Working With Vim Registers | Copy And Paste Better

Vim Registers

TLDR; A register is a place where vim will yank/delete/put text to and from.

Registers Neovim docs or :h registers

Cheat Sheet

Display Contents

Display content of all registers

:reg

Display content of just register a

:reg a

Display content of registers a, b, c, 1, 2, 3, and the unnamed register (")

:reg abc123"

Working With Specific Registers

Use "<register name><operation>.

You can send yanked, changed, or deleted text to named registers. They are named a to z (lowercase only).

Yank selected text to register z (visual mode)

"zy

Yank a word to register a (with a motion)

"ayaw

Change from cursor to end of line, sending the text being changed to register b

"bC<new text here>

Delete a line, sending contents to register c.

"cdd

Use the uppercase register name to append to the text in the register.

Delete a word, appending it to the text in register c

"Cdaw

Paste from register a

"ap

In insert mode, paste from register b without leaving insert mode.

<C-R>b

Unnamed register contains the text of your last yank, change, deletion. In insert mode, paste from unnamed register (") without leaving insert mode.

<C-R>"

Numbered registers 1 to 9 contains the text of your last line-wise yank, change, deletions. Register 1 contains the most recent line(s), 2 the next most recent, 3 the next most recent before that, etc.

Paste from register 1

"1p

Paste filename

"%p

Paste last search

"/p

Paste last command mode command

":p

Insert result of evaluating the expression 123+456 (while in insert mode)

<C-R>=
123+456

Insert result of evaluating the expression 1024/magic_number (while in insert mode)

:let g:magic_number = 8
...
<C-R>=
1024/magic_number