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 - 1710 entries

The goal is to see the replacement commands in action.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #21 / 378
  • Number of attempts: 9
Inverting Lines - 1870 entries

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

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #39 / 505
  • Number of attempts: 2
Generate a very basic Python constructor - 315 entries

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

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 38
  • Position: #7 / 97
  • Number of attempts: 11
Python dataclasses - 1121 entries

Simple challenge to extract fields from a Python class

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #8 / 281
  • Number of attempts: 2
RUST Cargo.toml version to last - 332 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #42 / 99
  • Number of attempts: 4
RUST match with enum for Coin - 183 entries

RUST match with enum for Coin rusty practice on vimgolf

  • Best score: 84
  • Best player score: 100
  • Position: #20 / 53
  • Number of attempts: 3
Modernise code - 1368 entries

Modernise and clean up some C++ code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 37
  • Position: #107 / 316
  • 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: 17
  • Position: #83 / 373
  • Number of attempts: 12
HS Final exam vimgolf - 892 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 / 234
  • Number of attempts: 6
Python: Def to Lambda - 441 entries

LAMBDA!!!

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #37 / 154
  • Number of attempts: 4
Turn the x - 317 entries

Turn the x to a +

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #8 / 80
  • Number of attempts: 7
Rural Post - 4427 entries

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

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #107 / 1086
  • Number of attempts: 12
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: #87 / 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: 8
  • Position: #43 / 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: #131 / 298
  • Number of attempts: 1
Data reformat - 286 entries

Reformat this copy-paste data! #csv

  • Best score: 36
  • Best player score: 55
  • Position: #41 / 63
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: #101 / 218
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: #45 / 168
  • Number of attempts: 8
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: #32 / 95
  • Number of attempts: 9
Yo To Hello - 1127 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #306 / 522
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 21
  • Position: #31 / 228
  • Number of attempts: 11
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: #2313 / 7384
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: 21
  • Position: #94 / 257
  • Number of attempts: 4
Get mail address from outlook format - 642 entries

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

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #148 / 202
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap values - 4554 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #342 / 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: #698 / 1530
  • Number of attempts: 8
One number per line - 18673 entries

Just give me the numbers.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #827 / 3852
  • Number of attempts: 14
Quote modules - 1066 entries

Complete golang import statement.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #94 / 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: 41
  • Position: #64 / 154
  • Number of attempts: 14
Swap values inside brackets - 2477 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #209 / 573
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 9
  • Position: #84 / 226
  • Number of attempts: 5
V to the i - 4771 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #767 / 1887
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 17
  • Position: #644 / 843
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add string initializers to an enum - 866 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #229 / 256
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: #109 / 247
  • Number of attempts: 12
Add semicolons - 10831 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1682 / 3055
  • Number of attempts: 1
Bad Copy Syntax - 2009 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #23 / 518
  • Number of attempts: 6
Split line with dots - 2131 entries

This line is too long, split it.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #564 / 633
  • Number of attempts: 1
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3556 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #834 / 1151
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: #140 / 839
  • Number of attempts: 4
Box it - 7849 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #798 / 1870
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: #192 / 378
  • Number of attempts: 6
Every other line - 2902 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #75 / 702
  • Number of attempts: 7
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: 16
  • Position: #276 / 639
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: 13
  • Position: #252 / 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: #665 / 1605
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 33
  • Position: #54 / 128
  • Number of attempts: 4
That hyphen - 2572 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #230 / 698
  • Number of attempts: 7
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: #144 / 316
  • Number of attempts: 6
Just the middle - 11380 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #1458 / 4174
  • Number of attempts: 2
Team names - 1812 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #274 / 585
  • Number of attempts: 2
Basic renumbering - 5605 entries

Renumbering Basic.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #248 / 1260
  • Number of attempts: 3
ninja substitution - 1399 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #73 / 265
  • Number of attempts: 7
Vice versa - 7865 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #584 / 2114
  • Number of attempts: 6
comments galore - 1017 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #287 / 421
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: #324 / 664
  • Number of attempts: 7
Line under headers - 2023 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #270 / 498
  • Number of attempts: 5
Increment each number - 995 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #116 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 9
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: #81 / 262
  • Number of attempts: 16
move titles next to url, in quotes - 510 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #113 / 137
  • Number of attempts: 1
Array transposition - 2407 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #38 / 445
  • Number of attempts: 13
Collect List - 4267 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #502 / 1188
  • Number of attempts: 7
I forgot quotes - 15946 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #1099 / 4166
  • Number of attempts: 6
-a-b-c- - 3183 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #299 / 1132
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: 15
  • Position: #417 / 581
  • Number of attempts: 1
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10652 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #2488 / 3677
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 17
  • Position: #475 / 514
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: 16
  • Position: #662 / 1073
  • Number of attempts: 2
Words in parens - 12868 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #1851 / 3950
  • Number of attempts: 3
Alphabet soup - 425 entries

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

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #70 / 106
  • Number of attempts: 4
switch variable - 5045 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #641 / 1742
  • Number of attempts: 2
Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 978 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #30 / 188
  • Number of attempts: 19
Make it more readable - 1955 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #192 / 643
  • Number of attempts: 7
Rotating Philosophers Problem - 392 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 / 165
  • Number of attempts: 5
Numbering a List - 1869 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #56 / 646
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: #1875 / 3626
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6749 entries

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

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 39
  • Position: #748 / 1652
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ray Dennis
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entered into 77 challenges

contributed 0 challenges