VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Word Blender - 129 entries

The insides of long words seem to have been run through the blender. Can you fix this famous tale, brave knight?

Best score: 28
Best player score: 33
Position: #6 / 54
Number of attempts: 1

Wrap the text of an email message to 79 characters - 652 entries

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

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #30 / 376
Number of attempts: 1

Search and Replace 0 - 4766 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #84 / 1578
Number of attempts: 2

Interweave two blocks of text - 615 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: 16
Position: #33 / 210
Number of attempts: 2

Python Hello World! Reformatting - 930 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: #41 / 361
Number of attempts: 1

Cartesian product - 218 entries

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

Best score: 24
Best player score: 26
Position: #21 / 92
Number of attempts: 1

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10584 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #325 / 3653
Number of attempts: 1

attr_aligner - 3408 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #62 / 689
Number of attempts: 1

Letter case trickery - 1588 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: 10
Position: #108 / 509
Number of attempts: 1

quotes inside quotes - 3105 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: #149 / 1066
Number of attempts: 1

Words in parens - 12821 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #369 / 3938
Number of attempts: 1

Changing URL path in CSS - 123 entries

What's the quickest way to swap out all the URLs in a CSS file? Is it wasted keystrokes using look-behinds and look-aheads? (I'm sorry for the delete/report--I made a mistake with the last one requiring an ugly search for graphic to replace with images. I just intended this to be a simple search and replace that might possibly generate some macros or normals solutions that are quicker)

Best score: 40
Best player score: 40
Position: #7 / 57
Number of attempts: 1

Shuffle and Sort - 201 entries

The values where sorted incorrectly. Get them back to how they are supposed to be

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #2 / 63
Number of attempts: 2

The name of the game - 643 entries

End up with the name of the game.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #86 / 353
Number of attempts: 1

SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1550 entries

Oh no, this line is longer than 80 chars... put each 'vim' on a new line.

Best score: 8
Best player score: 8
Position: #17 / 435
Number of attempts: 1

Cleanining up 80 column concatenated text - 185 entries

1. Put the whole query on one line, remove the concatenation operators 2. Remove the double spaces that appear a few times in the query 3. Use string-interpolated variable statementPid rather than the ugly concatenation

Best score: 31
Best player score: 31
Position: #1 / 74
Number of attempts: 5

Inconsistent real estate paste - 178 entries

Format a hand-typed real estate listing that uses inconsistent punctuation into four sections

Best score: 24
Best player score: 25
Position: #12 / 53
Number of attempts: 1

Vertical Limit - 2406 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 22
Position: #109 / 728
Number of attempts: 1

Make the circuit grid! - 83 entries

Copy this command for a circuit layout program to create 10 total smd commands. Increment the number in quotes to name each pad, and add 0.7 to each of the (X Y) coordinates at the end of each line.

Best score: 26
Best player score: 26
Position: #3 / 46
Number of attempts: 1

Aligning function arguments to match a specific coding style - 218 entries

Most projects have specific coding style guidelines. In this case, the argument list must be broken into a new line for each argument, with the argument names right aligned, taking into account pointers.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #17 / 66
Number of attempts: 2

Exchanging Quotes - 801 entries

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

Best score: 30
Best player score: 31
Position: #15 / 221
Number of attempts: 2

replacing each line of a block selection - 2907 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #1 / 760
Number of attempts: 3

Switch function arguments - 2019 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #18 / 637
Number of attempts: 1

Append semicolon after expressions - 986 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #2 / 397
Number of attempts: 2

Reverse and double space - 475 entries

Reverse the order of the given lines and double space everything

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #5 / 191
Number of attempts: 1

Remove noise from HTTP log - 675 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: #12 / 266
Number of attempts: 2

Remove semicolons after expressions - 602 entries

A follow-up for http://vimgolf.com/challenges/4fc9d767d3a0d4000100000e.

Best score: 6
Best player score: 6
Position: #5 / 253
Number of attempts: 1

un-C-escape string - 55 entries

Convert escape sequences to characters

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #5 / 49
Number of attempts: 1

switch variable - 5012 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #74 / 1728
Number of attempts: 1

The meaning - 543 entries

Numbers are fun!

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #20 / 350
Number of attempts: 1

Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 953 entries

convert an ugly spreadsheet copy/paste into a CSV format.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 21
Position: #40 / 184
Number of attempts: 4

Replacing some words - 418 entries

How fast could it be?

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #8 / 147
Number of attempts: 4

Make it more readable - 1930 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #11 / 636
Number of attempts: 3

Line Zipper - 449 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #20 / 209
Number of attempts: 1

remove dupes from array - 1324 entries

given a random string that contains a ruby-esque array, make sure that there are no duplicate elements

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #15 / 328
Number of attempts: 1

Alphabetize the directory - 281 entries

Put the contacts and their information in alphabetical order.

Best score: 30
Best player score: 30
Position: #7 / 98
Number of attempts: 3

PHP Array Syntax -> MailChimp Merge Syntax - 505 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: 23
Position: #6 / 146
Number of attempts: 1

Case preserving word replacement - 444 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: #25 / 178
Number of attempts: 1

Sort entries based on date - 359 entries

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

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #23 / 113
Number of attempts: 2

Here, piggy, piggy... - 75 entries

Youay owknay atwhay otay oday...

Best score: 68
Best player score: 93
Position: #14 / 21
Number of attempts: 1

Happy New Year! - 139 entries

This is a simple new year's challenge.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 24
Position: #14 / 56
Number of attempts: 1

imports alignment (python) - 657 entries

Align as one import per line.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #8 / 194
Number of attempts: 1

Generate Fibonacci Numbers - 256 entries

Use your super vim powers to generate Fibonacci Numbers.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #1 / 97
Number of attempts: 2

It'ss tooo coold too typpe todaay - 211 entries

My hands are numb with cold. It's hard to type correctly.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #19 / 96
Number of attempts: 2

Rotating Philosophers Problem - 386 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: 29
Position: #1 / 163
Number of attempts: 1

Before there was Farmville... - 95 entries

There was old MacDonald. For my toddler. The first Vim sing-a-long?

Best score: 156
Best player score: 173
Position: #10 / 46
Number of attempts: 3

HTML to Haml - 838 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

Best score: 23
Best player score: 27
Position: #19 / 201
Number of attempts: 3

expand a list comprehension (python) - 296 entries

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

Best score: 42
Best player score: 43
Position: #17 / 105
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat long lines - 336 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: #16 / 130
Number of attempts: 4

Generate English Alphabets - 456 entries

Start with a, get up to z.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 24
Position: #58 / 198
Number of attempts: 2

Overall Vimgolf Rank - 161 entries

Suppose you are trying to figure out what your overall rank is at Vimgolf(the sum of all the ranks you got), and as a Vim ninja you decided to use Vim to do the job. Your solution should work for every Vimgolf profile page(The actual input file for this challenge is my Vimgolf profile page). So, direct answer insertion is considered cheating.

Best score: 23
Best player score: 28
Position: #27 / 57
Number of attempts: 1

Insert a Markdown link - 422 entries

Put a link in a markdown document, using the after-the-paragraph format.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #1 / 142
Number of attempts: 1

Numbering a List - 1849 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 17
Position: #93 / 636
Number of attempts: 1

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 - 145 entries

Somebody's got this slightly muddled up. See how quickly you can fix it. (I made this to experiment with buffers. I'm not actually sure whether this is faster with buffers or without.)

Best score: 24
Best player score: 24
Position: #3 / 68
Number of attempts: 1

Solve the Sokoban - 161 entries

A wink for all Vimgolfers that play Nethack too.

Best score: 25
Best player score: 25
Position: #1 / 71
Number of attempts: 4

The holy-grail may help - 339 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #93 / 204
Number of attempts: 1

Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1202 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: #16 / 394
Number of attempts: 2

Assignment Alignment - 824 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 20
Position: #75 / 215
Number of attempts: 1

Shebangs for all - 1846 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: #2 / 486
Number of attempts: 3

A Simple One - 978 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: #164 / 636
Number of attempts: 1

82 bottles of beer on the wall - 296 entries

Take them down. (sorry, only 82 bottles because the problem size is limited!)

Best score: 107
Best player score: 108
Position: #7 / 138
Number of attempts: 2

Table Reshuffle - 366 entries

Fix the column order in this table... also append the new 'username' column.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 23
Position: #7 / 132
Number of attempts: 1

Letters are numbers - 149 entries

Letters and numbers are interchangeable. A lot of programming languages give you simple ways to convert individual letters to hex, binary and decimal but does Vim?

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #1 / 73
Number of attempts: 1

Another Mixed-Up Haiku - 236 entries

VimGolf ... a perfect evening?

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #20 / 85
Number of attempts: 1

Ruby 1.9 compat - 608 entries

Remember when Ruby supported `when <expr> :`? Well, it doesn't in 1.9, so let's make sure we use `then`, without ruining our lovely new hash syntax!

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #14 / 229
Number of attempts: 1

Reverse Simple Deletion - 824 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #2 / 450
Number of attempts: 2

Increment, increment, increment.... - 626 entries

Vim likes macros

Best score: 10
Best player score: 12
Position: #163 / 393
Number of attempts: 1

Sorting paragraphs - 503 entries

Order the paragraphs correctly, per prefixed index

Best score: 18
Best player score: 23
Position: #25 / 156
Number of attempts: 2

Indentation - 492 entries

Indent each line according to the right number of spaces it needs.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 24
Position: #37 / 167
Number of attempts: 2

Hatsuyume - 442 entries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsuyume

Best score: 16
Best player score: 28
Position: #105 / 173
Number of attempts: 1

Turn this csv list into queries - 203 entries

Transform each line of this csv file into a MySQL-ready INSERT query.

Best score: 98
Best player score: 106
Position: #20 / 94
Number of attempts: 1

The Cake is a Lie - 1266 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #82 / 506
Number of attempts: 1

Fix the Haiku - 272 entries

Change this slightly scrambled haiku to its unscrambled form and fix the capitalisation and punctuation along the way.

Best score: 28
Best player score: 29
Position: #3 / 108
Number of attempts: 3

Context insensitive completion 0 - 492 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: 7
Best player score: 7
Position: #34 / 229
Number of attempts: 2

Context Insensitive completion 1 - 444 entries

Finish writing this simple Python HTTP server.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #54 / 228
Number of attempts: 1

Almost encrypted - 196 entries

Convert the first paragraph to be even less readable.

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #50 / 144
Number of attempts: 1

Make Fancy Header - 996 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #33 / 335
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat some Python - 576 entries

Fix some very bizarrely laid-out code.

Best score: 34
Best player score: 34
Position: #13 / 227
Number of attempts: 1

Reformat a C golf submission - 547 entries

Take this C golf submission (for the "tiny but standards-compliant Hello World program" category, naturally), and turn it into formatted C code.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 26
Position: #26 / 198
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat most common surnames - 613 entries

Reformat copy-pasted table into a list of the most common surnames

Best score: 23
Best player score: 26
Position: #60 / 193
Number of attempts: 2

Remember FizzBuzz? - 634 entries

Output FizzBuzz to 100. Start with nothing.

Best score: 39
Best player score: 49
Position: #24 / 173
Number of attempts: 3

Get rid of html tags - 356 entries

Want to read more about Vim's background? Then get rid of those html tags...

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #58 / 213
Number of attempts: 3

Change the content of a string - 1425 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #71 / 542
Number of attempts: 3

Deleting folded text - 325 entries

The text below contains three folds. Delete them (and the text inside them). For example: 123 456 /*{{{*/ 789 /*}}}*/ 012 Should become: 123 012 Also, add `aoeuaoeu` to make sure small solutions don't get flagged as cheating.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 19
Position: #29 / 111
Number of attempts: 3

Sort and add attributes - 1273 entries

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

Best score: 33
Best player score: 33
Position: #1 / 510
Number of attempts: 2

Add fold markers to a .c file - 526 entries

Fold markers can make it easier to navigate source code. Add them to this .c file.

Best score: 30
Best player score: 30
Position: #17 / 165
Number of attempts: 3

Reconstruct the Sentence - 1265 entries

Get the sentence back in the proper order, remove duplicate lines, and then combine the separate lines into one.

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #14 / 366
Number of attempts: 1

Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3141 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #37 / 700
Number of attempts: 5

Flodder-challenge - 1006 entries

Replace the text the most efficient and win!

Best score: 27
Best player score: 28
Position: #34 / 294
Number of attempts: 1

Simple text editing with Vim - 11970 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #28 / 3505
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6338 entries

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

Best score: 32
Best player score: 32
Position: #7 / 1562
Number of attempts: 5

Federico Galassi
Twitter: @federicogalassi

Software craftsman. Googler. I love javascript, ruby, vim, git, the pomodoro technique, agile and books.