Vim Visual Mode — v, V, Ctrl+v Selection Techniques

Three Types of Visual Mode

Visual mode lets you select text and then operate on the selection:

Key	Mode	Selects
v	Visual (character)	Characters from start to cursor
V	Visual Line	Entire lines
Ctrl+v	Visual Block	Rectangular column blocks

Common Operations on Selections

Once text is selected, these operators act on the selection:

Key	Action
d	Delete selection
y	Yank (copy) selection
c	Change selection (delete and enter Insert)
>	Indent selection
<	Unindent selection
u	Lowercase selection
U	Uppercase selection
~	Toggle case
o	Move to other end of selection
gv	Reselect last visual selection (from Normal mode)

Visual Block Mode (Ctrl+v)

Block mode is uniquely powerful for column operations:

1. Press Ctrl+v to start block selection
2. Move to expand the rectangular region
3. Press I to insert text at the beginning of each line
4. Type your text, then press Esc
5. The text appears on all selected lines

This is invaluable for:

• Adding a prefix to multiple lines (e.g., commenting out code)
• Inserting columns of text
• Editing aligned data

Visual Line Shortcuts

V followed by j or k quickly selects multiple lines. Common patterns:

• Vip — Select inner paragraph
• Vi{ — Select inside curly braces
• V} — Select from current line to next blank line