VimGolf - real Vim ninjas count every keystroke!

Played Challenges

EDN reformat - 1158 entries

The goal is to make the code more readable and concise while maintaining its functionality.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 20
Position: #84 / 164
Number of attempts: 1

Poorly indented Python comments - 1316 entries

Fix the alignment of some Python comments as quickly as possible.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 25
Position: #96 / 222
Number of attempts: 2

Many duplicates - 1447 entries

Quick and easy

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #82 / 470
Number of attempts: 1

2 quick changes and a numbered list - 647 entries

The ascii will not be lost, but rather numbered in 4 digit blocks with leading zeros.

Best score: 37
Best player score: 56
Position: #98 / 154
Number of attempts: 1

delete swap - 1788 entries

delete all swap

Best score: 5
Best player score: 6
Position: #396 / 557
Number of attempts: 1

Generate a very basic Python constructor (fixed) - 1253 entries

Original by @BiddulphCaleb (http://www.vimgolf.com/challenges/6019f1c4642668000cee11e8) - had some extra spaces in output file.

Best score: 29
Best player score: 41
Position: #110 / 271
Number of attempts: 3

Fix the shell script! - 2596 entries

Fix the shell script with the fewest keystrokes!

Best score: 26
Best player score: 27
Position: #89 / 603
Number of attempts: 5

Visual block training - 1075 entries

You see the input. You see the output. Go.

Best score: 17
Best player score: 25
Position: #75 / 205
Number of attempts: 4

Put a newline after every 10 lines in vim - 1660 entries

Goal is to put a newline after every 10 lines in vim.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #135 / 558
Number of attempts: 3

Fill in the chess board - 959 entries

Fill in the name of each square using its file (a-h) and rank (1-8).

Best score: 19
Best player score: 37
Position: #100 / 185
Number of attempts: 1

Make list of numbers from 1 to 30 more compact, but more confusing - 107 entries

Change the naming logic of numbers to end up with less lines.

Best score: 74
Best player score: 91
Position: #12 / 39
Number of attempts: 5

Change double quotes to single quotes, but with a twist - 309 entries

Although this challenge is in the context of a Python function, you don't need to know Python to do this challenge. It is to add contexts and interesting constraints. The file contains a function that prints a multi-line string literal. I wrote the string literal with double quotes, but then I decided to use single quotes instead, and that's your challenge. However, interestingly enough, the string itself contains single and double quotes. This means, inside the string literal, the originally escaped double quotes no longer need to be escaped, but the single quotes now need to be escaped. Note that the triple double quotes in the docstring should be left alone.

Best score: 22
Best player score: 22
Position: #3 / 56
Number of attempts: 4

C to python code snippet - 88 entries

C code can be easily translated into Python code. However, the difference in syntax can make this process tedious and time-consuming. Can Vim help you here?

Best score: 48
Best player score: 53
Position: #11 / 30
Number of attempts: 10

Python: Def to Lambda - 455 entries

LAMBDA!!!

Best score: 19
Best player score: 21
Position: #107 / 156
Number of attempts: 1

Turn the x - 328 entries

Turn the x to a +

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #27 / 82
Number of attempts: 1

Format the CSS - 158 entries

You just copied some CSS color names from the web and need to add them to your python module. Create the COLORS variable and assign a dict() with the names as keys and hex-colors as values. BEWARE OF THE TABS!!

Best score: 41
Best player score: 43
Position: #15 / 49
Number of attempts: 2

Rural Post - 4526 entries

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

Best score: 9
Best player score: 11
Position: #496 / 1107
Number of attempts: 5

Levenshtein distance - 105 entries

Compute distance for each pair. Notice that this recursive implementation is very inefficient. Wagner-Fischer algorithm is iterative and much faster. #vimscript

Best score: 27
Best player score: 40
Position: #29 / 37
Number of attempts: 1

Satisfy the go linter - 2437 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: 28
Position: #338 / 481
Number of attempts: 2

Add quotes to ansible playbook - 1001 entries

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

Best score: 8
Best player score: 10
Position: #228 / 316
Number of attempts: 1

Multiline to Single Line - 731 entries

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

Best score: 5
Best player score: 5
Position: #66 / 310
Number of attempts: 1

Data reformat - 294 entries

Reformat this copy-paste data! #csv

Best score: 36
Best player score: 42
Position: #23 / 65
Number of attempts: 3

xrandr outputs and dashes - 716 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: 19
Position: #204 / 224
Number of attempts: 1

From a Thunderlink to a Markdown link - 776 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: 23
Position: #112 / 172
Number of attempts: 2

Capitalize the Names - 408 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: 24
Position: #52 / 97
Number of attempts: 2

Yo To Hello - 1142 entries

Simply Turn Yo To Hello

Best score: 8
Best player score: 10
Position: #193 / 529
Number of attempts: 1

Replace pattern with 1, 2, 3, ... on each line - 1150 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: 27
Position: #110 / 232
Number of attempts: 1

Simple, Practical, and Common - 33724 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: 29
Position: #4960 / 7442
Number of attempts: 2

Hogwarts Email Sorting - 928 entries

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

Best score: 20
Best player score: 22
Position: #155 / 262
Number of attempts: 2

Get mail address from outlook format - 649 entries

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

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #113 / 204
Number of attempts: 3

Swap values - 4643 entries

Well, swap the values...

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #411 / 1274
Number of attempts: 4

prepend * to every non-blank line - 6337 entries

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

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #623 / 1546
Number of attempts: 4

One number per line - 18755 entries

Just give me the numbers.

Best score: 14
Best player score: 22
Position: #2791 / 3870
Number of attempts: 1

Right Align Part of the line - 133 entries

The challenge is to right align a part of the line - this is useful in some SQL queries where it's more clear which are the fields displayed

Best score: 19
Best player score: 22
Position: #30 / 42
Number of attempts: 3

Quote modules - 1090 entries

Complete golang import statement.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 24
Position: #109 / 283
Number of attempts: 7

add line and index - 100 entries

a missed line and index names need to be added

Best score: 44
Best player score: 49
Position: #14 / 29
Number of attempts: 2

Aliases for cd - 879 entries

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

Best score: 30
Best player score: 45
Position: #75 / 155
Number of attempts: 2

Swap values inside brackets - 2511 entries

Easy challenge.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 16
Position: #273 / 583
Number of attempts: 3

Unsemantic linewrapping - 928 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: 10
Position: #142 / 231
Number of attempts: 3

V to the i - 4813 entries

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

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #1464 / 1897
Number of attempts: 1

Applying same text modification in several lines - 2897 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #473 / 857
Number of attempts: 2

Add string initializers to an enum - 873 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 22
Position: #93 / 259
Number of attempts: 2

SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1216 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: #99 / 251
Number of attempts: 3

Add semicolons - 10881 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

Best score: 10
Best player score: 11
Position: #1535 / 3072
Number of attempts: 3

Bad Copy Syntax - 2044 entries

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

Best score: 18
Best player score: 21
Position: #300 / 530
Number of attempts: 1

Split line with dots - 2154 entries

This line is too long, split it.

Best score: 15
Best player score: 15
Position: #73 / 635
Number of attempts: 5

remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3604 entries

easy stuff

Best score: 9
Best player score: 10
Position: #797 / 1169
Number of attempts: 1

Com(m)a Trouble - 3875 entries

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

Best score: 12
Best player score: 13
Position: #321 / 876
Number of attempts: 4

Box it - 7916 entries

Create a box around a line.

Best score: 21
Best player score: 26
Position: #1109 / 1881
Number of attempts: 2

Every other line - 2915 entries

AaAaAaA

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #293 / 704
Number of attempts: 5

Copy three lines - 2875 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 13
Position: #166 / 641
Number of attempts: 5

Just the middle - 11484 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

Best score: 7
Best player score: 8
Position: #2245 / 4209
Number of attempts: 2

Team names - 1841 entries

The team names are misspelled.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 16
Position: #263 / 589
Number of attempts: 2

Basic renumbering - 5683 entries

Renumbering Basic.

Best score: 11
Best player score: 11
Position: #230 / 1269
Number of attempts: 6

ninja substitution - 1420 entries

How can you reuse a previous substitution ?

Best score: 14
Best player score: 16
Position: #159 / 267
Number of attempts: 4

Vice versa - 7945 entries

Little role switching.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 12
Position: #561 / 2138
Number of attempts: 4

C Reformatting - 690 entries

You may use Visual mode... or not. #uppercase

Best score: 30
Best player score: 57
Position: #111 / 163
Number of attempts: 1

One to Ten - 2227 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: 14
Position: #504 / 677
Number of attempts: 1

Line under headers - 2059 entries

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

Best score: 24
Best player score: 28
Position: #236 / 507
Number of attempts: 4

Increment each number - 1025 entries

Increment each number individually by one

Best score: 15
Best player score: 16
Position: #80 / 249
Number of attempts: 6

Put the months in order - 974 entries

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

Best score: 20
Best player score: 23
Position: #37 / 163
Number of attempts: 5

Reorder the groups - 1182 entries

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

Best score: 14
Best player score: 15
Position: #117 / 265
Number of attempts: 3

Array transposition - 2425 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

Best score: 16
Best player score: 17
Position: #165 / 449
Number of attempts: 5

Collect List - 4305 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

Best score: 12
Best player score: 14
Position: #668 / 1191
Number of attempts: 4

I forgot quotes - 16022 entries

Oops.

Best score: 10
Best player score: 15
Position: #2367 / 4189
Number of attempts: 1

-a-b-c- - 3216 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #412 / 1138
Number of attempts: 4

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10682 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #2469 / 3689
Number of attempts: 2

attr_aligner - 3522 entries

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

Best score: 19
Best player score: 20
Position: #193 / 703
Number of attempts: 15

Words in parens - 12967 entries

We should all ace this, right?

Best score: 13
Best player score: 15
Position: #1836 / 3969
Number of attempts: 3

Alphabet soup - 429 entries

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

Best score: 25
Best player score: 35
Position: #67 / 108
Number of attempts: 4

switch variable - 5079 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

Best score: 11
Best player score: 12
Position: #984 / 1749
Number of attempts: 1

Simple text editing with Vim - 12994 entries

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

Best score: 13
Best player score: 14
Position: #1876 / 3738
Number of attempts: 2

Reformat/Refactor a Golfer Class - 7157 entries

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

Best score: 28
Best player score: 36
Position: #481 / 1755
Number of attempts: 2

Martin Bielik
Twitter: @mabielik

Full-stack software engineer • OSS and AI enthusiast