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

Rural Post - 4368 entries

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

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #443 / 1072
  • Number of attempts: 5
Add quotes to ansible playbook - 930 entries

You created an ansible playbook, but forgot to add quotes. Can you fix it?

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #236 / 296
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #244 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 1
V to the i - 4751 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1369 / 1879
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 16
  • Position: #576 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add semicolons - 10792 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #518 / 3044
  • Number of attempts: 2
Bad Copy Syntax - 2001 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #274 / 516
  • Number of attempts: 1
Split line with dots - 2125 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #461 / 630
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3537 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #203 / 1144
  • Number of attempts: 1
Com(m)a Trouble - 3675 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #369 / 827
  • Number of attempts: 5
Box it - 7828 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #860 / 1865
  • Number of attempts: 4
Tables, Functions, Sprocs - 125 entries

In order to load some scripts into my database in the correct order I need to load tables first (t_), then functions (fn_), then stored procedures (sp_). The order of the t_ lines and the order of the sp_ lines should also match. Reorder the lines so they will load correctly.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #21 / 44
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: 30
  • Position: #335 / 376
  • Number of attempts: 1
html paragraph to table - 590 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 58
  • Position: #62 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 6
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: 22
  • Position: #502 / 635
  • Number of attempts: 1
Extract argument from function - 2314 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #370 / 744
  • Number of attempts: 2
Search and Replace 0 - 4792 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1013 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 35
  • Position: #63 / 127
  • Number of attempts: 4
That hyphen - 2556 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #477 / 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: 10
  • Position: #198 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 3
Flip the bit - 119 entries

Change the specific 0 to a 1.

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #62 / 70
  • Number of attempts: 1
Just the middle - 11360 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #3805 / 4164
  • Number of attempts: 1
Un"finnish"ed Work - 107 entries

Replace å by a, ä by a and ö by o.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #49 / 56
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 42
  • Position: #123 / 364
  • Number of attempts: 2
For all cases. - 141 entries

In this case... change it! :) Watch the line.

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #66 / 100
  • Number of attempts: 1
Remember VimGolf Rules ! - 257 entries

Rules, ... and don't forget !

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #107 / 138
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 20
  • Position: #147 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 2
Basic renumbering - 5587 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #931 / 1258
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple addition - 310 entries

The right side of the equation is already there. We just need the left one now.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #104 / 117
  • Number of attempts: 1
Interactive git rebase changing commands - 161 entries

How to change the action of some commits in git rebase dialog.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #68 / 77
  • Number of attempts: 2
create arrows in a list - 106 entries

Add arrow at same distance

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #67 / 71
  • Number of attempts: 2
Nesting SASS - 261 entries

Move a block inside another block and indent it

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #59 / 93
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add to end of each line... kinda - 325 entries

Visual-block mode can be used to add something to the end of each line, even if they are of differing lengths. However, what if it's not quite at the end?

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #92 / 171
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vice versa - 7803 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #1367 / 2100
  • Number of attempts: 1
Order and join - 956 entries

There's something special about the input order.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #123 / 255
  • Number of attempts: 2
comments galore - 998 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #397 / 418
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change attribute to getter - 133 entries

Wrap attributes with a getter method.

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #41 / 57
  • Number of attempts: 2
Generate a list of numbers - 283 entries

Please generate list of numbers from 1 to 20.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #109 / 136
  • Number of attempts: 4
Python challenge - 147 entries

Change the types of the variables in the list from str to float, while keeping the truncation.

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #20 / 44
  • Number of attempts: 5
One to Ten - 2165 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: 22
  • Position: #583 / 662
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 14
  • Position: #38 / 74
  • Number of attempts: 1
Join 'em - 248 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #27 / 148
  • Number of attempts: 1
Delete to the end of the current line - 791 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #308 / 385
  • Number of attempts: 1
change parenthesis - 278 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #34 / 156
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reorder the groups - 1137 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #174 / 259
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 39
  • Position: #204 / 223
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap assigned value - 624 entries

Simple problem but looking for interesting solutions.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #208 / 249
  • Number of attempts: 2
Mute the second method of this script - 447 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #215 / 237
  • Number of attempts: 1
Condensed Cases - 788 entries

Apple's new programming language, Swift, allows two style of case statements: 1) one Enum case on each line, or 2) multiple Enum cases on a single line. Convert the following from the first case (no pun intended) to the second type.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #217 / 242
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 15931 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #2290 / 4161
  • Number of attempts: 1
learn vim in short time - 232 entries

so happy to learn vim.because vim is awesome

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #109 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 2
Suffix sort - 254 entries

Sort from the end of the line, as if the letters in each line were reversed.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #60 / 65
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change name of a variable - 169 entries

Replace the name of the $variable with the fastest move possible. The challenge is having a command that allow you to easily change the variable name even if its indented.

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #111 / 132
  • Number of attempts: 1
Gray area - 732 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #180 / 268
  • Number of attempts: 1
Where should I put the Newline? - 863 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #391 / 431
  • Number of attempts: 2
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10624 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #2452 / 3666
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 12
  • Position: #354 / 511
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 22
  • Position: #1027 / 1072
  • Number of attempts: 1
Words in parens - 12858 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #3488 / 3946
  • Number of attempts: 1
Enumerate words - 250 entries

Enumerate the unique words in order.

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #76 / 89
  • Number of attempts: 4
Readable Rubyhash - 244 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: 23
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #42 / 92
  • Number of attempts: 5
Santa's naughty / nice list - 78 entries

Christmas is here and Santa hasn't decided who's naughty or nice yet. He's given a list of names to his programmer friend to quickly split the children into naughty and nice. Hint: There's a hidden pattern that might be familiar.

  • Best score: 39
  • Best player score: 57
  • Position: #20 / 24
  • Number of attempts: 1
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Vim - 401 entries

Someone has vandalized this text file and replaced the beginning character of one word in each line with a Big "X." Please remove the big X's, and fix each line to read "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog."

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #150 / 188
  • Number of attempts: 2
The name of the game - 650 entries

End up with the name of the game.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #248 / 356
  • Number of attempts: 1
SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1581 entries

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

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #407 / 439
  • Number of attempts: 2
Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1091 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #312 / 441
  • Number of attempts: 1
Switch function arguments - 2082 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #416 / 652
  • Number of attempts: 1
Append semicolon after expressions - 1005 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #241 / 403
  • Number of attempts: 2
switch variable - 5036 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #952 / 1736
  • Number of attempts: 1
The meaning - 558 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #288 / 356
  • Number of attempts: 1
The holy-grail may help - 345 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #149 / 205
  • 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: 14
  • Position: #231 / 500
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: #495 / 643
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reverse Simple Deletion - 832 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #343 / 454
  • Number of attempts: 2
Hatsuyume - 457 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #29 / 175
  • Number of attempts: 1
The Cake is a Lie - 1286 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #376 / 512
  • Number of attempts: 1
Fix the Haiku - 275 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: 45
  • Position: #77 / 109
  • Number of attempts: 1
Context insensitive completion 0 - 507 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: 10
  • Position: #216 / 232
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make Fancy Header - 1014 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #200 / 338
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat a C golf submission - 559 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: 34
  • Position: #129 / 200
  • Number of attempts: 2
Change the content of a string - 1476 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #465 / 558
  • Number of attempts: 2
Sort and add attributes - 1327 entries

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

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #220 / 529
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6560 entries

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

  • Best score: 32
  • Best player score: 43
  • Position: #1007 / 1616
  • Number of attempts: 1
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entered into 83 challenges

contributed 0 challenges