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

Paste a column after a column - 2171 entries

This task is very common while using multi-cursor. What is the elegant vim way ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #122 / 465
  • Number of attempts: 2
Many duplicates - 1218 entries

Quick and easy

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #169 / 397
  • Number of attempts: 1
2 quick changes and a numbered list - 580 entries

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

  • Best score: 37
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #6 / 141
  • Number of attempts: 4
delete swap - 1466 entries

delete all swap

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #54 / 465
  • Number of attempts: 2
hello-world-vimgolf - 2311 entries

Simple number generation

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #234 / 653
  • Number of attempts: 1
Making 3 line function a one liner. - 303 entries

Simple challenge for frequent action while programming.

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 4
  • Position: #113 / 193
  • Number of attempts: 1
swap number pairs - 2002 entries

Swap the numbers in a bunch of 2-element arrays.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #84 / 369
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: #7 / 53
  • Number of attempts: 10
Rural Post - 4352 entries

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

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #325 / 1066
  • 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: 12
  • Position: #48 / 213
  • Number of attempts: 4
From a Thunderlink to a Markdown link - 738 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: 18
  • Position: #23 / 165
  • Number of attempts: 10
Yo To Hello - 1107 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #136 / 512
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple, Practical, and Common - 33354 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: #1612 / 7358
  • Number of attempts: 9
Swap values - 4535 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #493 / 1255
  • Number of attempts: 3
prepend * to every non-blank line - 6202 entries

Prepend an asterisk to every non-blank line in the input file.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #215 / 1514
  • Number of attempts: 10
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge2 - 189 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #31 / 99
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #13 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: 9
  • Position: #42 / 224
  • Number of attempts: 6
V to the i - 4743 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #683 / 1878
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 13
  • Position: #96 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 6
Add string initializers to an enum - 862 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #21 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 8
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1177 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: 19
  • Position: #15 / 243
  • Number of attempts: 9
Add semicolons - 10785 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #153 / 3042
  • Number of attempts: 5
Bad Copy Syntax - 1999 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #118 / 514
  • Number of attempts: 4
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3528 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #66 / 1142
  • Number of attempts: 6
Com(m)a Trouble - 3654 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #18 / 821
  • Number of attempts: 6
Extract wireshark capture filter - 198 entries

Extract wireshark capture filter from IP plan

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #22 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 3
Box it - 7818 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #205 / 1861
  • Number of attempts: 6
Cool or not? - 793 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #49 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 2
multiple cursor alternative - 1474 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: 19
  • Position: #76 / 376
  • Number of attempts: 4
html paragraph to table - 590 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 49
  • Position: #27 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 10
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: 17
  • Position: #122 / 450
  • Number of attempts: 3
Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 735 entries

Clean and group.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #37 / 174
  • Number of attempts: 7
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #47 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 7
Copy three lines - 2839 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #143 / 634
  • Number of attempts: 8
Extract argument from function - 2308 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #240 / 742
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 4790 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #617 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 3
Preferably without multi-cursor plugin - 538 entries

Originally asked as question on reddit by kpthunder: https://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/9fvsro/what_is_the_most_efficient_way_to_go_about/

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #28 / 127
  • Number of attempts: 4
That hyphen - 2554 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #216 / 694
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: #128 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 3
Just the middle - 11346 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #1191 / 4160
  • Number of attempts: 8
Team names - 1805 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #242 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 2
Learn some german verbs - 531 entries

The list needs to be structured so we can print in verbatim and feel ok about how it looks.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #43 / 131
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: 15
  • Position: #20 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 4
Basic renumbering - 5584 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #195 / 1257
  • Number of attempts: 2
Adam's challenge - 950 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: #88 / 265
  • Number of attempts: 5
Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 840 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: #136 / 287
  • Number of attempts: 3
ninja substitution - 1372 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #49 / 261
  • Number of attempts: 15
Vice versa - 7778 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #497 / 2095
  • Number of attempts: 6
Order and join - 948 entries

There's something special about the input order.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #67 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 11
  • Position: #84 / 241
  • Number of attempts: 8
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge4 - 88 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #28 / 61
  • Number of attempts: 1
One to Ten - 2159 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: #189 / 660
  • Number of attempts: 2
Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 639 entries

Change the middle part of the function name in multiple places, preferably using the next and dot commands.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #18 / 203
  • Number of attempts: 7
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge5 - 137 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #21 / 73
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat Cura settings - 112 entries

Cura settings are weirdly encoded... After mere replacements, you'll have to enquote two strings (infill_pattern & speed_travel) and dont forget booleans in lowercase. #format #json

  • Best score: 50
  • Best player score: 51
  • Position: #8 / 21
  • Number of attempts: 7
Line under headers - 1996 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #124 / 494
  • Number of attempts: 8
Comparing Schema With Diff - 50 entries

Sometimes databases output things differently one to another. Fixing things that are out of order will make the diffs more usable.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #5 / 8
  • Number of attempts: 5
Increment each number - 977 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #38 / 242
  • Number of attempts: 9
simple format (3) - 72 entries

reverse two column values!

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #8 / 21
  • Number of attempts: 6
Around the clock - 188 entries

You'll want to use 2 special commands to complete this. If you haven't yet, read through 'input.txt', especially :help simple-changes

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #28 / 74
  • Number of attempts: 2
Join 'em - 247 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #113 / 147
  • Number of attempts: 1
Delete to the end of the current line - 738 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #33 / 363
  • Number of attempts: 3
Song Transcription Oops - 234 entries

When transcribing vocal music to Canjo Tab you can start by finding the lowest note and assigning that to zero and working your way up from there. However, without fail, I tend to miscount the notes and when I am near done I find a lower note. I mark this with a "z". This means I have to increase all the previous ones by 1. just a sting of numbers :)

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #36 / 75
  • Number of attempts: 6
change parenthesis - 278 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #128 / 156
  • Number of attempts: 1
Remove quotes after first field - 353 entries

Remove the quotes around each field except for the first field.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #19 / 87
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: 20
  • Position: #8 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 21
Reorder the groups - 1137 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #50 / 259
  • Number of attempts: 13
move titles next to url, in quotes - 504 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #18 / 135
  • Number of attempts: 3
Array transposition - 2378 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #148 / 443
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: #75 / 223
  • Number of attempts: 4
Simple format (2) - 334 entries

try again!

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #13 / 69
  • Number of attempts: 6
Collect List - 4261 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #449 / 1185
  • Number of attempts: 3
I forgot quotes - 15923 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #822 / 4159
  • Number of attempts: 7
-a-b-c- - 3170 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #268 / 1127
  • Number of attempts: 6
NBCU Weekly Challenge - Test - 243 entries

Just testing.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #56 / 114
  • Number of attempts: 3
Don't know what this is - 1978 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: 11
  • Position: #120 / 578
  • Number of attempts: 5
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10616 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1436 / 3663
  • Number of attempts: 3
quotes inside quotes - 3124 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: #329 / 1071
  • Number of attempts: 1
Words in parens - 12850 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1697 / 3944
  • Number of attempts: 6
ASCII-art Histogram - 310 entries

Create an ASCCI-art histogram for the given numbers. Make sure not to leave trailing whitespaces. Thanks to VimGolf I recently discovered a feature of Vim thAT blew my mind. I'm curious to see what real ninjas make of it ;-)

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #19 / 55
  • Number of attempts: 10
Saving the hashes(#) - 1992 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: 20
  • Position: #65 / 473
  • Number of attempts: 6
calculations - 262 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #29 / 64
  • Number of attempts: 6
Vertical Limit - 2436 entries

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

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #83 / 735
  • Number of attempts: 7
replacing each line of a block selection - 2925 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #116 / 764
  • Number of attempts: 4
Switch function arguments - 2064 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #309 / 647
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5028 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #575 / 1734
  • Number of attempts: 3
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3290 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #17 / 729
  • Number of attempts: 8
Simple text editing with Vim - 12233 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #600 / 3567
  • Number of attempts: 2
Mario Olofo
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entered into 89 challenges

contributed 0 challenges