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 - 33616 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: 28
  • Position: #4430 / 7420
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap values - 4616 entries

Well, swap the values...

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #767 / 1268
  • Number of attempts: 2
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge2 - 195 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #84 / 102
  • Number of attempts: 1
Swap values inside brackets - 2496 entries

Easy challenge.

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #305 / 579
  • Number of attempts: 1
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: 16
  • Position: #215 / 231
  • Number of attempts: 1
V to the i - 4802 entries

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

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 8
  • Position: #1400 / 1893
  • Number of attempts: 2
Applying same text modification in several lines - 2880 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #591 / 851
  • Number of attempts: 1
Add string initializers to an enum - 872 entries

Change Typescript enum so that it has string initializers.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #204 / 258
  • Number of attempts: 1
SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to Title Case - 1214 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: 27
  • Position: #138 / 249
  • Number of attempts: 2
Swap the operands under comparison - 297 entries

Swap the operands under comparison to prevent null pointer exception (at least in java)

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #47 / 101
  • Number of attempts: 2
Add semicolons - 10852 entries

Simply add a semicolon at the end of each line

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 11
  • Position: #1031 / 3063
  • Number of attempts: 1
Bad Copy Syntax - 2037 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #285 / 525
  • Number of attempts: 2
remove lines containing the word "reader" - 3586 entries

easy stuff

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #277 / 1162
  • Number of attempts: 2
Com(m)a Trouble - 3823 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #431 / 865
  • Number of attempts: 4
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge3 - 38 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 4
  • Position: #15 / 35
  • Number of attempts: 2
Box it - 7905 entries

Create a box around a line.

  • Best score: 21
  • Best player score: 33
  • Position: #1538 / 1876
  • Number of attempts: 1
From argument to object - 1508 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: 19
  • Position: #305 / 458
  • Number of attempts: 3
Every other line - 2910 entries

AaAaAaA

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #573 / 703
  • Number of attempts: 1
Copy three lines - 2872 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 20
  • Position: #416 / 640
  • Number of attempts: 1
Extract argument from function - 2357 entries

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

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #544 / 753
  • Number of attempts: 3
Search and Replace 0 - 4989 entries

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

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 14
  • Position: #1047 / 1624
  • Number of attempts: 1
Number Sort - 314 entries

sort the list of newline-separated numbers incrementally. Numbers are in the range 1 to 1000, with 500 missing

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #109 / 166
  • Number of attempts: 1
That hyphen - 2595 entries

"vim vi improved"

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #633 / 701
  • Number of attempts: 1
comment and uncomment code inline - 1122 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: 10
  • Position: #207 / 322
  • Number of attempts: 1
Just the middle - 11454 entries

Delete the instructions at the top and bottom.

  • Best score: 7
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #3595 / 4197
  • Number of attempts: 2
Team names - 1836 entries

The team names are misspelled.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #393 / 588
  • Number of attempts: 1
Make HTML List - 1050 entries

Turn the comma separated list into an unordered html list.

  • Best score: 33
  • Best player score: 40
  • Position: #95 / 273
  • Number of attempts: 1
C Reformatting - 690 entries

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

  • Best score: 30
  • Best player score: 51
  • Position: #95 / 163
  • Number of attempts: 1
comments galore - 1045 entries

Basic comment reformatting

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #280 / 424
  • Number of attempts: 2
Scrambled numbers - 807 entries

Four is NOT 1. One is 1.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 26
  • Position: #128 / 184
  • Number of attempts: 3
Align commas - 1095 entries

There are 15,000 aligning challenges on vimgolf.com, and they're all exactly the same. I hope this one is a little different.

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #143 / 246
  • Number of attempts: 3
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge4 - 95 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #21 / 65
  • Number of attempts: 1
One to Ten - 2219 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: #484 / 672
  • Number of attempts: 2
Change part of a function name in multiple occurrences - 662 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: 20
  • Position: #188 / 208
  • Number of attempts: 1
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge5 - 147 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 6
  • Best player score: 7
  • Position: #60 / 77
  • Number of attempts: 1
Line under headers - 2044 entries

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

  • Best score: 24
  • Best player score: 35
  • Position: #368 / 503
  • Number of attempts: 1
Increment each number - 1023 entries

Increment each number individually by one

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 21
  • Position: #170 / 248
  • Number of attempts: 1
Around the clock - 199 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: 16
  • Position: #68 / 77
  • Number of attempts: 1
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge6 - 65 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition.

  • Best score: 3
  • Best player score: 3
  • Position: #23 / 51
  • Number of attempts: 1
Join 'em - 251 entries

This shouldn't be too tough

  • Best score: 4
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #143 / 151
  • Number of attempts: 1
Delete to the end of the current line - 812 entries

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

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 6
  • Position: #322 / 391
  • Number of attempts: 1
Song Transcription Oops - 243 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: 21
  • Position: #61 / 78
  • Number of attempts: 1
change parenthesis - 296 entries

change the pair of braces into a pair of parentheses

  • Best score: 9
  • Best player score: 10
  • Position: #129 / 161
  • Number of attempts: 1
Remove quotes after first field - 380 entries

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

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #69 / 91
  • Number of attempts: 2
Reorder the groups - 1181 entries

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

  • Best score: 14
  • Best player score: 23
  • Position: #205 / 264
  • Number of attempts: 2
move titles next to url, in quotes - 534 entries

had trouble with something similar

  • Best score: 19
  • Best player score: 28
  • Position: #133 / 141
  • Number of attempts: 1
Array transposition - 2417 entries

Transpose two arrays into one.

  • Best score: 16
  • Best player score: 30
  • Position: #377 / 448
  • Number of attempts: 1
Collect List - 4298 entries

Convert to comma separated list.

  • Best score: 12
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #864 / 1190
  • Number of attempts: 2
Space out the alphabet - 1657 entries

Put 3 spaces between adjacent letters.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 17
  • Position: #203 / 444
  • Number of attempts: 3
Fix the XML - 1039 entries

The challenge consists in having a valid xml from an incomplete source.

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 25
  • Position: #177 / 290
  • Number of attempts: 1
I forgot quotes - 15983 entries

Oops.

  • Best score: 10
  • Best player score: 15
  • Position: #2312 / 4180
  • Number of attempts: 1
-a-b-c- - 3213 entries

Put hyphens everywhere.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #862 / 1137
  • Number of attempts: 2
Do you demand a shrubbery? - 1158 entries

Use :redir and crush the emacsgolfers.

  • Best score: 15
  • Best player score: 18
  • Position: #152 / 300
  • Number of attempts: 2
Don't know what this is - 2022 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: 14
  • Position: #375 / 585
  • Number of attempts: 4
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 ! - 10663 entries

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #3308 / 3683
  • Number of attempts: 1
Letter case trickery - 1630 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: 11
  • Position: #289 / 518
  • Number of attempts: 2
quotes inside quotes - 3159 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: 17
  • Position: #931 / 1078
  • Number of attempts: 1
Words in parens - 12935 entries

We should all ace this, right?

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 16
  • Position: #2491 / 3963
  • Number of attempts: 1
SFD-ROC: vimvimvim - 1606 entries

Oh no, this line is longer than 80 chars... put each 'vim' on a new line.

  • Best score: 8
  • Best player score: 9
  • Position: #243 / 446
  • Number of attempts: 6
citizen_hacks_2019_challenge1 - 51 entries

For the Citizen Hacks 2019 Vim competition

  • Best score: 5
  • Best player score: 5
  • Position: #14 / 45
  • Number of attempts: 1
calculations - 312 entries

Complete these (weird) calculations.

  • Best score: 38
  • Best player score: 62
  • Position: #58 / 68
  • Number of attempts: 1
replacing each line of a block selection - 2999 entries

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

  • Best score: 18
  • Best player score: 19
  • Position: #210 / 777
  • Number of attempts: 4
switch variable - 5071 entries

how fast can you switch two variable ?

  • Best score: 11
  • Best player score: 12
  • Position: #962 / 1748
  • 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: 15
  • Position: #310 / 650
  • Number of attempts: 3
Numbering a List - 1931 entries

Pretty simple, number the list.

  • Best score: 13
  • Best player score: 13
  • Position: #44 / 652
  • Number of attempts: 1
Shebangs for all - 1999 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: 18
  • Position: #383 / 516
  • 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: 176
  • Position: #133 / 146
  • Number of attempts: 1
Ariel Miculas
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entered into 67 challenges

contributed 0 challenges