How to Delete Lines in Vim / Vi

15 Mar 2020 in Others

Vim comes preinstalled on most of linux distributions. Sometimes it’s hard to remember vim shortcut/commands

1. Pressing dd multiple times will delete multiple lines.
2. Type 5dd and hit enter to delete the next five lines.
3. The syntax for deleting a range of lines is as follows:

   :[start],[end]d
   

   You can also use the following characters to specify the range:

   • . (dot) the current line.
   • $ The last line.
   • % All lines.

Example

• :.,$d - from the current line to the end of the file.
• :.,1d - from the current line to the beginning of the file.
• 10,$d - from the 10th line to the end of the file.
• %d - delete all the lines of the file.
• :g/[pattern]/d - Deleting multiple lines based on pattern.
• :g/^$/d - Deleting all Blank lines.

• :g/^#/d - Removing all # from every line of the file.