vim: how to paste the same text multiple times

Vim's clipboard works in a way that what you delete also gets saved into the clipboard same as when you copy (yank) something.

This is often convenient as you don't lose what you've deleted.

But on the other hand it means that when you paste something over other text you get what was deleted into the clipboard and you'll be surprised the next time you try to paste.

The "standard" solution is to paste with "0p:

• The "0 is the most recent copy (yank) register (see :help registers).
• The "0p tells vim to paste from "0 (instead of the default "unnamed" register).
• This way we explicitly tell it: insert what I copied and not what I deleted.

Fun fact: "yank" means "copy" in vim and it means "paste" in emacs.

For example, let's say we want to copy the new_value to the clipboard and then replace one or more occurrences of the old_value with it. We can use :%s/new_value/old_value/g for that, but sometimes it is more convenient to go over the text and do replacements manually.

A possible way to replace multiple word occurrences in vim is:

• Yank inner word: yiw (the new_value is now in the default register "")
• Move cursor to another word (the old_value)
• Select it and paste over: viwp (viw - visual inner word, p - paste)

Now the problem: go to the next old_value and do viwp again. We paste the previously deleted old_value, so nothing happens!

In more detail, what happens during the copy/paste process is:

• Deleting (diw), changing (ciw) and yanking (yiw) text copies the affected text to the unnamed register ("").
• Yanking text also copies the text to the register "0.
• We yank inner word: yiw (the new_value), it is now in "" and "0
• We move cursor to another word (the old_value)
• We select the old_value and paste over: viwp, the deleted old_value is in "" and the new_value is still in the "0
• Next time we use p, it pastes old_value since p uses "" register by default (but we can instruct p to use the "0 register with "0p)

As I mentioned above, you would have to go with "0p in this case to make sure you are pasting the new_value.

A better fix is to redefine p like this:

xnoremap p pgvy

This preserves the "save deleted text to the clipboard" behavior in most cases, for example if we do dw to delete old_value, then we can still paste it with p.

This is because the xnoremap only changes p in "Visual mode" (see :help mapmode-x). And the meaning of pgvy is:

• p - paste the new_value (and old_value gets to the clipboard)
• gv - re-select what we've just pasted (new_value)
• y - copy what we've just pasted (the new_value)

So now the new_value is in the clipboard again and we can paste it.

A good solution for Vim (as described above) is:

xnoremap p pgvy

Slightly counter-intuitive, but the different paste behavior in visual mode vs normal mode is natural:

• Normal mode: you do diw or ciw and you usually type the replacement (no pasting in this case)
• Visual mode: you usually paste over and the purpose of visual selection is to define what to replace

So the xnoremap p pgvy works well because it only redefines the visual mode behavior.

With this mapping, we can still use Vim's standard behavior if needed by using gp instead of p (gp is almost the same as p, with cursor left after the pasted text instead of the last char of it).

A solution for Emacs evil mode is this:

;; By default, evil emulates Vim behavior, we need to disable it
;; so we can comfortably paste multiple times in visual mode.
(setq evil-kill-on-visual-paste nil)

Another solution that seems simple is to have a xnoremap p "0p that would always use the "0 register when pasting in visual mode.

But there is a negative side-effect: when we delete something explicitly, it gets into "", but not into "0, so the next "0p in visual mode will not work.

For example:

• select and copy irrelevant_value with yiw
  • "" has irrelevant_value, "0 has irrelevant_value
• delete deleted_value with dw
  • "" has deleted_value, "0 has irrelevant_value
• select old_value and paste with viw"0p
  • note: it is just viwp if we have the xnoremap p "0p mapping

Result: the irrelevant_value is pasted. Expected: the deleted_value.

One more solution is to use a named register:

• Yank the new_value into a specific register (a in this case): "ayiw
• Move the cursor to the old_value, select it with viw
• Paste the contents of the a register over the selected text: "ap

This works, but it requires extra effort to remember to use the register.

I recommend the xnoremap p pgvy mapping, as it works well and I did not find any drawbacks while using it.

Vim Tips Wiki: Replace a word with yanked text

Stackoverflow: Paste multiple times