Real Vim ninjas count every keystroke - do you?

Pick a challenge, fire up Vim, and show us what you got.

Changelog, Rules & FAQ, updates: @vimgolf, RSS.

Your VimGolf key: please sign in

$ gem install vimgolf
$ vimgolf setup
$ vimgolf put [challenge ID]

Played Challenges

Fill in the chess board - 886 entries

Fill in the name of each square using its file (a-h) and rank (1-8).

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #4 / 173
  • Number of attempts: 14
Rural Post - 4351 entries

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

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #96 / 1066
  • Number of attempts: 4
Capitalize the Names - 361 entries

I want to capitalize the names in quotes, but just the people's names, not the file names.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 49
  • Position: #76 / 91
  • Number of attempts: 2
Yo To Hello - 1107 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #35 / 512
  • Number of attempts: 2
Replace pattern with 1, 2, 3, ... on each line - 1089 entries

For each line replace a search pattern (in this case $) with numbers starting at 1 and then increasing by 1 for each replaced match. a$b$c$ -> a0b1c2

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #88 / 222
  • Number of attempts: 4
Simple, Practical, and Common - 33353 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: #2709 / 7358
  • Number of attempts: 8
Hogwarts Email Sorting - 875 entries

Given a list of emails, get the students full name and their associated house.

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #70 / 253
  • Number of attempts: 4
Get mail address from outlook format - 621 entries

Create a mail list space separated of mail list formatted by outlook

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #98 / 196
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reconstruct the actual output from my unit test tool report - 151 entries

When a test fails, my unit test tool reports differences between the actual output and the expected output as follow: - line in the expected output but missing in the actual output are prefixed with a dash - unexpected lines in the actual output are prefixed with a plus sign - comments added by the unit test tool are prefixed with a question mark - common lines are showed `as-is` (well, almost;) From that "diff" format, I would like to reconstruct the actual output.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #33 / 51
  • Number of attempts: 4
Add text at some column - 154 entries

Complete golang struct statement.

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 32
  • Position: #26 / 60
  • Number of attempts: 3
Swap values - 4535 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #504 / 1255
  • Number of attempts: 3
prepend * to every non-blank line - 6201 entries

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

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #177 / 1514
  • Number of attempts: 2
One number per line - 18613 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #806 / 3841
  • Number of attempts: 8
Right Align Part of the line - 117 entries

The challenge is to right align a part of the line - this is useful in some SQL queries where it's more clear which are the fields displayed

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #13 / 38
  • Number of attempts: 3
Quote modules - 1046 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #49 / 272
  • Number of attempts: 4
add line and index - 88 entries

a missed line and index names need to be added

  • Best score: 44
  • Best player score: 47
  • Position: #9 / 27
  • Number of attempts: 7
Aliases for cd - 849 entries

Create these beautiful aliases with as few strokes as possible. Are you up for the challenge?

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #22 / 150
  • Number of attempts: 14
Quote modules (ver.2) - 211 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #13 / 56
  • Number of attempts: 5
Swap values inside brackets - 2464 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #197 / 569
  • Number of attempts: 8
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: 10
  • Position: #131 / 224
  • Number of attempts: 7
V to the i - 4743 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1428 / 1878
  • 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: #436 / 840
  • Number of attempts: 4
Refactor typescript arrow function type - 302 entries

Make arrow function type less verbose and easier to read

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #36 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 6
Add string initializers to an enum - 862 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #86 / 254
  • Number of attempts: 3
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1177 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: 20
  • Position: #89 / 243
  • Number of attempts: 9
Add semicolons - 10785 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1301 / 3042
  • Number of attempts: 2
Bad Copy Syntax - 1999 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #169 / 514
  • Number of attempts: 5
Split line with dots - 2124 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #233 / 629
  • Number of attempts: 15
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3528 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #729 / 1142
  • Number of attempts: 3
Com(m)a Trouble - 3654 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #381 / 821
  • Number of attempts: 4
Box it - 7818 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #277 / 1861
  • Number of attempts: 5
Cool or not? - 793 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #112 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 20
  • Position: #184 / 376
  • Number of attempts: 5
html paragraph to table - 590 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

  • Best score: 48
  • Best player score: 48
  • Position: #15 / 123
  • Number of attempts: 16
From argument to object - 1474 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: #130 / 450
  • Number of attempts: 3
Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 735 entries

Clean and group.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #85 / 174
  • Number of attempts: 9
Every other line - 2886 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #251 / 700
  • Number of attempts: 8
Copy three lines - 2839 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #154 / 634
  • Number of attempts: 7
Extract argument from function - 2308 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #376 / 742
  • 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: #639 / 1585
  • Number of attempts: 2
That hyphen - 2554 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #267 / 694
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: #137 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 7
Just the middle - 11346 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #2999 / 4160
  • Number of attempts: 1
Team names - 1805 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #310 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 4
Basic renumbering - 5584 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #291 / 1257
  • Number of attempts: 8
Adam's challenge - 950 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: #92 / 265
  • Number of attempts: 7
ninja substitution - 1372 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #116 / 261
  • Number of attempts: 13
Vice versa - 7778 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #820 / 2095
  • Number of attempts: 3
One to Ten - 2159 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: #254 / 660
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 15
  • Position: #115 / 203
  • Number of attempts: 4
Line under headers - 1996 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #66 / 494
  • Number of attempts: 6
Increment each number - 977 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #112 / 242
  • Number of attempts: 11
Delete to the end of the current line - 738 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #320 / 363
  • Number of attempts: 1
Put the months in order - 932 entries

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

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #32 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 27
Reorder the groups - 1137 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #112 / 259
  • Number of attempts: 9
move titles next to url, in quotes - 504 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #22 / 135
  • Number of attempts: 9
Array transposition - 2378 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #153 / 443
  • Number of attempts: 12
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: 29
  • Position: #81 / 223
  • Number of attempts: 3
Collect List - 4261 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #615 / 1185
  • Number of attempts: 2
Space out the alphabet - 1627 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #130 / 440
  • Number of attempts: 8
I forgot quotes - 15922 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1201 / 4159
  • Number of attempts: 1
-a-b-c- - 3170 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #400 / 1127
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: #230 / 578
  • Number of attempts: 9
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10616 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1483 / 3663
  • Number of attempts: 2
attr_aligner - 3444 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #166 / 692
  • Number of attempts: 16
quotes inside quotes - 3124 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: #335 / 1071
  • Number of attempts: 5
Words in parens - 12848 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1785 / 3943
  • Number of attempts: 2
Draw the Go board - 140 entries

which is a 19×19 lines board. Here we use ascii characters only for simplicity. See diff file to get a sense. (See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game))

  • Best score: 50
  • Best player score: 68
  • Position: #26 / 48
  • Number of attempts: 9
ASCII-art Histogram - 310 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: 35
  • Position: #24 / 55
  • Number of attempts: 14
Alphabet soup - 419 entries

Create a column of all alphabet characters organized in a funky way

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #28 / 103
  • Number of attempts: 5
calculations - 262 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 38
  • Position: #11 / 64
  • Number of attempts: 9
Vertical Limit - 2436 entries

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

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #173 / 735
  • Number of attempts: 3
replacing each line of a block selection - 2925 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #120 / 764
  • Number of attempts: 10
switch variable - 5028 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #967 / 1734
  • Number of attempts: 1
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3290 entries

Convert tabs to spaces, strip empty lines and trailing whitespace.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #18 / 729
  • Number of attempts: 16
Simple text editing with Vim - 12233 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1801 / 3567
  • Number of attempts: 4
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6512 entries

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

  • Best score: 32
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #380 / 1603
  • Number of attempts: 25
floyd
Twitter:

entered into 77 challenges

contributed 0 challenges