VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33236 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: #1660 / 7330
Number of attempts: 11

Swap values - 4513 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 14
Position: #746 / 1250
Number of attempts: 5

One number per line - 18559 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #493 / 3830
Number of attempts: 8

Swap values inside brackets - 2443 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #23 / 566
Number of attempts: 6

Unsemantic linewrapping - 873 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: #18 / 221
Number of attempts: 8

V to the i - 4717 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 7
Position: #641 / 1874
Number of attempts: 4

Applying same text modification in several lines - 2820 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #114 / 834
Number of attempts: 9

SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1133 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: 19
Position: #3 / 237
Number of attempts: 4

Add semicolons - 10744 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #3 / 3030
Number of attempts: 4

Bad Copy Syntax - 1966 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 19
Position: #48 / 506
Number of attempts: 6

Split line with dots - 2113 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 18
Position: #304 / 625
Number of attempts: 6

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3502 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #128 / 1134
Number of attempts: 5

Com(m)a Trouble - 3563 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #22 / 799
Number of attempts: 12

Box it - 7782 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 23
Position: #558 / 1853
Number of attempts: 6

Tables, Functions, Sprocs - 123 entries

In order to load some scripts into my database in the correct order I need to load tables first (t_), then functions (fn_), then stored procedures (sp_). The order of the t_ lines and the order of the sp_ lines should also match. Reorder the lines so they will load correctly.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 10
Position: #6 / 43
Number of attempts: 3

Hash staircase - 46 entries

Can you use a strategy to come up with this pattern?

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #4 / 21
Number of attempts: 2

Cool or not? - 773 entries

abc trying to be cool or not...

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #73 / 222
Number of attempts: 3

multiple cursor alternative - 1460 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: 19
Position: #69 / 374
Number of attempts: 9

html paragraph to table - 587 entries

reformat html paragraph to table

Best score: 48
Best player score: 49
Position: #21 / 122
Number of attempts: 6

From argument to object - 1450 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: #242 / 444
Number of attempts: 1

Two pairs of cluster of letters creates word - 729 entries

Clean and group.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #10 / 172
Number of attempts: 8

Every other line - 2869 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #33 / 695
Number of attempts: 10

Copy three lines - 2825 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #118 / 631
Number of attempts: 10

Convert Application Output to CSV - 184 entries

Change the application output to comma-separated values

Best score: 17
Best player score: 17
Position: #3 / 51
Number of attempts: 2

Extract argument from function - 2289 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #226 / 740
Number of attempts: 6

Kolakoski sequence -- level 1 - 57 entries

Generate the Kolakoski sequence as described by its first 75 terms.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 24
Position: #4 / 16
Number of attempts: 5

Search and Replace 0 - 4766 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #563 / 1578
Number of attempts: 5

Preferably without multi-cursor plugin - 530 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: 30
Position: #10 / 125
Number of attempts: 9

That hyphen - 2530 entries

"vim vi improved"

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #201 / 690
Number of attempts: 8

comment and uncomment code inline - 1042 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: #113 / 307
Number of attempts: 4

Flip the bit - 118 entries

Change the specific 0 to a 1.

Best score: 8
Best player score: 8
Position: #15 / 69
Number of attempts: 2

Just the middle - 11318 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #2799 / 4152
Number of attempts: 4

Team names - 1795 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #217 / 578
Number of attempts: 6

Learn some german verbs - 529 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: 40
Position: #120 / 130
Number of attempts: 1

Basic renumbering - 5514 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 13
Position: #298 / 1249
Number of attempts: 9

Adam's challenge - 932 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: 19
Position: #117 / 262
Number of attempts: 4

Fiddle percentages into real numbers - 835 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: #128 / 284
Number of attempts: 4

ninja substitution - 1350 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #10 / 258
Number of attempts: 5

Vice versa - 7687 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #446 / 2079
Number of attempts: 8

One to Ten - 2128 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: #81 / 652
Number of attempts: 7

Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 627 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: 14
Position: #27 / 200
Number of attempts: 3

Reformat Cura settings - 108 entries

Cura settings are weirdly encoded... After mere replacements, you'll have to enquote two strings (infill_pattern & speed_travel) and dont forget booleans in lowercase. #format #json

Best score: 50
Best player score: 50
Position: #3 / 20
Number of attempts: 6

Build a six - 268 entries

Just enjoy building "a" floors...

Best score: 22
Best player score: 25
Position: #76 / 90
Number of attempts: 4

Increment each number - 970 entries

Increment each number individually by one

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #11 / 240
Number of attempts: 3

Around the clock - 187 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: 13
Position: #12 / 73
Number of attempts: 5

Join 'em - 243 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

Best score: 4
Best player score: 5
Position: #42 / 144
Number of attempts: 1

Delete to the end of the current line - 729 entries

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

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #111 / 359
Number of attempts: 2

Song Transcription Oops - 229 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: #4 / 73
Number of attempts: 1

change parenthesis - 276 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #8 / 155
Number of attempts: 2

Remove quotes after first field - 340 entries

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

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #5 / 85
Number of attempts: 5

Put the months in order - 926 entries

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

Best score: 20
Best player score: 40
Position: #80 / 157
Number of attempts: 11

Reorder the groups - 1128 entries

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

Best score: 14
Best player score: 14
Position: #11 / 257
Number of attempts: 4

move titles next to url, in quotes - 501 entries

had trouble with something similar

Best score: 19
Best player score: 22
Position: #82 / 133
Number of attempts: 4

Array transposition - 2345 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #134 / 439
Number of attempts: 21

convert yml into java pojo field - 829 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: 29
Position: #59 / 223
Number of attempts: 4

Simple format (2) - 328 entries

try again!

Best score: 23
Best player score: 23
Position: #7 / 68
Number of attempts: 8

Collect List - 4228 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #417 / 1179
Number of attempts: 7

I forgot quotes - 15880 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 14
Position: #1822 / 4146
Number of attempts: 4

-a-b-c- - 3160 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #249 / 1124
Number of attempts: 5

Change name of a variable - 169 entries

Replace the name of the $variable with the fastest move possible. The challenge is having a command that allow you to easily change the variable name even if its indented.

Best score: 9
Best player score: 9
Position: #110 / 132
Number of attempts: 1

Don't know what this is - 1961 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: 11
Position: #111 / 576
Number of attempts: 8

Vim tetris - 352 entries

Vim can play tetris too!

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #22 / 101
Number of attempts: 15

Mess in revision history - 1157 entries

Help Joe clean up what Steve has cobbled.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 24
Position: #140 / 245
Number of attempts: 2

HTML formatting: vertical alignment for readability - 63 entries

We did this a VimGolf challenge at work and now that we have finished I want to see if you guys can come up with something even better than we could. Our best solution was 44 keystrokes.

Best score: 33
Best player score: 98
Position: #28 / 33
Number of attempts: 2

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10584 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #1737 / 3653
Number of attempts: 4

attr_aligner - 3408 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 31
Position: #437 / 689
Number of attempts: 2

quotes inside quotes - 3105 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: #569 / 1066
Number of attempts: 5

Words in parens - 12821 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #1704 / 3938
Number of attempts: 4

Resort and deup a CSV list - 140 entries

I'm always adding items to a sorted list. There has to be a better way dedup and resort the lists. There are multiple lists with varying lengths to discourage manual sorting. Also Australia's animals are weird.

Best score: 44
Best player score: 70
Position: #29 / 38
Number of attempts: 1

Create a pandoc compatible table - 177 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: 55
Position: #40 / 51
Number of attempts: 3

If-then-else regexp - 41 entries

Rules: - golf is never following golf - vim comes first! Drawing a finite-state machine diagram could help. #regexp

Best score: 37
Best player score: 37
Position: #5 / 10
Number of attempts: 4

ASCII-art Histogram - 307 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: 33
Position: #3 / 54
Number of attempts: 6

Vertical Limit - 2406 entries

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

Best score: 21
Best player score: 21
Position: #78 / 728
Number of attempts: 9

switch variable - 5012 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #543 / 1728
Number of attempts: 5

The meaning - 543 entries

Numbers are fun!

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #285 / 350
Number of attempts: 2

Ruby 1.9 compat - 608 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: #60 / 229
Number of attempts: 3

Simple text editing with Vim - 11970 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #1698 / 3505
Number of attempts: 6

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 6338 entries

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

Best score: 32
Best player score: 37
Position: #538 / 1562
Number of attempts: 11