Vim: Replacing the End of the Line

Question

In Vim, how is it possible to replace the remaining of a line with the yanked text? If I press "D", the yanked text will be replaced with the deleted text.

Also, how is it possible to yank to the end of the line? If I press "Y", it will yank the whole line.

Answer 1

y$ - yank to end of line

Answer 2

Press v to enter visual mode on the starting character of the selection. Then hit $ to go to the end of the line. After that, hit y to yank the selection.

So:

v$y

Instead of yanking, use p to paste. This will paste over the selection. So after you use D to delete some text, do:

v$p

This will paste the deleted text over the selection.

Answer 3

Two ways you can replace text to the end of the line with previously yanked text:

1. v$p — v to enter visual mode; $ to move to end of line; p to paste over highlighted text.
2. D"0p — the last yanked (as opposed to deleted) text is stored in register 0, so: D to delete to end of line; "0 to select register 0; p to paste that register.

Answer 4

Your questions seems to be thoroughly answered by others at this point (v$p and y$), but I wanted to one additional piece of information:

To yank to end of line, the default way is y$. However, it is a fairly common practice to map Y y$ in your .vimrc, since the default behavior of Y is redundant with yy, and is inconsistent with other mappings, like D and C.

Answer 5

Here's how I'd do it:

1. "ay$ (yank from cursor to end of line into register a)
2. Move cursor to desired replace position.
3. D (delete to the end of the line)
4. "ap (paste the text yanked in step 1)

Admittedly, this is very similar to another answer but I prefer explicitly specifying a register because it forces me to think about what I'm doing. I could see myself accidentally overwriting register 0 if I got distracted or tried to do something else.

Answer 6

If you want to delete text without affecting the main (unnamed) register, delete your text into the "black hole register", called "_. Do this via "_D. Then the unnamed register will be unaffected and you can paste your previously-yanked text as normal.

See :h quote_.