For the past months, I have started to use vim in some occasions. One day, I came across a vim video, “Let Vim Do the Typing”{:target="_blank"}, and discover the use of register in vim. Basically, the concept of register in vim is very similar to the register in our computer. It is a temporary memory space for vim to store text.
How to use it?
In normal mode, "r will allow us to select the register r. The charcter after " is the register you selected. You can choose any register you like from a-z.To check the content of every register, use the command :reg. For specific registers, just provide the register name as arguments to the command, e.g :reg r.
In insert mode, you can insert the content of a register by Ctrl-r + r. You’ll notice the current cursor will turn into " when Ctrl-r is pressed.
Basic Usage
We can copy any text and save it to a specific register, which persists even after vim is quit. For example, we can yanked/copy current link and store to register e by "eyy.
We can also paste the content of register e by "ep. Or, go into insert mode and Ctrl-r + e to paste the content of the selected register.
Wrapping Up
This is just a basic introduction of register in vim. There is still a lots of details and usage of register I didn’t cover in this post. For more details, feel free to refer to the resources below:
- Vim registers: The basics and beyond{:target="_blank"}
- How do I use vim registers?{:target="_blank"}