Move entire line up and down in Vim

Question

In Notepad++, I can use Ctrl + Shift + Up / Down to move the current line up and down. Is there a similar command to this in Vim? I have looked through endless guides, but have found nothing.

If there isn't, how could I bind the action to that key combination?

Edit: Mykola's answer works for all lines, apart from those at the beginning and end of the buffer. Moving the first line up or the bottom line down deletes the line, and when moving the bottom line up it jumps two spaces initially, like a pawn! Can anyone offer any refinements?

Answer 1

If I want to swap one line with the line above I usually do the following

ddkP

Explanation

• dd will delete the line and add it to the default register.
• k will move up a line (j would move down a line)
• P will paste above the current line

Answer 2

Assuming the cursor is on the line you like to move.

Moving up and down: :m for move

:m +1 - moves down 1 line

:m -2 - move up 1 lines

(Note you can replace +1 with any numbers depending on how many lines you want to move it up or down, ie +2 would move it down 2 lines, -3 would move it up 2 lines)

To move to specific line

:set number - display number lines (easier to see where you are moving it to)

:m 3 - move the line after 3rd line (replace 3 to any line you'd like)

Moving multiple lines:

V (i.e. Shift-V) and move courser up and down to select multiple lines in VIM

once selected hit : and run the commands above, m +1 etc

Answer 3

Put the following to your .vimrc to do the job

noremap <c-s-up> :call feedkeys( line('.')==1 ? '' : 'ddkP' )<CR>
noremap <c-s-down> ddp

Disappearing of the line looks like a Vim bug. I put a hack to avoid it. Probably there is some more accurate solution.

Update

There are a lot of unexplained difficulties with just using Vim combinations. These are line missing and extra line jumping.

So here is the scripting solution which can be placed either inside .vimrc or ~/.vim/plugin/swap_lines.vim

function! s:swap_lines(n1, n2)
    let line1 = getline(a:n1)
    let line2 = getline(a:n2)
    call setline(a:n1, line2)
    call setline(a:n2, line1)
endfunction

function! s:swap_up()
    let n = line('.')
    if n == 1
        return
    endif

    call s:swap_lines(n, n - 1)
    exec n - 1
endfunction

function! s:swap_down()
    let n = line('.')
    if n == line('$')
        return
    endif

    call s:swap_lines(n, n + 1)
    exec n + 1
endfunction

noremap <silent> <c-s-up> :call <SID>swap_up()<CR>
noremap <silent> <c-s-down> :call <SID>swap_down()<CR>

Answer 4

Move a line up: ddkP

Move a line down: ddp

Answer 5

add the following to ~/.vimrc file (make sure you have no mapping for n,m )

nmap n :m +1<CR>
nmap m :m -2<CR>

now pressing n key will move a line down and m will move a line up.

Answer 6

This worked for me:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_lines_up_or_down_in_a_file

BTW, if you want to use ALT+some_key and your terminal (urxvt does this) refuses to comply, you should enter something like this in your .vimrc:

" For moving lines (^] is a special character; use <M-k> and <M-j> if it works)
nnoremap ^]k mz:m-2<CR>`z==
inoremap ^]j <Esc>:m+<CR>==gi
inoremap ^]k <Esc>:m-2<CR>==gi
vnoremap ^]j :m'>+<CR>gv=`<my`>mzgv`yo`z
nnoremap ^]j mz:m+<CR>`z==
vnoremap ^]k :m'<-2<CR>gv=`>my`<mzgv`yo`z

where ^] is a single character that represents the ALT key. To input that character, use C+v, Esc in Vim (C+q, Esc on Windows).

Answer 7

In command mode position the cursor on the line you want to move down, and then

ddp

Explanation: dd deletes the current line to the general buffer p puts it back AFTER the cursor position, or in case of entire lines, one line below.

There is some confusion regarding commands p and P in many docs. In reality p pastes AFTER cursor, and P AT cursor.

Answer 8

Just add this code to .vimrc (or .gvimrc)

nnoremap <A-j> :m+<CR>==
nnoremap <A-k> :m-2<CR>==
inoremap <A-j> <Esc>:m+<CR>==gi
inoremap <A-k> <Esc>:m-2<CR>==gi
vnoremap <A-j> :m'>+<CR>gv=gv
vnoremap <A-k> :m-2<CR>gv=gv

Answer 9

A simple solution is to put in your .vimrc these lines:

nmap <C-UP> :m-2<CR>  
nmap <C-DOWN> :m+1<CR>

Answer 10

Exactly what you're looking for in these plugins:

• https://github.com/vim-scripts/upAndDown
• https://github.com/matze/vim-move

Answer 11

I put the following at the end of my .vimrc file:

noremap H ddkkp
noremap N ddp

So now 'H' and 'N' move current line up and down respectively.

Answer 12

When you hit command :help move in vim, here is the result:

:[range]m[ove] {address} *:m* *:mo* *:move* *E134* Move the lines given by [range] to below the line given by {address}.

E.g: Move current line one line down => :m+1.

E.g: Move line with number 100 below the line with number 80 => :100 m 80.

E.g: Move line with number 100 below the line with number 200 => :100 m 200.

E.g: Move lines with number within [100, 120] below the line with number 200 => :100,120 m 200.

Answer 13

For me, ddkkp did it (instead of ddkP with an uppercase P, which would work too).

Answer 14

Here's a simplified version, for MacVim, using the the Wikia article examples (cf. link from gun's comment).

" Move selection up/down (add =gv to reindent after move)
:vmap <D-S-Up> :m-2<CR>gv
:vmap <D-S-Down> :m'>+<CR>gv

I'm using only the block selection variant, because all it takes is Shift-V to select the current line, and optionally cursor up/down to select some more lines.

According to the shortcuts above, pressing Cmd-Shift-Up/Down will shift the block selection up/down. "D" is the Command key in MacVim, for Windows try "C" (Control), or "A" (Alt) (eg. <C-A-f> would be Control Alt f).

The Wikia article adds "=gv" to these, which has the effect to adjust the indentation of the block after the move, based on surrounding text. This is confusing so I removed it, and added shortcuts for quickly indenting the selection instead.

" Indent selection left/right (Cmd Shift Left/Right is used for Tab switching)
:vmap <D-A-Left> <gv
:vmap <D-A-Right> >gv

Mind, the same can be done with << and >> but the selection would be lost, so these shortcuts above allow to indent multiple times and still move the block around because the selection is maintained.

My MacVim is configured to switch Tabs with Cmd-Shift-Left/Right so I used Cmd-Alt-Left/Right.

Here's the Tab switching for MacVim (put in .gvimrc with the rest above):

:macm Window.Select\ Previous\ Tab key=<D-S-Left>
:macm Window.Select\ Next\ Tab key=<D-S-Right>

Answer 15

vim plugin unimpaired.vim [e and ]e

Answer 16

Here is a solution that works on my machine : MacBook Pro running VIM 8.1

These commands will not delete your lines at the top or bottom of your buffer.

Using the actual symbols that Alt-J and Alt-K output is a workaround for their key-codes not mapping properly in my environment.

Throw this in the old .vimrc and see if works for you.

" Maps Alt-J and Alt-K to macros for moving lines up and down
" Works for modes: Normal, Insert and Visual
nnoremap ∆ :m .+1<CR>==
nnoremap ˚ :m .-2<CR>==
inoremap ∆ <Esc>:m .+1<CR>==gi
inoremap ˚ <Esc>:m .-2<CR>==gi
vnoremap ∆ :m '>+1<CR>gv=gv
vnoremap ˚ :m '<-2<CR>gv=gv

Answer 17

:m.+1 or :m.-2 would do if you're moving a single line. Here's my script to move multiple lines. In visual mode, Alt-up/Alt-down will move the lines containing the visual selection up/down by one line. In insert mode or normal mode, Alt-up/Alt-down will move the current line if no count prefix is given. If there's a count prefix, Alt-up/Alt-down will move that many lines beginning from the current line up/down by one line.

function! MoveLines(offset) range
    let l:col = virtcol('.')
    let l:offset = str2nr(a:offset)
    exe 'silent! :' . a:firstline . ',' . a:lastline . 'm'
        \ . (l:offset > 0 ? a:lastline + l:offset : a:firstline + l:offset)
    exe 'normal ' . l:col . '|'
endf

imap <silent> <M-up> <C-O>:call MoveLines('-2')<CR>
imap <silent> <M-down> <C-O>:call MoveLines('+1')<CR>
nmap <silent> <M-up> :call MoveLines('-2')<CR>
nmap <silent> <M-down> :call MoveLines('+1')<CR>
vmap <silent> <M-up> :call MoveLines('-2')<CR>gv
vmap <silent> <M-down> :call MoveLines('+1')<CR>gv

Answer 18

In case you want to do this on multiple lines that match a specific search:

• Up: :g/Your query/ normal ddp or :g/Your query/ m -1
• Down :g/Your query/ normal ddp or :g/Your query/ m +1

Answer 19

can use command:

:g/^/move 0

reference: https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/2105/how-to-reverse-the-order-of-lines

Answer 20

Easiest way same like vscode. Add below line to .vimrc

"Ctrl+Shift+up move line above"
nmap <C-S-Up> :m -2<CR>

"Ctrl+Shift+down move line below
nmap <C-S-Down> :m +1<CR>