How to map keys in vim

Say you want to setup vim to have a certain key stroke, preform a desired operation You can use the map command to do this.

The file[s] to add the mappings are ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc or you can add a map, temporarily, through vim command-line.

Basic mapping

• Add to config file
  • map KEY_SEQUENCE OPERATION
  • Example: map <F5> dd

• Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Meta, Shift: <S-...>
  • Shift: <S-...>
    • Example: Shift s

      <S-s>

  • Ctrl: <C-...>
    • Example: Ctrl s

      <C-s>

  • Alt and Meta are the same: <A-...> <M-...>
    • Example: Alt s

      <A-s> or <M-s>

Special Characters

• Basic
  • <F1> through <F12>
  • Enter: <CR> or <Enter> or <Return>
  • Space bar: <Space>
  • Esc key: <Esc>

• All Special keys
  • See: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/intro.html#keycodes

Mapping in different modes

Keys can be mapped in all types of modes, all mapping syntaxes are the same as described above

• Modes in vim
  • Normal mode: When typing commands.
  • Visual mode: When typing commands while the Visual area is highlighted.
  • Operator-pending mode: When an operator is pending (after "d", "y", "c", etc.). Example: ":omap { w" makes "y{" work like "yw" and "d{" like "dw".
  • Insert mode. These are also used in Replace mode.
  • Command-line mode: When entering a ":" or "/" command.
  • Lang-Arg: searching

• mapping commands and their respective modes
  • map
    • Normal, Visual, Operator-pending
  • map!
    • Insert, Command-line
  • nmap
    • Normal
  • vmap
    • Visual
  • omap
    • Operator-pending
  • cmap
    • Command-line
  • imap
    • Insert
  • lmap
    • Insert, Command-line, Lang-Arg

Prevent recursive mapping (noremap)

You can prevent one mapping from using other map by using noremap. This is called recursion in programming

Example of a recursive mapping

• You want the following
  • map <F5> c<Space>

    and

  • map <Space> <PageDown>
• But you don't want
  • map <F5>, c<Space> to turn into map <F5> c<PageDown>

To prevent this

• Change
  • map <F5> c<Space>

    to

  • noremap <F5> c<Space>

This works with all mapping types

• nnoremap
• inoremap
• vnoremap
• etc.

External links

• http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/map.html

From HowTo Wiki, a Wikia wiki.