • Position: #82 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 4
Just the middle - 11360 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #2575 / 4164
  • Number of attempts: 4
Extract HTML option values from tag values - 98 entries

Generate HTML option values from the text in the option tag. If the text contains multiple words, replace the spaces with an underscore and convert all capital letters to small letters.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 45
  • Position: #41 / 42
  • Number of attempts: 2
Make HTML List - 1039 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 47
  • Position: #151 / 271
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sort yaml structures alphabetically by root key names - 38 entries

sometimes we want to sort structures alphabetically in yaml files

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 57
  • Position: #15 / 18
  • Number of attempts: 2
Python Hello World! Reformatting - 938 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: #68 / 364
  • Number of attempts: 4
Remember VimGolf Rules ! - 257 entries

Rules, ... and don't forget !

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #25 / 138
  • Number of attempts: 6
Missing Library and a Typo - 856 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: 21
  • Position: #160 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 6
Basic renumbering - 5587 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #1044 / 1258
  • Number of attempts: 1
Adam's challenge - 957 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: #62 / 266
  • Number of attempts: 9
Vice versa - 7803 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #336 / 2100
  • Number of attempts: 15
Free hyphen! - 159 entries

Just like "Inner hyphens", but I'm giving you a free hyphen to play with. Will your solution be any different?

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #17 / 85
  • Number of attempts: 2
Paragraph sort - 430 entries

My large herbivorous mammals, Vim commands, and POSIX utilities need to be sorted separately.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #64 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 2
Sorting a glossary - 123 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: #57 / 78
  • Number of attempts: 2
Paragraph breaks - 505 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #30 / 165
  • Number of attempts: 6
comments galore - 998 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #240 / 418
  • Number of attempts: 2
Scrambled numbers - 779 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #145 / 182
  • Number of attempts: 4
convert yml into java pojo field - 829 entries

How fast vim can create fields for java pojo i.e class declaration referring to a (simple) yml file

  • Best score: 29
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #14 / 223
  • Number of attempts: 5
Collect List - 4264 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #972 / 1186
  • Number of attempts: 1
VimGolfNight - 536 entries

Based on "The name of the game".

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #255 / 343
  • Number of attempts: 1
ASCII box - 325 entries

Don't forget to fix typos!

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #70 / 104
  • Number of attempts: 2
I forgot quotes - 15931 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #2210 / 4161
  • Number of attempts: 6
learn vim in short time - 232 entries

so happy to learn vim.because vim is awesome

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #102 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 2
-a-b-c- - 3176 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #836 / 1129
  • Number of attempts: 3
Gray area - 732 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #105 / 268
  • Number of attempts: 3
Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1120 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 32
  • Position: #278 / 293
  • Number of attempts: 1
Where should I put the Newline? - 863 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #196 / 431
  • Number of attempts: 2
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10624 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1214 / 3666
  • Number of attempts: 4
Letter case trickery - 1594 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: 13
  • Position: #407 / 511
  • Number of attempts: 2
quotes inside quotes - 3125 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: 14
  • Position: #284 / 1072
  • Number of attempts: 4
Words in parens - 12858 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1648 / 3946
  • Number of attempts: 2
Minimalist Limerick - 516 entries

Reproduce this lovely poem.

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #68 / 171
  • Number of attempts: 5
lamb had a little Mary - 586 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 44
  • Position: #151 / 163
  • Number of attempts: 1
Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1091 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #305 / 441
  • Number of attempts: 2
replacing each line of a block selection - 2947 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #654 / 768
  • Number of attempts: 1
Remove noise from HTTP log - 695 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: 15
  • Position: #115 / 270
  • Number of attempts: 4
switch variable - 5036 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #492 / 1736
  • Number of attempts: 4
Make it more readable - 1952 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #299 / 640
  • Number of attempts: 3
Shebangs for all - 1912 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: 12
  • Position: #147 / 500
  • Number of attempts: 8
A Simple One - 1001 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: #463 / 643
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reverse Simple Deletion - 832 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #40 / 454
  • Number of attempts: 2
Make Fancy Header - 1014 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #194 / 338
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reformat some Python - 579 entries

Fix some very bizarrely laid-out code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #59 / 229
  • Number of attempts: 9
Change the content of a string - 1476 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #173 / 558
  • Number of attempts: 4
Simple text editing with Vim - 12286 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #522 / 3581
  • Number of attempts: 14
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entered into 59 challenges

contributed 0 challenges