Chapter 2: Opening Files, Finding Content

Open Files

Ha, now you have learned a way to open files in Vim, although this way is not the most common, but it is the most direct, especially when your code includes a certain file, the following introduces two other commonly used open methods.

Open files in Vim

• :e <filename> open the file which named <filename>, if the file is not exists, it will create a new one

• :Ex open the directory tree in Vim, press - to enter the parent directory and press Enter to open the corresponding file

Find

Find content in document

• * find the word under the cursor and jump to the next

• # find the word under the cursor and jump to the previous

• /<search> find the specified string backward

• ?<search> find the specified string forward

• n continue to find the next

• N continue to find the previous

Note: n and N are directional. If you previously searched with *, n will continue to search toward the end of the document, and N toward the beginning of the document; conversely, if you search with #, n points to the beginning and N points to the end of the document.

Search in line

• f<X> Finds X on a line toward the end of the line and positions the cursor over the character X.`

• t<X> Finds X on a line toward the end of the line and positions the cursor over the character before X.

• F<X> Finds X on a line toward the beginning of the line and positions the cursor over the character X.

• T<X> Finds X on a line toward the beginning of the line and positions the cursor over the character after X.

• ; Find the next character in the current direction

• , Find the previous character in the current direction

There are several "Vim" words in the current document, you can try to use * and # to find and feel the directionality of n and N.

And there are several "n" characters in the "Note" above, you can try to find them in the line and feel the directionality of ; and ,.

Matching

In Vim, you can use % to match ( and ), [ and ], { and }. When the cursor is on one of the symbols, press %, the cursor will jump to the other symbol that matches it.

Press % on the ()[]{} characters in the following text to see the effect, and then press n to continue searching.

const func = (win, doc) => {
  const SEVEN = ((1 + 2) * (3 + 4) * (5 - 6)) / 7;
  const YU = [1, 2, [[3, 4], 5, 6], 7];
  if (true) {
    return SEVEN;
  } else {
    return YU;
  }
};

Next Chapter will introduce the modification of the document. Before that, let's briefly introduce the buffer of Vim. Simply understand that the buffer is the file history of the current Vim session.

Now you should have two files in your buffer, you can use :buffers or :ls command to view, see the buffer list, probably like this:

:ls
  1 #h   "chapter01.md"                  line 47
  2 %a   "chapter02.md"                  line 1
Press ENTER or type command to continue

Then, you can use the following commands to switch between buffers:

• :bn open the next file in the buffer

• :bp open the previous file in the buffer

• :b<N> open the Nth file in the buffer

Also you can use :bdelete<N> to delete the buffer you want to close, the abbreviation is :bd<N>.

Of course, you can also use the :Ex command, select chapter03.md and open it, enter Chapter 3.