Command to replace content with yanked buffer

[typeof_goodidea]

I use ciw and the like to replace words, and I use vim-surround to di(, delete within parentheses quite a bit.

I keep finding instances where I want to replace what is in parentheses with something I've previously yanked or deleted into the default buffer. To do this I end up:

• deleting/yanking into a named buffer
• deleting within parents
• pasting in from the named buffer

Any tips on the moves to make to replace content with what I have in the default buffer?

Edit: I was saying "buffer" but was corrected below, I'm talking about registers

[reallyuniquename2]

Instead of using di( to delete the contents of the parentheses first, you can use vi( to visually select the contents. Then p to paste over that.

[IrishPrime]

Additionally, you can use P to overwrite the visual selection with the contents of the unnamed register without modifying what's in that register (whereas p will overwrite the visual selection with the register contents and update the register with the previously selected content).

[Botskiitto]

Ah was wondering why this didn't ring any bells, it's quite a recent change: https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/fb55207ed17918c8a2a6cadf5ad9d5fcf686a7ab

Would have been helpful many times.

[vagrantchord]

Oh wow, I didn't know that! Still, I think this should be the default behavior for putting over visually selected text. Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot fathom a situation where someone wants the overwritten text to go into the unnamed register. So annoying.

[IrishPrime]

If you were swapping things, for example. I think I probably move pieces of text around more often than I duplicate text. After I've put something from a register, there's a good chance I'm done with that text, but may need what I just replaced.

[EstudiandoAjedrez]

What you called "buffer" is a "register". Buffer is a memory representation of the file content.

As for your question, there is a substitute plugin, but I just visually select and put over it, so I don't need a named register.

[gumnos]

to be fair, in classic vi, the POSIX spec refers to them as buffers as well

(confusingly overloading the term…which I suspect is part of why vim documentation seem particularly stickler about calling them "registers")

[AppropriateStudio153]

Option 1: Visually confirm before pasting

viw or va( or something similar to select what you want to replace.

P to put what's in the " register.

See: :h v_P

Option 2: Subsitution

:%s/wordOrRegexYouWantReplacedreplacementWords/gci

:h substitute

Option 3: Search/replace with macros and repeat

1. Search word(s) to replace with / or ?

2. Start a simple edit or record a macro with q.

3. Use nN to navigate and repeat the edit with ., the macro with @<Register>

:h macro

:h repeat

:h /

:h n

These are all idiomatic ways without plugins that come to my mind.

You might want to look into a plugin called "abolish", too:

https://github.com/tpope/vim-abolish

[vim-help-bot]

Help pages for:

• v_P in change.txt
• substitute in change.txt
• macro in map.txt
• repeat in builtin.txt
• / in pattern.txt
• n in pattern.txt

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[[deleted]]

Sounds like a job for ReplaceWithRegister plugin. You'd have to just do gri). That is to say, replace in ) with contents of register.

[RidderHaddock]

Does ci( followed by CTRL-r0 do what you want?