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 - 33533 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: 30
  • Position: #5291 / 7396
  • Number of attempts: 3
Swap values - 4600 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #1220 / 1264
  • Number of attempts: 2
One number per line - 18705 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #3670 / 3855
  • Number of attempts: 3
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge2 - 194 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #98 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap values inside brackets - 2480 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #528 / 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: 20
  • Position: #221 / 228
  • Number of attempts: 2
V to the i - 4795 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #1780 / 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: 32
  • Position: #784 / 845
  • Number of attempts: 3
Add string initializers to an enum - 872 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 100
  • Position: #256 / 258
  • Number of attempts: 3
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1213 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: 63
  • Position: #243 / 248
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap the operands under comparison - 296 entries

Swap the operands under comparison to prevent null pointer exception (at least in java)

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #85 / 100
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add semicolons - 10841 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #2846 / 3058
  • Number of attempts: 1
Bad Copy Syntax - 2024 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #454 / 520
  • Number of attempts: 4
Split line with dots - 2144 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #584 / 634
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3573 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #707 / 1157
  • Number of attempts: 3
Com(m)a Trouble - 3780 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #740 / 855
  • Number of attempts: 3
Box it - 7897 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 64
  • Position: #1812 / 1872
  • Number of attempts: 2
Cool or not? - 829 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #223 / 230
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 49
  • Position: #369 / 380
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 22
  • Position: #397 / 455
  • Number of attempts: 1
Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 749 entries

Clean and group.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 78
  • Position: #177 / 178
  • Number of attempts: 1
Every other line - 2910 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 45
  • Position: #701 / 703
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 30
  • Position: #605 / 640
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 26
  • Position: #748 / 751
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 4952 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #1228 / 1615
  • Number of attempts: 1
That hyphen - 2595 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #683 / 701
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 26
  • Position: #313 / 320
  • Number of attempts: 1
Just the middle - 11417 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #3835 / 4181
  • Number of attempts: 6
Team names - 1834 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #568 / 587
  • Number of attempts: 2
Missing Library and a Typo - 884 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: 14
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #203 / 212
  • Number of attempts: 1
Basic renumbering - 5643 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #1199 / 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: 46
  • Position: #267 / 268
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 20
  • Position: #270 / 289
  • Number of attempts: 1
ninja substitution - 1420 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 133
  • Position: #267 / 267
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vice versa - 7891 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1101 / 2121
  • Number of attempts: 1
C Reformatting - 690 entries

You may use Visual mode... or not. #uppercase

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 69
  • Position: #140 / 163
  • Number of attempts: 1
Order and join - 983 entries

There's something special about the input order.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #253 / 259
  • Number of attempts: 1
Paragraph breaks - 522 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #145 / 167
  • Number of attempts: 1
comments galore - 1038 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #411 / 422
  • Number of attempts: 1
Align commas - 1087 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: 22
  • Position: #226 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 1
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge4 - 94 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #62 / 64
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 28
  • Position: #657 / 669
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 20
  • Position: #188 / 207
  • Number of attempts: 1
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge5 - 144 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #63 / 76
  • Number of attempts: 1
Line under headers - 2028 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 53
  • Position: #478 / 499
  • Number of attempts: 1
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge6 - 64 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 3
  • Best player score: 3
  • Position: #29 / 50
  • Number of attempts: 1
Join 'em - 251 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #149 / 151
  • Number of attempts: 1
Delete to the end of the current line - 810 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #374 / 389
  • Number of attempts: 3
Remove quotes after first field - 380 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #89 / 91
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 75
  • Position: #159 / 162
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reorder the groups - 1176 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #233 / 263
  • Number of attempts: 2
move titles next to url, in quotes - 529 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 70
  • Position: #138 / 139
  • Number of attempts: 1
Array transposition - 2415 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 70
  • Position: #436 / 446
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 90
  • Position: #226 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 1
Mirror Symmetry - 822 entries

Add backslashes.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #169 / 269
  • Number of attempts: 1
From A to B - 591 entries

Mirror and change this text block

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #147 / 159
  • Number of attempts: 2
Collect List - 4298 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 60
  • Position: #1185 / 1190
  • Number of attempts: 1
camel riding - 793 entries

add a prefix on some camelCase variables

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #240 / 281
  • Number of attempts: 1
Space out the alphabet - 1657 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #408 / 444
  • Number of attempts: 1
Fix the XML - 1035 entries

The challenge consists in having a valid xml from an incomplete source.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #270 / 289
  • Number of attempts: 1
Condensed Cases - 800 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: 31
  • Position: #237 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 15954 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #3829 / 4170
  • Number of attempts: 2
-a-b-c- - 3213 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #1071 / 1137
  • Number of attempts: 3
Count both ways - 1022 entries

Right AND down.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #347 / 354
  • Number of attempts: 1
Where should I put the Newline? - 881 entries

Help me put the newline.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #400 / 437
  • Number of attempts: 2
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10654 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #3469 / 3678
  • Number of attempts: 5
attr_aligner - 3498 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 73
  • Position: #692 / 696
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 15
  • Position: #448 / 515
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 27
  • Position: #1047 / 1075
  • Number of attempts: 1
Words in parens - 12918 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #3665 / 3957
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 16
  • Position: #432 / 446
  • Number of attempts: 1
Let's play some Ivmgolf - 1118 entries

Oops, I spelled that wrong.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #441 / 445
  • Number of attempts: 1
calculations - 312 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 80
  • Position: #67 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vertical Limit - 2522 entries

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

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #719 / 751
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 2979 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #730 / 773
  • Number of attempts: 1
Switch function arguments - 2117 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #650 / 657
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5061 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #1642 / 1743
  • Number of attempts: 1
The meaning - 573 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #359 / 361
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make it more readable - 1982 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #619 / 645
  • 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: 27
  • Position: #282 / 334
  • Number of attempts: 1
Numbering a List - 1926 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #623 / 650
  • 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: 40
  • Position: #504 / 506
  • Number of attempts: 1
The Cake is a Lie - 1324 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #514 / 521
  • Number of attempts: 1
Change the content of a string - 1541 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #535 / 577
  • Number of attempts: 1
Simple text editing with Vim - 12626 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 51
  • Position: #3563 / 3652
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6824 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 75
  • Position: #1614 / 1673
  • Number of attempts: 1
Aaron
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Married to my Boredom

entered into 86 challenges

contributed 0 challenges