VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Real Vim ninjas count every keystroke - do you?

Pick a challenge, fire up Vim, and show us what you got.

Changelog, Rules & FAQ, updates: @vimgolf, RSS.

Your VimGolf key: please sign in

$ gem install vimgolf
$ vimgolf setup
$ vimgolf put [challenge ID]

Played Challenges

Simple, Practical, and Common - 34012 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: 25
Position: #3390 / 7513
Number of attempts: 8

Swap values - 4705 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 14
Position: #777 / 1293
Number of attempts: 3

One number per line - 18903 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 17
Position: #1280 / 3904
Number of attempts: 9

Swap values inside brackets - 2551 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 16
Position: #264 / 594
Number of attempts: 8

V to the i - 4883 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 7
Position: #675 / 1914
Number of attempts: 6

Add semicolons - 10956 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #200 / 3098
Number of attempts: 5

Split line with dots - 2175 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 32
Position: #610 / 639
Number of attempts: 4

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3652 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #280 / 1185
Number of attempts: 4

Box it - 8003 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #190 / 1901
Number of attempts: 7

Every other line - 2951 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 16
Position: #411 / 712
Number of attempts: 9

Copy three lines - 2923 entries

If the site is up (by some miracle), make the text under every header identical.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 19
Position: #390 / 647
Number of attempts: 6

Search and Replace 0 - 5159 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #613 / 1674
Number of attempts: 5

comment and uncomment code inline - 1182 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: #125 / 332
Number of attempts: 8

Just the middle - 11616 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 7
Position: #1282 / 4255
Number of attempts: 3

Team names - 1861 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 19
Position: #463 / 596
Number of attempts: 4

Basic renumbering - 5733 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #187 / 1279
Number of attempts: 19

Adam's challenge - 1042 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: 26
Position: #256 / 281
Number of attempts: 1

Wrap text in quotes - 378 entries

All the blocks of text should be wrapped in quotation marks.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #41 / 124
Number of attempts: 8

Vice versa - 8019 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 16
Position: #1403 / 2157
Number of attempts: 3

One to Ten - 2258 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: 12
Position: #174 / 688
Number of attempts: 5

Delete to the end of the current line - 882 entries

Delete to the end of the current line, but keep the character under the cursor.

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #172 / 418
Number of attempts: 3

Array transposition - 2481 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 27
Position: #332 / 461
Number of attempts: 5

Collect List - 4341 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #444 / 1200
Number of attempts: 4

Mute the second method of this script - 463 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

Best score: 8
Best player score: 9
Position: #135 / 244
Number of attempts: 2

I forgot quotes - 16237 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 16
Position: #2711 / 4224
Number of attempts: 6

Don't know what this is - 2066 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: #232 / 594
Number of attempts: 5

Mess in revision history - 1233 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 25
Position: #150 / 258
Number of attempts: 10

quotes inside quotes - 3202 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: #663 / 1093
Number of attempts: 4

Words in parens - 13053 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #1763 / 3991
Number of attempts: 3

The name of the game - 696 entries

End up with the name of the game.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #250 / 369
Number of attempts: 3

Vertical Limit - 2637 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #80 / 778
Number of attempts: 4

replacing each line of a block selection - 3067 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 30
Position: #673 / 789
Number of attempts: 2

Remove noise from HTTP log - 758 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: #131 / 281
Number of attempts: 4

switch variable - 5128 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 14
Position: #1451 / 1764
Number of attempts: 1

Numbering a List - 1969 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #45 / 661
Number of attempts: 2

Assignment Alignment - 909 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 22
Position: #105 / 226
Number of attempts: 2

Shebangs for all - 2101 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: 11
Position: #55 / 532
Number of attempts: 16

Reverse Simple Deletion - 871 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #44 / 465
Number of attempts: 5

The Cake is a Lie - 1416 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 8
Best player score: 9
Position: #252 / 542
Number of attempts: 6

Change the content of a string - 1799 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #184 / 655
Number of attempts: 4

Sort and add attributes - 1591 entries

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

Best score: 33
Best player score: 33
Position: #225 / 615
Number of attempts: 3

Simple text editing with Vim - 13626 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #1844 / 3902
Number of attempts: 3

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7681 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 43
Position: #1124 / 1889
Number of attempts: 2

Brandon Harrison
Twitter: @llAboutB

Texas Alpha Phi Kappa Psi

entered into 43 challenges

contributed 0 challenges