Returning to previous line with Vim

Question

I was wondering if there's a way to return to the previous line you were on in Vim.

Say, for example, I'm writing C code and I just wanted to add an #include at the top of the page: I press gg and go to the top, add the #include, and then I want to return to the line I left off of.

Is this possible in Vim?

score 124 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 20 '17 at 08:57

124

Yes. You can use `` in order to jump between the last two positions.

Otherwise, Ctrl+O and Ctrl+I can help you. See :help CTRL-I.

edited Jul 20 '17 at 08:57

Matthias Braun

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answered Jan 29 '11 at 15:04

Benoit

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@Amit also try `g;` and `g,`, it is go to position previous/next change. Sometimes it suits better then ``/``. – ZyX Jan 29 '11 at 17:38
@Zyx: Thank you, I'll definitely use that. – Amit Jan 29 '11 at 17:39
@Zyx: True, I had completely forgotten that one! – Benoit Jan 29 '11 at 19:54
does `help: CTRL-I` usually send you to a browser window or is that only in pycharm? – Charlie Parker Aug 04 '20 at 16:13

score 37 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 29 '11 at 15:04

37

Use a mark:

ma

marks the spot (before the gg)

`a

brings you back.

answered Jan 29 '11 at 15:04

Matteo Riva

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Another good way to do it. Though, sometimes you want to go back and you didn't think about setting a mark. – Benoit Jan 29 '11 at 15:17
I know but for some reason `\`` rarely seems to bring me where I think it should :) – Matteo Riva Jan 29 '11 at 15:18
Ahh I see. uh oh. It worked for me when I just tried it. Is it iffy on line locations? – Amit Jan 29 '11 at 15:19
It's not iffy, I just never got used to how it marks the "last location". – Matteo Riva Jan 29 '11 at 15:21
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Actually, the `\`` syntax remember positions before *long jumps* (not h, j, k, l for example) – Benoit Jan 29 '11 at 15:32

Returning to previous line with Vim

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