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 - 33379 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: 29
  • Position: #4853 / 7363
  • Number of attempts: 1
One number per line - 18616 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #2739 / 3842
  • Number of attempts: 2
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge2 - 189 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #69 / 99
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #249 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 2
Unsemantic linewrapping - 890 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: 9
  • Position: #25 / 224
  • Number of attempts: 3
V to the i - 4751 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1391 / 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: 14
  • Position: #397 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 3
Add string initializers to an enum - 862 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #6 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 4
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1181 entries

Convert strings in SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case. Examples: EMPLOYEE_NAME -> Employee Name REVENUE_YEAR_TO_DATE -> Revenue Year To Date SALARY -> Salary

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #157 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add semicolons - 10792 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #977 / 3044
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: #280 / 516
  • Number of attempts: 4
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3537 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #262 / 1144
  • Number of attempts: 4
Com(m)a Trouble - 3668 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #757 / 826
  • Number of attempts: 3
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge3 - 35 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 4
  • Position: #6 / 32
  • Number of attempts: 1
Extract wireshark capture filter - 198 entries

Extract wireshark capture filter from IP plan

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #49 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 1
Box it - 7827 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #166 / 1864
  • Number of attempts: 7
citizen_hacks_2019_part6 - 20 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition

  • Best score: 35
  • Best player score: 51
  • Position: #8 / 9
  • Number of attempts: 1
Cool or not? - 793 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #132 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 2
html paragraph to table - 590 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 58
  • Position: #64 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 3
Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 735 entries

Clean and group.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #133 / 174
  • Number of attempts: 2
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #636 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 2
Search and Replace 0 - 4790 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #608 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 38
  • Position: #92 / 127
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 9
  • Position: #124 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 5
Just the middle - 11360 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #2906 / 4164
  • Number of attempts: 4
Team names - 1805 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #488 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: #148 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 2
Basic renumbering - 5587 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #600 / 1258
  • Number of attempts: 1
Adam's challenge - 957 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: 18
  • Position: #85 / 266
  • Number of attempts: 5
Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 840 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: 18
  • Position: #246 / 287
  • Number of attempts: 1
ninja substitution - 1372 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #105 / 261
  • Number of attempts: 7
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge4 - 88 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #3 / 61
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 12
  • Position: #155 / 662
  • Number of attempts: 3
Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 639 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: 20
  • Position: #182 / 203
  • Number of attempts: 2
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge5 - 137 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #2 / 73
  • Number of attempts: 2
Line under headers - 2004 entries

Put a line under each header, and remove the other markdown formatting.

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #202 / 496
  • Number of attempts: 2
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge6 - 59 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 3
  • Best player score: 3
  • Position: #7 / 47
  • Number of attempts: 1
Join 'em - 248 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #98 / 148
  • Number of attempts: 3
Delete to the end of the current line - 784 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #162 / 384
  • Number of attempts: 4
Song Transcription Oops - 234 entries

When transcribing vocal music to Canjo Tab you can start by finding the lowest note and assigning that to zero and working your way up from there. However, without fail, I tend to miscount the notes and when I am near done I find a lower note. I mark this with a "z". This means I have to increase all the previous ones by 1. just a sting of numbers :)

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #28 / 75
  • Number of attempts: 3
change parenthesis - 278 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #46 / 156
  • Number of attempts: 2
move titles next to url, in quotes - 504 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #110 / 135
  • Number of attempts: 2
Array transposition - 2378 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #312 / 443
  • Number of attempts: 2
Collect List - 4264 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #860 / 1186
  • Number of attempts: 2
Space out the alphabet - 1627 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #335 / 440
  • Number of attempts: 4
I forgot quotes - 15931 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #3332 / 4161
  • Number of attempts: 1
Don't know what this is - 1978 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: #223 / 578
  • Number of attempts: 4
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10624 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1415 / 3666
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 14
  • Position: #324 / 1072
  • Number of attempts: 3
Words in parens - 12854 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1007 / 3945
  • Number of attempts: 5
Resort and deup a CSV list - 142 entries

I'm always adding items to a sorted list. There has to be a better way dedup and resort the lists. There are multiple lists with varying lengths to discourage manual sorting. Also Australia's animals are weird.

  • Best score: 44
  • Best player score: 47
  • Position: #17 / 39
  • Number of attempts: 5
citizen_hacks_2019_part9 - 24 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 59
  • Position: #7 / 8
  • Number of attempts: 2
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge1 - 48 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #4 / 42
  • Number of attempts: 1
calculations - 262 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #27 / 64
  • Number of attempts: 2
Vertical Limit - 2437 entries

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

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #721 / 736
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 2946 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #673 / 767
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5031 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #1228 / 1735
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple text editing with Vim - 12281 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1753 / 3580
  • Number of attempts: 3
theBecwar
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entered into 58 challenges

contributed 0 challenges