VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Yo To Hello - 1127 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #154 / 522
Number of attempts: 1

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33535 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: 23
Position: #2659 / 7397
Number of attempts: 7

Swap values - 4606 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #487 / 1265
Number of attempts: 5

prepend * to every non-blank line - 6288 entries

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

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #605 / 1532
Number of attempts: 5

One number per line - 18705 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #534 / 3855
Number of attempts: 9

Swap values inside brackets - 2480 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #181 / 575
Number of attempts: 2

Unsemantic linewrapping - 918 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: 10
Position: #107 / 228
Number of attempts: 1

V to the i - 4796 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #1380 / 1891
Number of attempts: 3

Applying same text modification in several lines - 2859 entries

Remove identical text at the beginning of several lines and the closing parenthesis.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #386 / 845
Number of attempts: 1

Add semicolons - 10841 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #871 / 3058
Number of attempts: 6

Bad Copy Syntax - 2025 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #61 / 521
Number of attempts: 4

Split line with dots - 2144 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #148 / 634
Number of attempts: 14

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3573 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #226 / 1157
Number of attempts: 4

Box it - 7897 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #136 / 1872
Number of attempts: 9

multiple cursor alternative - 1519 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: 20
Position: #168 / 380
Number of attempts: 6

From argument to object - 1503 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: #114 / 455
Number of attempts: 4

Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 749 entries

Clean and group.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 18
Position: #78 / 178
Number of attempts: 3

Every other line - 2910 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #247 / 703
Number of attempts: 11

Copy three lines - 2872 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 18
Position: #338 / 640
Number of attempts: 4

Extract argument from function - 2354 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #232 / 751
Number of attempts: 3

Search and Replace 0 - 4952 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #594 / 1615
Number of attempts: 2

That hyphen - 2595 entries

"vim vi improved"

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #263 / 701
Number of attempts: 9

comment and uncomment code inline - 1114 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: #121 / 320
Number of attempts: 4

Just the middle - 11417 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #2864 / 4181
Number of attempts: 2

Team names - 1834 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #232 / 587
Number of attempts: 4

For all cases. - 160 entries

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

Best score: 8
Best player score: 8
Position: #67 / 105
Number of attempts: 1

Basic renumbering - 5643 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #176 / 1261
Number of attempts: 2

Adam's challenge - 978 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: 19
Position: #122 / 268
Number of attempts: 5

Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 862 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: #132 / 289
Number of attempts: 1

ninja substitution - 1420 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #104 / 267
Number of attempts: 6

Vice versa - 7891 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #807 / 2121
Number of attempts: 3

Order and join - 983 entries

There's something special about the input order.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #128 / 259
Number of attempts: 3

Paragraph breaks - 522 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #81 / 167
Number of attempts: 3

comments galore - 1041 entries

Basic comment reformatting

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #278 / 423
Number of attempts: 1

Scrambled numbers - 807 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #49 / 184
Number of attempts: 4

Align commas - 1092 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: 13
Position: #108 / 245
Number of attempts: 7

One to Ten - 2209 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: #134 / 669
Number of attempts: 4

Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 661 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: 15
Position: #109 / 207
Number of attempts: 2

Increment each number - 1023 entries

Increment each number individually by one

Best score: 15
Best player score: 21
Position: #168 / 248
Number of attempts: 3

Join 'em - 251 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

Best score: 4
Best player score: 5
Position: #97 / 151
Number of attempts: 1

change parenthesis - 296 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #29 / 161
Number of attempts: 1

Remove quotes after first field - 380 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 20
Position: #47 / 91
Number of attempts: 7

Put the months in order - 973 entries

Our contractor thought that months should be in alphabetical order. Put them in calendar order please.

Best score: 20
Best player score: 33
Position: #60 / 162
Number of attempts: 7

Reorder the groups - 1176 entries

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

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #102 / 263
Number of attempts: 7

Array transposition - 2415 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #146 / 446
Number of attempts: 15

convert yml into java pojo field - 856 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: 36
Position: #192 / 226
Number of attempts: 1

Assign numbers to fields - 116 entries

You are given a list of space-separated strings. Add an increasing numeric prefix to each one.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #46 / 62
Number of attempts: 3

Swap assigned value - 643 entries

Simple problem but looking for interesting solutions.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #187 / 253
Number of attempts: 3

Collect List - 4298 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #607 / 1190
Number of attempts: 7

camel riding - 793 entries

add a prefix on some camelCase variables

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #145 / 281
Number of attempts: 3

Space out the alphabet - 1657 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #126 / 444
Number of attempts: 5

I forgot quotes - 15954 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 17
Position: #3027 / 4170
Number of attempts: 2

-a-b-c- - 3213 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #389 / 1137
Number of attempts: 2

Count both ways - 1022 entries

Right AND down.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #85 / 354
Number of attempts: 4

Gray area - 747 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #115 / 271
Number of attempts: 3

Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1158 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #96 / 300
Number of attempts: 8

Don't know what this is - 2014 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: #226 / 582
Number of attempts: 5

Where should I put the Newline? - 881 entries

Help me put the newline.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #396 / 437
Number of attempts: 1

Mess in revision history - 1183 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 18
Position: #93 / 249
Number of attempts: 12

Going underground.... - 350 entries

Simple reformatting: in this case changing from the format London underground supplies its customers with, to the format that Google Calendar likes...

Best score: 22
Best player score: 26
Position: #13 / 127
Number of attempts: 8

attr_aligner - 3498 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #188 / 696
Number of attempts: 13

Letter case trickery - 1619 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: #165 / 515
Number of attempts: 3

quotes inside quotes - 3154 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: 15
Position: #490 / 1075
Number of attempts: 5

Top X - 212 entries

The End File is the Top 10 Vimgolf Leaderboard at June 29, 2013. This is a second version, with a great contribution of @udioica. X is ten in Roman,a numeric system in ancient Rome

Best score: 18
Best player score: 23
Position: #21 / 71
Number of attempts: 4

Words in parens - 12918 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #1732 / 3957
Number of attempts: 6

Prefixes and suffixes - 629 entries

Generate all prefixes of "vimchallenge", then all suffixes.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 21
Position: #40 / 196
Number of attempts: 5

SFD-ROC: Tic-Tac-Toe - 159 entries

Tic-Tac-Toe You are 'X', and it is your turn. Stop 'O' from winning, and complete the game. Draw a diagonal line through your winning row of three X's.

Best score: 25
Best player score: 26
Position: #11 / 54
Number of attempts: 7

lamb had a little Mary - 598 entries

"Mary" and "lamb" are swapped. Unswap them. Fast as you can.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 25
Position: #50 / 165
Number of attempts: 6

SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1606 entries

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

Best score: 8
Best player score: 9
Position: #242 / 446
Number of attempts: 6

ASCII-art Histogram - 320 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: 43
Position: #36 / 57
Number of attempts: 7

Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1118 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 9
Position: #318 / 445
Number of attempts: 3

Vertical Limit - 2522 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 22
Position: #173 / 751
Number of attempts: 5

replacing each line of a block selection - 2987 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #208 / 774
Number of attempts: 10

Switch function arguments - 2117 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #311 / 657
Number of attempts: 2

Append semicolon after expressions - 1046 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #248 / 413
Number of attempts: 3

Remove noise from HTTP log - 717 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: #128 / 273
Number of attempts: 4

switch variable - 5061 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #955 / 1743
Number of attempts: 1

The meaning - 573 entries

Numbers are fun!

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #289 / 361
Number of attempts: 1

Line Zipper - 471 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 16
Position: #192 / 213
Number of attempts: 1

remove dupes from array - 1347 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: 18
Position: #104 / 334
Number of attempts: 5

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: 20
Position: #78 / 180
Number of attempts: 4

It'ss tooo coold too typpe todaay - 222 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #27 / 97
Number of attempts: 4

HTML to Haml - 878 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

Best score: 23
Best player score: 42
Position: #133 / 204
Number of attempts: 2

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: 43
Position: #25 / 109
Number of attempts: 7

Generate English Alphabets - 487 entries

Start with a, get up to z.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 23
Position: #20 / 206
Number of attempts: 3

Numbering a List - 1929 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #42 / 651
Number of attempts: 1

Shebangs for all - 1961 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: #153 / 506
Number of attempts: 5

A Simple One - 1037 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: #499 / 657
Number of attempts: 1

Another Mixed-Up Haiku - 250 entries

VimGolf ... a perfect evening?

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #35 / 88
Number of attempts: 5

Reverse Simple Deletion - 845 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #346 / 457
Number of attempts: 2

The Cake is a Lie - 1330 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #250 / 523
Number of attempts: 3

Context Insensitive completion 1 - 494 entries

Finish writing this simple Python HTTP server.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #140 / 243
Number of attempts: 1

Make Fancy Header - 1045 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #205 / 342
Number of attempts: 3

Change the content of a string - 1541 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 23
Position: #299 / 577
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6825 entries

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

Best score: 28
Best player score: 40
Position: #821 / 1673
Number of attempts: 4