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 - 33585 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: #151 / 7408
  • Number of attempts: 6
Wrap the text of an email message to 79 characters - 753 entries

You're replying to an email with silly long lines. Clean them up.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #384 / 406
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 4973 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #103 / 1619
  • Number of attempts: 4
Just the middle - 11423 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #56 / 4185
  • Number of attempts: 3
Interweave two blocks of text - 659 entries

Suppose you've got data on a list of things from multiple sources. They're all in separate chunks, so how might you create a tabular output?

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #72 / 214
  • Number of attempts: 3
Array of characters - 175 entries

We all copy paste things off the internet, but the syntax doesn't look right. Fix it as fast as possible.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #24 / 47
  • Number of attempts: 5
Cartesian product - 248 entries

{1,2,3,4,5} X {1,2,3,4,5}

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #57 / 94
  • Number of attempts: 3
increment by column in XML - 152 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #13 / 55
  • Number of attempts: 3
range(10) digit rotation - 38 entries

This is a data generator challenge or some kind of gift..

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #2 / 22
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 15974 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #54 / 4175
  • Number of attempts: 5
Neither Fizz nor Buzz - 253 entries

Not your regular increment macro! The gaps are tricky.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #19 / 103
  • Number of attempts: 3
Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1158 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #11 / 300
  • Number of attempts: 5
Where should I put the Newline? - 881 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #6 / 437
  • Number of attempts: 4
Shuffle puzzle - 346 entries

Sort the lines in each indent group, and sort the groups. That's the pattern. Or just move lines around manually to get a better score.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #8 / 104
  • Number of attempts: 5
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10657 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #281 / 3679
  • Number of attempts: 5
Words in parens - 12928 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #3638 / 3960
  • Number of attempts: 2
Recursively Palindrome - 267 entries

Note that there are 2^6-1 characters.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #39 / 75
  • Number of attempts: 2
Exchanging Quotes - 854 entries

Sometimes you need to exchange a choice of quotes in some code.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 55
  • Position: #221 / 229
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 2998 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #297 / 776
  • Number of attempts: 2
switch variable - 5068 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #2 / 1747
  • Number of attempts: 2
The meaning - 574 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #2 / 362
  • Number of attempts: 1
Multiplication table. - 232 entries

Create a multiplication table.

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 77
  • Position: #37 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 2
Make it more readable - 1988 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #117 / 647
  • Number of attempts: 3
Line Zipper - 472 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #101 / 214
  • Number of attempts: 2
PHP Array Syntax -> MailChimp Merge Syntax - 545 entries

I recently needed to send an e-mail to our marketing department listing allowed merge tags for our MailChimp campaigns. The allowed merge tags were determined from a PHP array in one of our PHP classes. I transformed the PHP class to MailChimp's syntax and sent the e-mail. It was, however, a long, laborious process. I'm still fairly new to Vim and would love to see how an expert Vim user would tackle one of my own, real-world problems. Thanks and have fun!

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #82 / 150
  • Number of attempts: 3
Complete the hex array data - 197 entries

Do not use external tools(e.g. tac, seq) [My interpretation of Rule #7]

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #23 / 74
  • Number of attempts: 2
Case preserving word replacement - 454 entries

Half way through my project, my people turned into dogs. Now I have to change everything in my source.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #6 / 180
  • Number of attempts: 2
Complete the hex array data (Part II) - 166 entries

Do not use external tools(e.g. tac, seq) [My interpretation of Rule #7]

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #12 / 69
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sort entries based on date - 392 entries

Sort some entries in a Ledger-file based on date.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #3 / 117
  • Number of attempts: 3
Refactor to Helpers - 50 entries

This Rails partial is almost all template escapes. Put it into a helper, and refactor each case to methods so we can build out the controls for each. (I've converted to tabs - fighting with Vimgolf's default config shouldn't be part of the challenge.)

  • Best score: 147
  • Best player score: 855
  • Position: #24 / 25
  • Number of attempts: 1
imports alignment (python) - 700 entries

Align as one import per line.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #174 / 198
  • Number of attempts: 1
Rotating Philosophers Problem - 410 entries

Can you help the philosophers find a good place to sit before they get five forks and spaghetti?

  • Best score: 29
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #126 / 166
  • Number of attempts: 1
HTML to Haml - 878 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 49
  • Position: #166 / 204
  • Number of attempts: 1
expand a list comprehension (python) - 333 entries

Please show your way to convert a list comprehension in python to an ordinary for-loop expression!

  • Best score: 42
  • Best player score: 73
  • Position: #102 / 109
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat long lines - 358 entries

Rearrange this ruby method call to put each parameter on its own line. Could become a useful macro.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #3 / 134
  • Number of attempts: 4
Numbering a List - 1931 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #156 / 652
  • Number of attempts: 2
Java Array2List - 233 entries

Convert an java array initializer into a list.

  • Best score: 67
  • Best player score: 84
  • Position: #22 / 87
  • Number of attempts: 4
The holy-grail may help - 362 entries

Can you find it in less than 20 strokes, Arthur?

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #73 / 208
  • Number of attempts: 2
Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1239 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: #19 / 405
  • Number of attempts: 8
Assignment Alignment - 882 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #14 / 220
  • Number of attempts: 8
Shebangs for all - 1989 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: #102 / 513
  • Number of attempts: 8
A Simple One - 1045 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: #176 / 660
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reverse and count - 473 entries

Someone typed things upside down and now a Vim ninja needs to reverse the lines and count how many there are.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #67 / 176
  • Number of attempts: 7
Reverse Simple Deletion - 847 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #185 / 458
  • Number of attempts: 3
Increment, increment, increment.... - 677 entries

Vim likes macros

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #184 / 405
  • Number of attempts: 1
The Cake is a Lie - 1330 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #88 / 523
  • Number of attempts: 3
Context insensitive completion 0 - 565 entries

Buried in the lines you're not supposed to add is the line "Add this line!" Add that line to the top of the file.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #43 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 3
Compile C - 405 entries

You might have to get clever to do this one.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #44 / 138
  • Number of attempts: 1
Almost encrypted - 204 entries

Convert the first paragraph to be even less readable.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #59 / 146
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make Fancy Header - 1046 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #37 / 343
  • Number of attempts: 4
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3591 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #464 / 776
  • Number of attempts: 2
Simple text editing with Vim - 12712 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #2 / 3671
  • Number of attempts: 8
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6898 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #411 / 1689
  • Number of attempts: 8
Pavlo Klets
Twitter:

Freak & geak..

entered into 53 challenges

contributed 0 challenges