> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ploegert.gitbook.io/til/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ploegert.gitbook.io/til/tools/vim/interact-with-the-alternate-file.md).

# Interact With The Alternate File

If you have a couple buffers going in a Vim session and you check out the buffer list with `:ls`, you'll notice that one of those buffers has a `#` indicator next to it. That means the file for this buffer is considered the alternate file of the current, visible buffer. In addition to hitting `CTRL-^` to switch to that buffer, you can reference it in other commands with `#`. This means you can quickly `:edit`, `:split`, `:vsplit`, and so forth the alternate file by just giving `#` as the argument to those commands.

Quickly open the alternate file in a vertical split with:

```
:vsp #
```

See `:h alternate-file` for more details.


---

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