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

Wget failed to download redirections - 202 entries

Output of a wget session, where 302 where not properly handled due to certificate problems, has been saved to a file. Keep the correct URLs to start again downloading.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #57 / 65
  • Number of attempts: 1
Prime Numbers - 376 entries

List the first 100 prime numbers.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 43
  • Position: #45 / 106
  • Number of attempts: 10
Wrap the text of an email message to 79 characters - 795 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #111 / 417
  • Number of attempts: 1
Search and Replace 0 - 4999 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #159 / 1628
  • Number of attempts: 5
Just the middle - 11473 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #192 / 4205
  • Number of attempts: 6
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: #120 / 214
  • Number of attempts: 3
Python Hello World! Reformatting - 996 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: 40
  • Position: #17 / 381
  • Number of attempts: 6
Sierpinski's Triangle - 86 entries

Build the famous fractal, Sierpinski's Triangle.

  • Best score: 25
  • Best player score: 41
  • Position: #20 / 27
  • Number of attempts: 1
Happy TvvO - 427 entries

Don’t forget the past, learn from it. Happy New Year.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #26 / 206
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 16007 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #130 / 4186
  • Number of attempts: 5
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10676 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #664 / 3687
  • Number of attempts: 3
Words in parens - 12944 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #525 / 3965
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 32
  • Position: #4 / 56
  • Number of attempts: 5
Convert pandoc unordered list to a numbered list - 166 entries

I know it's possible to use #. in pandoc to auto-generate numbered lists, but then it's not easy to tell how many items there are when reading it in Markdown. How fast can you make the switch?

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 24
  • Position: #21 / 57
  • Number of attempts: 3
Create an alphabet diamond - 105 entries

Here's a brain teaser to keep things interesting...

  • Best score: 37
  • Best player score: 58
  • Position: #17 / 32
  • Number of attempts: 3
Inconsistent real estate paste - 216 entries

Format a hand-typed real estate listing that uses inconsistent punctuation into four sections

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #28 / 58
  • Number of attempts: 2
Aligning function arguments to match a specific coding style - 247 entries

Most projects have specific coding style guidelines. In this case, the argument list must be broken into a new line for each argument, with the argument names right aligned, taking into account pointers.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #25 / 71
  • Number of attempts: 3
Exchanging Quotes - 858 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 32
  • Position: #50 / 230
  • Number of attempts: 6
replacing each line of a block selection - 3001 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #20 / 778
  • Number of attempts: 6
Switch function arguments - 2140 entries

How to switch two arguments of a function.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #201 / 664
  • Number of attempts: 2
Append semicolon after expressions - 1056 entries

Some lines need the semicolon, some don't.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #155 / 419
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reverse and double space - 500 entries

Reverse the order of the given lines and double space everything

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #8 / 199
  • Number of attempts: 2
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: #8 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 2
constructor - 182 entries

coding a constructor for a simple class

  • Best score: 59
  • Best player score: 82
  • Position: #18 / 60
  • Number of attempts: 2
Remove semicolons after expressions - 654 entries

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

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #8 / 263
  • Number of attempts: 2
un-C-escape string - 58 entries

Convert escape sequences to characters

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #16 / 52
  • Number of attempts: 1
switch variable - 5079 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #97 / 1749
  • Number of attempts: 4
The meaning - 575 entries

Numbers are fun!

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #28 / 363
  • Number of attempts: 2
Format the output - 146 entries

Sometimes your standard out is a little hard to read. Take this multilevel hash and make it human readable.

  • Best score: 35
  • Best player score: 42
  • Position: #15 / 40
  • Number of attempts: 5
Calculate the table totals - 146 entries

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

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #13 / 45
  • Number of attempts: 5
Ugly spreadsheet copy/paste to CSV - 1009 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #57 / 193
  • Number of attempts: 7
Replacing some words - 428 entries

How fast could it be?

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #42 / 151
  • Number of attempts: 5
Make it more readable - 2009 entries

Insert blank lines to make it more organized and readable

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #142 / 652
  • Number of attempts: 5
Line Zipper - 477 entries

Zip/pair related lines.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #42 / 216
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: 29
  • Position: #296 / 336
  • Number of attempts: 3
Alphabetize the directory - 298 entries

Put the contacts and their information in alphabetical order.

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 38
  • Position: #63 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 1
PHP Array Syntax -> MailChimp Merge Syntax - 545 entries

I recently needed to send an e-mail to our marketing department listing allowed merge tags for our MailChimp campaigns. The allowed merge tags were determined from a PHP array in one of our PHP classes. I transformed the PHP class to MailChimp's syntax and sent the e-mail. It was, however, a long, laborious process. I'm still fairly new to Vim and would love to see how an expert Vim user would tackle one of my own, real-world problems. Thanks and have fun!

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #13 / 150
  • Number of attempts: 8
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: 19
  • Position: #41 / 180
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 22
  • Position: #29 / 69
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 30
  • Position: #71 / 166
  • Number of attempts: 3
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: 162
  • Position: #6 / 49
  • Number of attempts: 5
Assignment Alignment - 883 entries

line up the operators. Use spaces, not tabs.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #26 / 220
  • Number of attempts: 6
A Simple One - 1052 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: #270 / 666
  • Number of attempts: 1
Round Round - 321 entries

Round Round

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #35 / 88
  • Number of attempts: 7
Table Reshuffle - 439 entries

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

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #20 / 142
  • Number of attempts: 3
Another Mixed-Up Haiku - 265 entries

VimGolf ... a perfect evening?

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #23 / 90
  • Number of attempts: 5
Ruby 1.9 compat - 634 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: #31 / 235
  • Number of attempts: 5
Sorting paragraphs - 541 entries

Order the paragraphs correctly, per prefixed index

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #24 / 164
  • Number of attempts: 8
Indentation - 550 entries

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

  • Best score: 20
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #25 / 180
  • Number of attempts: 7
Hatsuyume - 540 entries

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

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #44 / 187
  • Number of attempts: 5
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: 100
  • Position: #11 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 5
The Cake is a Lie - 1354 entries

Correct the capitalization of each word

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #341 / 529
  • Number of attempts: 2
Fix the Haiku - 313 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: 30
  • Position: #17 / 114
  • Number of attempts: 5
Context insensitive completion 0 - 583 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: 7
  • Position: #69 / 247
  • Number of attempts: 3
Context Insensitive completion 1 - 504 entries

Finish writing this simple Python HTTP server.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #85 / 246
  • Number of attempts: 1
Linear congruential generator - 142 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 31
  • Position: #33 / 53
  • Number of attempts: 1
Reformat some Python - 617 entries

Fix some very bizarrely laid-out code.

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #20 / 237
  • Number of attempts: 6
Reformat a C golf submission - 612 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: #38 / 209
  • Number of attempts: 6
Reverse characters in a line - 773 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: #46 / 266
  • Number of attempts: 4
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: 26
  • Position: #31 / 67
  • Number of attempts: 3
Reformat most common surnames - 740 entries

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

  • Best score: 23
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #54 / 214
  • Number of attempts: 3
Remember FizzBuzz? - 738 entries

Output FizzBuzz to 100. Start with nothing.

  • Best score: 39
  • Best player score: 49
  • Position: #36 / 193
  • Number of attempts: 6
Get rid of html tags - 406 entries

Want to read more about Vim's background? Then get rid of those html tags...

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #204 / 235
  • Number of attempts: 4
Change the content of a string - 1588 entries

This docstring is a complete lie. Fix it.

  • Best score: 22
  • Best player score: 22
  • Position: #74 / 592
  • Number of attempts: 3
Deleting folded text - 380 entries

The text below contains three folds. Delete them (and the text inside them). For example: 123 456 /*{{{*/ 789 /*}}}*/ 012 Should become: 123 012 Also, add `aoeuaoeu` to make sure small solutions don't get flagged as cheating.

  • Best score: 17
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #12 / 120
  • Number of attempts: 4
Sort and add attributes - 1473 entries

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

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #103 / 572
  • Number of attempts: 3
Add fold markers to a .c file - 658 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #19 / 188
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reconstruct the Sentence - 1554 entries

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

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #49 / 420
  • Number of attempts: 4
Braces or Brackets? - 1042 entries

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

  • Best score: 34
  • Best player score: 34
  • Position: #2 / 321
  • Number of attempts: 7
Whitespace, empty lines and tabs - 3691 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #61 / 794
  • Number of attempts: 10
Flodder-challenge - 1282 entries

Replace the text the most efficient and win!

  • Best score: 27
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #55 / 340
  • Number of attempts: 5
Simple text editing with Vim - 12883 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #72 / 3713
  • Number of attempts: 5
Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7033 entries

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

  • Best score: 28
  • Best player score: 32
  • Position: #15 / 1726
  • Number of attempts: 8
Rod Knowlton
Twitter:

Sysadmin turned coder. That's not a bad thing, is it? I also crack wise on non-code things as @toldorknown

entered into 73 challenges

contributed 0 challenges