How to jump to a specific character in vim?

Question

How can I jump to the next character X in vim?

I frequently use, e.g., dt: or ct: to delete/change everything up until a colon (or some other character).

Is there any short key combo to simply move my cursor position to that character?

If only the top 2 partial answers had been one - and additionally contained this information: the unmentioned`T` will jump to _after_ the first sought character to the left, and I can confirm that the `;` and `,` repeaters work with all of `f`/`F`/`t`/`T`. — underscore_d, Dec 22 '15 at 19:20

score 301 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '12 at 20:46

301

You can type f<character> to put the cursor on the next character and F<character> for the previous one.

answered Feb 22 '12 at 20:46

Lars Kotthoff

105

You can also use `;` to repeat the operation and use `,` to repeat it in opposite direction. – Rsh Jun 15 '14 at 05:46
13

This only seems to work with matches on the same line for me. – Jpaji Rajnish Mar 25 '16 at 17:30
10

@JpajiRajnish Yes. Use `/` to match it anywhere. – Lars Kotthoff Mar 25 '16 at 18:18
1

It seems that using f (along with the ; and , characters for repeating the command) only works on the line the cursor is at. Is there a way to make it work across the entire file? – Aluthren Mar 25 '20 at 22:56
I would use search in this case; see comment above. – Lars Kotthoff Mar 26 '20 at 15:11
1

@Rsh You saved my life with `,`, sometimes I get overzealous and jump past and never knew I could go back. – Adam Dec 04 '20 at 15:45

score 64 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 22 '12 at 20:49

64

t and f work without a command as well, so to move to colon use f: and to move to right before colon use t:

answered Feb 22 '12 at 20:49

Brian Rasmussen

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 20 '15 at 22:10

9

If you do a search for that character with /, you can then hit n to move to the next occurrence of it.

edited Dec 20 '15 at 22:10

answered Feb 22 '12 at 20:45

Alexander Corwin

I'm wondering how to undo this find once I've found the character. All matching characters seem to remain highlighted in the current buffer. – newswim Oct 23 '18 at 07:20
1

@newswim, :nohl – arkadyt Feb 14 '19 at 05:50
You can also just search for something else (e.g. a bunch of garbage that won't be matched) to change the highlighted search string. There is also `:set invhls` which is useful for toggling the highlights off and on (I map this to a shortcut for quick toggling). – FazJaxton Apr 04 '19 at 14:34

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 21 '15 at 02:13

2

Maybe you are just searching for a pure vim combination but EasyMotion is a plugin that worth trying. HTH. :)

answered Dec 21 '15 at 02:13

Philia Fan

Yeah! EasyMotion is all you need to complete this in an elegent way. – X.Creates Apr 08 '16 at 04:34

4 Answers4