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 replacements - 1873 entries

The goal is to see the replacement commands in action.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #21 / 401
  • Number of attempts: 9
Inverting Lines - 1954 entries

A simple challenge to invert all lines, except the first.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #39 / 523
  • Number of attempts: 2
Generate a very basic Python constructor - 336 entries

I actually needed to do this myself, so I look forward to learning how.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 38
  • Position: #7 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 11
Python dataclasses - 1248 entries

Simple challenge to extract fields from a Python class

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #8 / 311
  • Number of attempts: 2
RUST Cargo.toml version to last - 394 entries

RUST Cargo.toml version to last. rusty practice on vimgolf

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #45 / 105
  • Number of attempts: 4
RUST match with enum for Coin - 195 entries

RUST match with enum for Coin rusty practice on vimgolf

  • Best score: 84
  • Best player score: 100
  • Position: #21 / 55
  • Number of attempts: 3
Modernise code - 1434 entries

Modernise and clean up some C++ code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #112 / 331
  • Number of attempts: 1
swap number pairs - 2169 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #86 / 393
  • Number of attempts: 12
HS Final exam vimgolf - 933 entries

Change the initial file to a single line containing all names comma-separated with numbers inside parentheses.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #10 / 244
  • Number of attempts: 6
Python: Def to Lambda - 474 entries

LAMBDA!!!

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #37 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 4
Turn the x - 339 entries

Turn the x to a +

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #8 / 84
  • Number of attempts: 7
Rural Post - 4591 entries

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

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #107 / 1120
  • Number of attempts: 12
Satisfy the go linter - 2482 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: #87 / 494
  • Number of attempts: 9
Add quotes to ansible playbook - 1039 entries

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

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #43 / 329
  • Number of attempts: 5
Multiline to Single Line - 751 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #131 / 320
  • Number of attempts: 1
Data reformat - 319 entries

Reformat this copy-paste data! #csv

  • Best score: 36
  • Best player score: 55
  • Position: #43 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 3
xrandr outputs and dashes - 730 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: #101 / 227
  • Number of attempts: 2
From a Thunderlink to a Markdown link - 796 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: #45 / 175
  • Number of attempts: 8
Capitalize the Names - 429 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: #32 / 100
  • Number of attempts: 9
Yo To Hello - 1154 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #307 / 535
  • Number of attempts: 2
Replace pattern with 1, 2, 3, ... on each line - 1158 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: 21
  • Position: #31 / 234
  • Number of attempts: 11
Simple, Practical, and Common - 33958 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: #2313 / 7498
  • Number of attempts: 9
Hogwarts Email Sorting - 948 entries

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

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #96 / 268
  • Number of attempts: 4
Get mail address from outlook format - 656 entries

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

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #150 / 205
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap values - 4693 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #342 / 1289
  • Number of attempts: 4
prepend * to every non-blank line - 6388 entries

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

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #707 / 1559
  • Number of attempts: 8
One number per line - 18889 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #835 / 3898
  • Number of attempts: 14
Quote modules - 1099 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #96 / 287
  • Number of attempts: 5
Aliases for cd - 908 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 41
  • Position: #65 / 158
  • Number of attempts: 14
Swap values inside brackets - 2545 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #214 / 591
  • Number of attempts: 2
Unsemantic linewrapping - 943 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: #84 / 235
  • Number of attempts: 5
V to the i - 4848 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #767 / 1907
  • Number of attempts: 3
Applying same text modification in several lines - 2927 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #664 / 865
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add string initializers to an enum - 899 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #235 / 264
  • Number of attempts: 1
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1269 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: #110 / 264
  • Number of attempts: 12
Add semicolons - 10932 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1694 / 3091
  • Number of attempts: 1
Bad Copy Syntax - 2078 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #23 / 540
  • Number of attempts: 6
Split line with dots - 2174 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #568 / 638
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3643 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #846 / 1181
  • Number of attempts: 2
Com(m)a Trouble - 3987 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #140 / 907
  • Number of attempts: 4
Box it - 7997 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #803 / 1897
  • Number of attempts: 4
multiple cursor alternative - 1556 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: #194 / 386
  • Number of attempts: 6
Every other line - 2945 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #75 / 710
  • Number of attempts: 7
Copy three lines - 2909 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #278 / 644
  • Number of attempts: 9
Extract argument from function - 2392 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #252 / 765
  • Number of attempts: 4
Search and Replace 0 - 5089 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #665 / 1658
  • Number of attempts: 4
Preferably without multi-cursor plugin - 557 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: 33
  • Position: #55 / 133
  • Number of attempts: 4
That hyphen - 2624 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #230 / 708
  • Number of attempts: 7
comment and uncomment code inline - 1158 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: #144 / 329
  • Number of attempts: 6
Just the middle - 11572 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #1458 / 4240
  • Number of attempts: 2
Team names - 1858 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #274 / 594
  • Number of attempts: 2
Basic renumbering - 5731 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #248 / 1277
  • Number of attempts: 3
ninja substitution - 1436 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #73 / 270
  • Number of attempts: 7
Vice versa - 7995 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #584 / 2151
  • Number of attempts: 6
comments galore - 1079 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #287 / 431
  • Number of attempts: 3
One to Ten - 2246 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: #324 / 684
  • Number of attempts: 7
Line under headers - 2093 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #275 / 514
  • Number of attempts: 5
Increment each number - 1062 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #118 / 257
  • Number of attempts: 9
Reorder the groups - 1195 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #81 / 267
  • Number of attempts: 16
move titles next to url, in quotes - 558 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #119 / 147
  • Number of attempts: 1
Array transposition - 2472 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #38 / 458
  • Number of attempts: 13
Collect List - 4332 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #502 / 1196
  • Number of attempts: 7
I forgot quotes - 16176 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #1099 / 4216
  • Number of attempts: 6
-a-b-c- - 3229 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #299 / 1142
  • Number of attempts: 5
Don't know what this is - 2036 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: 15
  • Position: #421 / 589
  • Number of attempts: 1
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10743 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #2506 / 3710
  • Number of attempts: 1
Letter case trickery - 1650 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: 17
  • Position: #481 / 521
  • Number of attempts: 2
quotes inside quotes - 3191 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: 16
  • Position: #667 / 1088
  • Number of attempts: 2
Words in parens - 13024 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1868 / 3983
  • Number of attempts: 3
Alphabet soup - 445 entries

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

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #72 / 111
  • Number of attempts: 4
switch variable - 5110 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #641 / 1758
  • Number of attempts: 2
Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 1016 entries

convert an ugly spreadsheet copy/paste into a CSV format.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #31 / 196
  • Number of attempts: 19
Make it more readable - 2028 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #197 / 656
  • Number of attempts: 7
Rotating Philosophers Problem - 411 entries

Can you help the philosophers find a good place to sit before they get five forks and spaghetti?

  • Best score: 29
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #28 / 167
  • Number of attempts: 5
Numbering a List - 1942 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #56 / 658
  • Number of attempts: 2
Simple text editing with Vim - 13468 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1928 / 3865
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7564 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 39
  • Position: #804 / 1865
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ray Dennis
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entered into 77 challenges

contributed 0 challenges