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 - 33614 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: #54 / 7418
  • Number of attempts: 6
Prime Numbers - 374 entries

List the first 100 prime numbers.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 52
  • Position: #60 / 105
  • Number of attempts: 5
Word Blender - 148 entries

The insides of long words seem to have been run through the blender. Can you fix this famous tale, brave knight?

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 67
  • Position: #38 / 57
  • Number of attempts: 2
Wrap the text of an email message to 79 characters - 764 entries

You're replying to an email with silly long lines. Clean them up.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #84 / 409
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 4989 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #920 / 1624
  • Number of attempts: 1
Interweave two blocks of text - 659 entries

Suppose you've got data on a list of things from multiple sources. They're all in separate chunks, so how might you create a tabular output?

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #107 / 214
  • Number of attempts: 3
Todo list specification - 399 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: #25 / 179
  • Number of attempts: 2
Python Hello World! Reformatting - 994 entries

A novice Python using prints Hello World! and a pro shows him different way. Using vim to get into pro style from novice, win the challenge.

  • Best score: 39
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #107 / 380
  • Number of attempts: 5
Missing Library and a Typo - 887 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: 21
  • Position: #154 / 213
  • Number of attempts: 1
Vice versa - 7904 entries

Little role switching.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #2013 / 2126
  • Number of attempts: 1
Array transposition - 2416 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 29
  • Position: #352 / 447
  • Number of attempts: 1
Cartesian product - 255 entries

{1,2,3,4,5} X {1,2,3,4,5}

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 32
  • Position: #44 / 95
  • Number of attempts: 2
Changing URL path in CSS - 138 entries

What's the quickest way to swap out all the URLs in a CSS file? Is it wasted keystrokes using look-behinds and look-aheads? (I'm sorry for the delete/report--I made a mistake with the last one requiring an ugly search for graphic to replace with images. I just intended this to be a simple search and replace that might possibly generate some macros or normals solutions that are quicker)

  • Best score: 40
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #26 / 62
  • Number of attempts: 1
Create a pandoc compatible table - 214 entries

In [this vimcast][1], a featured gist from Tim Pope shows how to quickly make a simple table structure. How fast can you convert it to pandoc's markdown style? [1]: http://vimcasts.org/episodes/aligning-text-with-tabular-vim/

  • Best score: 32
  • Best player score: 44
  • Position: #32 / 56
  • Number of attempts: 1
Cleanining up 80 column concatenated text - 203 entries

1. Put the whole query on one line, remove the concatenation operators 2. Remove the double spaces that appear a few times in the query 3. Use string-interpolated variable statementPid rather than the ugly concatenation

  • Best score: 31
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #31 / 79
  • Number of attempts: 3
Recursively Palindrome - 267 entries

Note that there are 2^6-1 characters.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #62 / 75
  • Number of attempts: 2
Exchanging Quotes - 858 entries

Sometimes you need to exchange a choice of quotes in some code.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #69 / 230
  • Number of attempts: 5
replacing each line of a block selection - 2999 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #305 / 777
  • Number of attempts: 1
Switch function arguments - 2139 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #351 / 663
  • Number of attempts: 5
Append semicolon after expressions - 1056 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #169 / 419
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reverse and double space - 500 entries

Reverse the order of the given lines and double space everything

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #91 / 199
  • Number of attempts: 4
Remove noise from HTTP log - 717 entries

This piece of log (from the year 2000) contains some irrelevant data. We only want to see the HTTP method and resource.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #39 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 2
constructor - 182 entries

coding a constructor for a simple class

  • Best score: 59
  • Best player score: 87
  • Position: #21 / 60
  • Number of attempts: 4
Remove semicolons after expressions - 654 entries

A follow-up for http://vimgolf.com/challenges/4fc9d767d3a0d4000100000e.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #180 / 263
  • Number of attempts: 3
switch variable - 5071 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #676 / 1748
  • Number of attempts: 3
The meaning - 575 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #72 / 363
  • Number of attempts: 1
Calculate the table totals - 146 entries

Go ahead... commit the treachery of using vim as a spreadsheet.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 59
  • Position: #30 / 45
  • Number of attempts: 2
Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 1009 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #37 / 193
  • Number of attempts: 5
Replacing some words - 428 entries

How fast could it be?

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #56 / 151
  • Number of attempts: 2
PHP <--> Java class conversion Part 1 - 254 entries

Convert this tiny php class to adequate java one.

  • Best score: 65
  • Best player score: 77
  • Position: #13 / 63
  • Number of attempts: 10
Sort the cardinal numbers - 310 entries

Maybe a simple challenge.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #98 / 148
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make it more readable - 2005 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #125 / 650
  • Number of attempts: 6
Line Zipper - 473 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #144 / 215
  • Number of attempts: 2
remove dupes from array - 1358 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: 22
  • Position: #156 / 336
  • Number of attempts: 2
PHP <--> Java class conversion Part 2 - 98 entries

Same class but reverse!

  • Best score: 79
  • Best player score: 115
  • Position: #18 / 39
  • Number of attempts: 4
Alphabetize the directory - 298 entries

Put the contacts and their information in alphabetical order.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #82 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 2
Complete the hex array data - 197 entries

Do not use external tools(e.g. tac, seq) [My interpretation of Rule #7]

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #41 / 74
  • Number of attempts: 1
Case preserving word replacement - 454 entries

Half way through my project, my people turned into dogs. Now I have to change everything in my source.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #135 / 180
  • Number of attempts: 3
Complete the hex array data (Part II) - 166 entries

Do not use external tools(e.g. tac, seq) [My interpretation of Rule #7]

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #68 / 69
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sort entries based on date - 392 entries

Sort some entries in a Ledger-file based on date.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #8 / 117
  • Number of attempts: 4
Refactor to Helpers - 50 entries

This Rails partial is almost all template escapes. Put it into a helper, and refactor each case to methods so we can build out the controls for each. (I've converted to tabs - fighting with Vimgolf's default config shouldn't be part of the challenge.)

  • Best score: 147
  • Best player score: 210
  • Position: #9 / 25
  • Number of attempts: 1
Here, piggy, piggy... - 80 entries

Youay owknay atwhay otay oday...

  • Best score: 68
  • Best player score: 73
  • Position: #6 / 23
  • Number of attempts: 9
Happy New Year! - 145 entries

This is a simple new year's challenge.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #28 / 59
  • Number of attempts: 2
imports alignment (python) - 700 entries

Align as one import per line.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #52 / 198
  • Number of attempts: 3
Generate Fibonacci Numbers - 280 entries

Use your super vim powers to generate Fibonacci Numbers.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #40 / 100
  • Number of attempts: 2
It'ss tooo coold too typpe todaay - 224 entries

My hands are numb with cold. It's hard to type correctly.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #36 / 98
  • Number of attempts: 6
Rotating Philosophers Problem - 410 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: 32
  • Position: #112 / 166
  • Number of attempts: 2
Before there was Farmville... - 101 entries

There was old MacDonald. For my toddler. The first Vim sing-a-long?

  • Best score: 156
  • Best player score: 220
  • Position: #25 / 49
  • Number of attempts: 1
HTML to Haml - 878 entries

Help convert this HTML page to Haml.

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #89 / 204
  • Number of attempts: 4
expand a list comprehension (python) - 333 entries

Please show your way to convert a list comprehension in python to an ordinary for-loop expression!

  • Best score: 42
  • Best player score: 43
  • Position: #24 / 109
  • Number of attempts: 7
Reformat long lines - 358 entries

Rearrange this ruby method call to put each parameter on its own line. Could become a useful macro.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #101 / 134
  • Number of attempts: 2
Generate English Alphabets - 487 entries

Start with a, get up to z.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #108 / 206
  • Number of attempts: 1
Insert a Markdown link - 438 entries

Put a link in a markdown document, using the after-the-paragraph format.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #57 / 146
  • Number of attempts: 3
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 - 163 entries

Somebody's got this slightly muddled up. See how quickly you can fix it. (I made this to experiment with buffers. I'm not actually sure whether this is faster with buffers or without.)

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #30 / 71
  • Number of attempts: 2
Getters & Setters: Java - 207 entries

Boilerplate getters & setters - it's a tedious fact of life in Java, and probably the only thing that still pulls me back to an IDE. Perhaps someone knows a fast, pure vim way...

  • Best score: 89
  • Best player score: 99
  • Position: #16 / 58
  • Number of attempts: 5
Solve the Sokoban - 177 entries

A wink for all Vimgolfers that play Nethack too.

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #32 / 74
  • Number of attempts: 2
Java Array2List - 233 entries

Convert an java array initializer into a list.

  • Best score: 67
  • Best player score: 85
  • Position: #26 / 87
  • Number of attempts: 5
The holy-grail may help - 366 entries

Can you find it in less than 20 strokes, Arthur?

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #100 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ruby 1.9 hashes - 1244 entries

Rubyists talk about being cutting edge but how many are using 1.9 in production? Time to convert those verbose 1.8 hashes in to symbolic, succinct 1.9 beauties!

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #212 / 406
  • Number of attempts: 2
CSV to JSON - 173 entries

A search for shortest vimissh way to convert CSV to JSON.

  • Best score: 56
  • Best player score: 81
  • Position: #18 / 66
  • Number of attempts: 4
Assignment Alignment - 883 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #20 / 220
  • Number of attempts: 9
Shebangs for all - 1998 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: 12
  • Position: #113 / 515
  • Number of attempts: 8
A Simple One - 1050 entries

Here is a very simple one - just to illustrate/introduce a vim feature that some people seem to miss...

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #234 / 664
  • Number of attempts: 1
82 bottles of beer on the wall - 313 entries

Take them down. (sorry, only 82 bottles because the problem size is limited!)

  • Best score: 106
  • Best player score: 120
  • Position: #39 / 146
  • Number of attempts: 1
Table Reshuffle - 429 entries

Fix the column order in this table... also append the new 'username' column.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #16 / 139
  • Number of attempts: 6
Reverse and count - 473 entries

Someone typed things upside down and now a Vim ninja needs to reverse the lines and count how many there are.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #145 / 176
  • Number of attempts: 1
Another Mixed-Up Haiku - 265 entries

VimGolf ... a perfect evening?

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #50 / 90
  • Number of attempts: 4
Ruby 1.9 compat - 629 entries

Remember when Ruby supported `when <expr> :`? Well, it doesn't in 1.9, so let's make sure we use `then`, without ruining our lovely new hash syntax!

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #24 / 234
  • Number of attempts: 6
Reverse Simple Deletion - 847 entries

You did the simple deletion, now reverse it.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #211 / 458
  • Number of attempts: 5
Increment, increment, increment.... - 688 entries

Vim likes macros

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #212 / 408
  • Number of attempts: 1
Sorting paragraphs - 534 entries

Order the paragraphs correctly, per prefixed index

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #63 / 163
  • Number of attempts: 4
Indentation - 542 entries

Indent each line according to the right number of spaces it needs.

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #121 / 178
  • Number of attempts: 1
Hatsuyume - 532 entries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsuyume

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #53 / 186
  • Number of attempts: 3
Turn this csv list into queries - 252 entries

Transform each line of this csv file into a MySQL-ready INSERT query.

  • Best score: 98
  • Best player score: 113
  • Position: #30 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 3
The Cake is a Lie - 1346 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #108 / 527
  • Number of attempts: 3
Fix the Haiku - 308 entries

Change this slightly scrambled haiku to its unscrambled form and fix the capitalisation and punctuation along the way.

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #25 / 113
  • Number of attempts: 4
Context insensitive completion 0 - 577 entries

Buried in the lines you're not supposed to add is the line "Add this line!" Add that line to the top of the file.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #135 / 246
  • Number of attempts: 3
Compile C - 430 entries

You might have to get clever to do this one.

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #53 / 141
  • Number of attempts: 1
Context Insensitive completion 1 - 498 entries

Finish writing this simple Python HTTP server.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #76 / 245
  • Number of attempts: 4
Almost encrypted - 204 entries

Convert the first paragraph to be even less readable.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #74 / 146
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make Fancy Header - 1052 entries

Make the header text stand out with surrounding asterisks

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #47 / 344
  • Number of attempts: 6
Reformat some Python - 609 entries

Fix some very bizarrely laid-out code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #49 / 236
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reformat a C golf submission - 604 entries

Take this C golf submission (for the "tiny but standards-compliant Hello World program" category, naturally), and turn it into formatted C code.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #36 / 208
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reverse characters in a line - 771 entries

You have everything you need, just not in the right order. Mastermind would give you 26 white pegs.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #40 / 265
  • Number of attempts: 2
PEP8 Python Wrapping Comments and Code - 210 entries

According to PEP8, long flowy text and code should have different max line lengths. Code: 79 characters max Long flowy text: 72 characters max

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #42 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat most common surnames - 717 entries

Reformat copy-pasted table into a list of the most common surnames

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 27
  • Position: #83 / 210
  • Number of attempts: 5
Remember FizzBuzz? - 724 entries

Output FizzBuzz to 100. Start with nothing.

  • Best score: 39
  • Best player score: 62
  • Position: #121 / 189
  • Number of attempts: 2
Change the content of a string - 1575 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #62 / 587
  • Number of attempts: 3
Sort and add attributes - 1447 entries

Sort the states and add the attribute country to each record.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #321 / 562
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add fold markers to a .c file - 618 entries

Fold markers can make it easier to navigate source code. Add them to this .c file.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #72 / 182
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reconstruct the Sentence - 1498 entries

Get the sentence back in the proper order, remove duplicate lines, and then combine the separate lines into one.

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #261 / 411
  • Number of attempts: 3
Braces or Brackets? - 1014 entries

Someone forgot whether to use braces or brackets and you have to clean up their code!

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #88 / 314
  • Number of attempts: 2
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3647 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #280 / 784
  • Number of attempts: 6
Flodder-challenge - 1259 entries

Replace the text the most efficient and win!

  • Best score: 27
  • Best player score: 36
  • Position: #168 / 334
  • Number of attempts: 2
Simple text editing with Vim - 12787 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #2157 / 3688
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6972 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #332 / 1703
  • Number of attempts: 2
William Dunand
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entered into 96 challenges

contributed 0 challenges