VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Making 3 line function a one liner. - 312 entries

Simple challenge for frequent action while programming.

Best score: 4
Best player score: 4
Position: #12 / 200
Number of attempts: 1

Put a cross in the square - 210 entries

Put a cross in the square

Best score: 20
Best player score: 23
Position: #47 / 87
Number of attempts: 1

swap number pairs - 2023 entries

Swap the numbers in a bunch of 2-element arrays.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #2 / 373
Number of attempts: 7

Extend shell script - 110 entries

Just add some more stuff

Best score: 37
Best player score: 39
Position: #14 / 44
Number of attempts: 3

Easy modification of ssh config - 348 entries

Just add another alias to each worker

Best score: 24
Best player score: 24
Position: #10 / 108
Number of attempts: 6

ssh config skills - 250 entries

Parse output from `kuebctl get no -o wide` into an .ssh/config file!

Best score: 41
Best player score: 43
Position: #17 / 64
Number of attempts: 8

Change double quotes to single quotes, but with a twist - 291 entries

Although this challenge is in the context of a Python function, you don't need to know Python to do this challenge. It is to add contexts and interesting constraints. The file contains a function that prints a multi-line string literal. I wrote the string literal with double quotes, but then I decided to use single quotes instead, and that's your challenge. However, interestingly enough, the string itself contains single and double quotes. This means, inside the string literal, the originally escaped double quotes no longer need to be escaped, but the single quotes now need to be escaped. Note that the triple double quotes in the docstring should be left alone.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #10 / 55
Number of attempts: 10

Python: Def to Lambda - 441 entries

LAMBDA!!!

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #26 / 154
Number of attempts: 4

Satisfy the go linter - 2360 entries

You just came up with this briliant go vars package. But dang, you forgot to add comments to the exported variables. Can you add a comment over each variable with a TODO-placeholder?

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #79 / 465
Number of attempts: 9

Add quotes to ansible playbook - 946 entries

You created an ansible playbook, but forgot to add quotes. Can you fix it?

Best score: 8
Best player score: 9
Position: #142 / 302
Number of attempts: 5

Multiline to Single Line - 680 entries

Convert a multiline, indented file to a single line with no whitespace

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #95 / 298
Number of attempts: 2

Data reformat - 286 entries

Reformat this copy-paste data! #csv

Best score: 36
Best player score: 38
Position: #10 / 63
Number of attempts: 17

xrandr outputs and dashes - 671 entries

uh oh, different video drivers identify display outputs with more dashes. Quick, need to change this xrandr script!

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #94 / 218
Number of attempts: 1

From a Thunderlink to a Markdown link - 757 entries

ThunderLinks are durable hyperlinks to specific email messages generated from Thunderbird in HTML format. Leverage the power of vim to make them suitable for a markdown-formatted file.

Best score: 18
Best player score: 18
Position: #39 / 168
Number of attempts: 6

Capitalize the Names - 382 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: 21
Position: #22 / 95
Number of attempts: 6

Yo To Hello - 1127 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #274 / 522
Number of attempts: 4

Replace pattern with 1, 2, 3, ... on each line - 1114 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: 22
Position: #80 / 228
Number of attempts: 9

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33483 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: 22
Position: #2297 / 7384
Number of attempts: 4

Hogwarts Email Sorting - 891 entries

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

Best score: 20
Best player score: 22
Position: #164 / 257
Number of attempts: 1

Add text at some column - 162 entries

Complete golang struct statement.

Best score: 31
Best player score: 31
Position: #16 / 63
Number of attempts: 4

Swap values - 4554 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #337 / 1259
Number of attempts: 4

prepend * to every non-blank line - 6254 entries

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

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #687 / 1530
Number of attempts: 6

One number per line - 18673 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #713 / 3852
Number of attempts: 8

Quote modules - 1066 entries

Complete golang import statement.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 22
Position: #74 / 278
Number of attempts: 5

Aliases for cd - 877 entries

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

Best score: 30
Best player score: 34
Position: #46 / 154
Number of attempts: 13

Quote modules (ver.2) - 225 entries

Complete golang import statement.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 23
Position: #22 / 59
Number of attempts: 6

citizen_hacks_2019_challenge2 - 194 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

Best score: 6
Best player score: 6
Position: #50 / 101
Number of attempts: 1

Swap values inside brackets - 2477 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #100 / 573
Number of attempts: 3

Unsemantic linewrapping - 901 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: #144 / 226
Number of attempts: 8

V to the i - 4771 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 7
Position: #756 / 1887
Number of attempts: 2

Applying same text modification in several lines - 2851 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #255 / 843
Number of attempts: 9

Refactor typescript arrow function type - 307 entries

Make arrow function type less verbose and easier to read

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #17 / 70
Number of attempts: 4

Add string initializers to an enum - 866 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #56 / 256
Number of attempts: 7

SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1203 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: #107 / 247
Number of attempts: 2

Swap the operands under comparison - 274 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #23 / 99
Number of attempts: 3

Add semicolons - 10831 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #681 / 3055
Number of attempts: 3

Bad Copy Syntax - 2009 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #207 / 518
Number of attempts: 3

Split line with dots - 2131 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 20
Position: #386 / 633
Number of attempts: 3

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3556 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #826 / 1151
Number of attempts: 1

Com(m)a Trouble - 3711 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #133 / 839
Number of attempts: 7

Extract wireshark capture filter - 203 entries

Extract wireshark capture filter from IP plan

Best score: 25
Best player score: 27
Position: #38 / 69
Number of attempts: 2

Box it - 7849 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 23
Position: #792 / 1870
Number of attempts: 4

Cool or not? - 802 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #119 / 228
Number of attempts: 3

multiple cursor alternative - 1488 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: #190 / 378
Number of attempts: 4

html paragraph to table - 601 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

Best score: 48
Best player score: 48
Position: #18 / 125
Number of attempts: 11

From argument to object - 1481 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: 18
Position: #260 / 453
Number of attempts: 2

Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 747 entries

Clean and group.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #52 / 177
Number of attempts: 8

Every other line - 2902 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #72 / 702
Number of attempts: 10

Copy three lines - 2869 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #170 / 639
Number of attempts: 6

Convert Application Output to CSV - 195 entries

Change the application output to comma-separated values

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #32 / 55
Number of attempts: 5

Array propagate - 332 entries

Complete the array with the keys as part of the value

Best score: 23
Best player score: 23
Position: #21 / 117
Number of attempts: 4

Extract argument from function - 2337 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #386 / 750
Number of attempts: 4

Search and Replace 0 - 4853 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #661 / 1605
Number of attempts: 3

Preferably without multi-cursor plugin - 539 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: 31
Position: #32 / 128
Number of attempts: 2

Number Sort - 307 entries

sort the list of newline-separated numbers incrementally. Numbers are in the range 1 to 1000, with 500 missing

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #123 / 165
Number of attempts: 1

That hyphen - 2572 entries

"vim vi improved"

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #228 / 698
Number of attempts: 12

comment and uncomment code inline - 1074 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: #143 / 316
Number of attempts: 4

Just the middle - 11380 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #3135 / 4174
Number of attempts: 1

Team names - 1812 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #268 / 585
Number of attempts: 7

Make HTML List - 1050 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

Best score: 33
Best player score: 34
Position: #29 / 273
Number of attempts: 7

Learn some german verbs - 532 entries

The list needs to be structured so we can print in verbatim and feel ok about how it looks.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #48 / 132
Number of attempts: 7

Todo list specification - 389 entries

The every item on the todo list must be done today. Modify the list to reflect that.

Best score: 37
Best player score: 37
Position: #85 / 178
Number of attempts: 1

Remember VimGolf Rules ! - 260 entries

Rules, ... and don't forget !

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #121 / 140
Number of attempts: 1

Missing Library and a Typo - 860 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: 16
Position: #97 / 211
Number of attempts: 5

Basic renumbering - 5605 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #244 / 1260
Number of attempts: 2

Simple addition - 312 entries

The right side of the equation is already there. We just need the left one now.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #54 / 118
Number of attempts: 4

Adam's challenge - 958 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: #94 / 267
Number of attempts: 5

Create a table - 332 entries

Convert the given input into a formatted table

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #43 / 105
Number of attempts: 3

Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 841 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: #147 / 288
Number of attempts: 1

ninja substitution - 1399 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #71 / 265
Number of attempts: 7

Vice versa - 7865 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #845 / 2114
Number of attempts: 4

Paragraph sort - 431 entries

My large herbivorous mammals, Vim commands, and POSIX utilities need to be sorted separately.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #39 / 124
Number of attempts: 3

Triangle of arrows - 181 entries

I made this by accident when working on another challenge. How would you go about making this?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 24
Position: #29 / 43
Number of attempts: 2

Order and join - 965 entries

There's something special about the input order.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #71 / 258
Number of attempts: 7

Paragraph breaks - 509 entries

Swap the blank lines and the aaa lines.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #82 / 166
Number of attempts: 10

comments galore - 1017 entries

Basic comment reformatting

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #288 / 421
Number of attempts: 1

Replace and keep the case - 415 entries

Replace all instance of plugin and Plugin to device and Device.

Best score: 26
Best player score: 26
Position: #52 / 117
Number of attempts: 6

Align commas - 1063 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: #109 / 243
Number of attempts: 6

Hello ${world} - 300 entries

Migrate a JavaScript String from concatenation to ES6 interpolation.

Best score: 24
Best player score: 24
Position: #33 / 95
Number of attempts: 4

One to Ten - 2174 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: #320 / 664
Number of attempts: 2

Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 648 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: #121 / 205
Number of attempts: 3

Line under headers - 2023 entries

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

Best score: 24
Best player score: 25
Position: #44 / 498
Number of attempts: 8

Build a six - 277 entries

Just enjoy building "a" floors...

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #55 / 94
Number of attempts: 1

Increment each number - 995 entries

Increment each number individually by one

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #55 / 245
Number of attempts: 16

Around the clock - 191 entries

You'll want to use 2 special commands to complete this. If you haven't yet, read through 'input.txt', especially :help simple-changes

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #50 / 76
Number of attempts: 4

Join 'em - 251 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

Best score: 4
Best player score: 5
Position: #128 / 151
Number of attempts: 1

Delete to the end of the current line - 795 entries

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

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #238 / 387
Number of attempts: 1

Song Transcription Oops - 236 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: #49 / 77
Number of attempts: 3

change parenthesis - 287 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #75 / 160
Number of attempts: 2

Remove quotes after first field - 367 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #26 / 90
Number of attempts: 8

Put the months in order - 972 entries

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

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #14 / 161
Number of attempts: 14

Reorder the groups - 1146 entries

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

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #80 / 262
Number of attempts: 4

move titles next to url, in quotes - 510 entries

had trouble with something similar

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #25 / 137
Number of attempts: 7

Array transposition - 2407 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #37 / 445
Number of attempts: 4

convert yml into java pojo field - 837 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: 30
Position: #126 / 225
Number of attempts: 3

Simple format (2) - 335 entries

try again!

Best score: 23
Best player score: 23
Position: #16 / 70
Number of attempts: 9

Collect List - 4267 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #499 / 1188
Number of attempts: 11

Space out the alphabet - 1630 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #103 / 442
Number of attempts: 5

Mute the second method of this script - 449 entries

prepend a # infront of every line of the second method

Best score: 8
Best player score: 9
Position: #141 / 238
Number of attempts: 1

I forgot quotes - 15946 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 12
Position: #1385 / 4166
Number of attempts: 8

-a-b-c- - 3183 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #416 / 1132
Number of attempts: 4

Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1136 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 32
Position: #289 / 298
Number of attempts: 1

Don't know what this is - 1996 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: #235 / 581
Number of attempts: 4

Mess in revision history - 1183 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #66 / 249
Number of attempts: 5

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10652 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #1561 / 3677
Number of attempts: 3

attr_aligner - 3454 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 19
Position: #170 / 695
Number of attempts: 18

Letter case trickery - 1598 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: 9
Position: #31 / 514
Number of attempts: 4

quotes inside quotes - 3128 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: #342 / 1073
Number of attempts: 4

Words in parens - 12868 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #1134 / 3950
Number of attempts: 2

SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1594 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: #244 / 443
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: 58
Position: #40 / 57
Number of attempts: 5

Saving the hashes(#) - 2008 entries

The following file is copied from vimcasts.org(Its only for learning purpose,hope the site owner doesn't mind it), its probably the easiest of challenges.Our goal is to delete every line which doesn't contain a hash signs. The remaining hash signs with numbers are then sorted to get the final output.

Best score: 20
Best player score: 20
Position: #68 / 476
Number of attempts: 11

Alphabet soup - 425 entries

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

Best score: 25
Best player score: 26
Position: #43 / 106
Number of attempts: 7

calculations - 297 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

Best score: 38
Best player score: 39
Position: #28 / 67
Number of attempts: 10

Vertical Limit - 2487 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #90 / 748
Number of attempts: 8

replacing each line of a block selection - 2966 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #219 / 772
Number of attempts: 9

Switch function arguments - 2085 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #175 / 653
Number of attempts: 3

switch variable - 5045 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #633 / 1742
Number of attempts: 7

Make it more readable - 1955 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #193 / 643
Number of attempts: 4

Numbering a List - 1869 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #57 / 646
Number of attempts: 1

Shebangs for all - 1917 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: 11
Position: #60 / 502
Number of attempts: 5

Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3508 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #142 / 758
Number of attempts: 9

Simple text editing with Vim - 12491 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #1867 / 3626
Number of attempts: 1