VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Yo To Hello - 1152 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

Best score: 8
Best player score: 10
Position: #155 / 534
Number of attempts: 1

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33866 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: #2680 / 7474
Number of attempts: 7

Swap values - 4661 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #488 / 1282
Number of attempts: 5

prepend * to every non-blank line - 6366 entries

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

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #610 / 1555
Number of attempts: 5

One number per line - 18831 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #534 / 3889
Number of attempts: 9

Swap values inside brackets - 2523 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #184 / 587
Number of attempts: 2

Unsemantic linewrapping - 934 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: #109 / 233
Number of attempts: 1

V to the i - 4830 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #1387 / 1903
Number of attempts: 3

Applying same text modification in several lines - 2915 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #394 / 863
Number of attempts: 1

Add semicolons - 10916 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #879 / 3085
Number of attempts: 6

Bad Copy Syntax - 2055 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #61 / 536
Number of attempts: 4

Split line with dots - 2156 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #148 / 636
Number of attempts: 14

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3622 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #226 / 1177
Number of attempts: 4

Box it - 7962 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #136 / 1891
Number of attempts: 9

multiple cursor alternative - 1547 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 / 385
Number of attempts: 6

From argument to object - 1536 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 / 466
Number of attempts: 4

Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 751 entries

Clean and group.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 18
Position: #78 / 179
Number of attempts: 3

Every other line - 2925 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #247 / 707
Number of attempts: 11

Copy three lines - 2882 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 / 642
Number of attempts: 4

Extract argument from function - 2376 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #232 / 759
Number of attempts: 3

Search and Replace 0 - 5031 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #594 / 1638
Number of attempts: 2

That hyphen - 2602 entries

"vim vi improved"

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #263 / 704
Number of attempts: 9

comment and uncomment code inline - 1151 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 / 328
Number of attempts: 4

Just the middle - 11541 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #2872 / 4230
Number of attempts: 2

Team names - 1848 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #232 / 592
Number of attempts: 4

For all cases. - 168 entries

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

Best score: 8
Best player score: 8
Position: #67 / 108
Number of attempts: 1

Basic renumbering - 5707 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #176 / 1274
Number of attempts: 2

Adam's challenge - 1009 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: #125 / 276
Number of attempts: 5

Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 873 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 / 294
Number of attempts: 1

ninja substitution - 1427 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #104 / 269
Number of attempts: 6

Vice versa - 7974 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #812 / 2146
Number of attempts: 3

Order and join - 992 entries

There's something special about the input order.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #128 / 261
Number of attempts: 3

Paragraph breaks - 527 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #82 / 168
Number of attempts: 3

comments galore - 1073 entries

Basic comment reformatting

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #278 / 429
Number of attempts: 1

Scrambled numbers - 814 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #49 / 185
Number of attempts: 4

Align commas - 1097 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 / 247
Number of attempts: 7

One to Ten - 2241 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 / 682
Number of attempts: 4

Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 672 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: #110 / 210
Number of attempts: 2

Increment each number - 1043 entries

Increment each number individually by one

Best score: 15
Best player score: 21
Position: #170 / 255
Number of attempts: 3

Join 'em - 252 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

Best score: 4
Best player score: 5
Position: #98 / 152
Number of attempts: 1

change parenthesis - 299 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #29 / 162
Number of attempts: 1

Remove quotes after first field - 386 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 20
Position: #47 / 93
Number of attempts: 7

Put the months in order - 979 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: #61 / 165
Number of attempts: 7

Reorder the groups - 1185 entries

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

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #102 / 266
Number of attempts: 7

Array transposition - 2436 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #146 / 452
Number of attempts: 15

convert yml into java pojo field - 867 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: #196 / 230
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 - 671 entries

Simple problem but looking for interesting solutions.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #189 / 259
Number of attempts: 3

Collect List - 4317 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #609 / 1194
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 - 1659 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #126 / 446
Number of attempts: 5

I forgot quotes - 16093 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 17
Position: #3045 / 4202
Number of attempts: 2

-a-b-c- - 3225 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #389 / 1140
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 - 749 entries

It's a golf metaphor or something.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #115 / 272
Number of attempts: 3

Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1164 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #96 / 301
Number of attempts: 8

Don't know what this is - 2025 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 / 587
Number of attempts: 5

Where should I put the Newline? - 883 entries

Help me put the newline.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #397 / 438
Number of attempts: 1

Mess in revision history - 1210 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 18
Position: #94 / 254
Number of attempts: 12

Going underground.... - 357 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 / 129
Number of attempts: 8

attr_aligner - 3525 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #191 / 706
Number of attempts: 13

Letter case trickery - 1644 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 / 520
Number of attempts: 3

quotes inside quotes - 3185 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: #492 / 1086
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 - 12992 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #1741 / 3977
Number of attempts: 6

Prefixes and suffixes - 638 entries

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

Best score: 17
Best player score: 21
Position: #40 / 203
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 - 639 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 25
Position: #50 / 176
Number of attempts: 6

SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1620 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 / 450
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 - 1138 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 9
Position: #321 / 450
Number of attempts: 3

Vertical Limit - 2596 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 22
Position: #176 / 767
Number of attempts: 5

replacing each line of a block selection - 3007 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #208 / 780
Number of attempts: 10

Switch function arguments - 2182 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #317 / 674
Number of attempts: 2

Append semicolon after expressions - 1061 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #249 / 421
Number of attempts: 3

Remove noise from HTTP log - 729 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 / 276
Number of attempts: 4

switch variable - 5094 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #961 / 1754
Number of attempts: 1

The meaning - 577 entries

Numbers are fun!

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #289 / 364
Number of attempts: 1

Line Zipper - 477 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 16
Position: #194 / 216
Number of attempts: 1

remove dupes from array - 1360 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: #105 / 337
Number of attempts: 5

Case preserving word replacement - 456 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 / 181
Number of attempts: 4

It'ss tooo coold too typpe todaay - 230 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #27 / 99
Number of attempts: 4

HTML to Haml - 881 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

Best score: 23
Best player score: 42
Position: #133 / 205
Number of attempts: 2

expand a list comprehension (python) - 334 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 / 110
Number of attempts: 7

Generate English Alphabets - 508 entries

Start with a, get up to z.

Best score: 19
Best player score: 23
Position: #20 / 211
Number of attempts: 3

Numbering a List - 1940 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #42 / 656
Number of attempts: 1

Shebangs for all - 2049 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: #156 / 523
Number of attempts: 5

A Simple One - 1067 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 / 671
Number of attempts: 1

Another Mixed-Up Haiku - 265 entries

VimGolf ... a perfect evening?

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #35 / 90
Number of attempts: 5

Reverse Simple Deletion - 862 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #349 / 463
Number of attempts: 2

The Cake is a Lie - 1386 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #250 / 537
Number of attempts: 3

Context Insensitive completion 1 - 512 entries

Finish writing this simple Python HTTP server.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #140 / 248
Number of attempts: 1

Make Fancy Header - 1075 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

Best score: 15
Best player score: 17
Position: #208 / 349
Number of attempts: 3

Change the content of a string - 1711 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 23
Position: #326 / 629
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7415 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 40
Position: #866 / 1825
Number of attempts: 4