Vim: Difference between :wq and :x

How do I exit the Vim editor?

This question already asked years ago and still tricky for some engineers.

Few approaches on exiting vim that I know :

1. using :wq
2. using :x
3. close terminal (please don't)
4. turnoff the PC (please don't)

Today I learnt that :x and :wq are not the same thing! Both command will save and quit, but there is one difference.

:wq will write your buffer to disk and update modification timestamp.

:x will only write when there is any changes on your buffer. If your buffer remain the same, then the modification timestamp will be untouched.