~ / registers / yank-and-black-holelesson 3/5

The yank register "0 and the black hole "_

Get your last yank back after a delete, or delete without touching any register.

?how it works

The classic trap: you yank a line, delete something else to make room, press p… and get the deleted text back. The delete replaced the unnamed register.

Your yank isn't gone. A yank also goes to the yank register "0, and deletes never touch it. So "0p puts your most recent yank, however much you've deleted since.

Or dodge the problem: the black hole register "_ swallows whatever you send it. "_dd deletes a line without changing any register, so a plain p afterwards still puts your yank.

Deletes keep a short history too. "1 holds the most recent deleted line(s), "2 the delete before that, and so on up to "9. Smaller deletes, inside a single line, go to "- instead.

⌨keys

`"0p`	put the most recent yank, even after deletes
`"_d{motion}`	delete without changing any register
`"_dd`	delete the line into the black hole
`"1p`	put the most recent deleted line(s); "2p the delete before, …
`"-p`	put the last small (within-a-line) delete

Nin neovim

Want yanks to fill "1–"9 too, like a yank ring? Neovim's help has a ready-made Lua autocommand for that: see :h yankring.

3 drills

Get the yank back with "0: You yanked some text, then deleted something else, so p would put the wrong thing. Put the yanked text where the target shows it.
Delete into the black hole: You have a line yanked. Delete the line under the cursor into the black hole ("_) so the yank survives, then put the yank where the target shows it.
Older deletes: "2: You deleted two lines, one after the other. Bring back the one you deleted first (it has moved on to "2), below the cursor.

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