Where is the problem?

The problem is that when you either yank or delete a line/char/multiple lines, vim copy what you’ve just done in a global register, and overrides the previous content.

One of the solution is to use “ (double quotes) to set your register before doing the overriding action.

For example

<code>"ayy
</code>

Will copy your line in you register a

and

<code>"ap
</code>

Will paste the content of the a register

But let’s be fair, we all make mistakes, and there are times when you forget to yank your stuff in a specific register, and this is where the problem occurs, because you usually end up in a serie of undo to retrieve your text back.

Yank Ring as a solution

While helping a friend today who is starting with Vim, it was pretty clear that the register wasn’t a good solution, and we found Yank Rink.

It’s a pretty cool solution that will allocate different registers to your copy/delete operation, so every time you copy/delete something, it’s won’t override the previous one.

You can then use Ctrl-P to swap between the allocated registers, making finding the right one a breeze.

Finally it offers you :YRShow and YRSearch to respectively show and search the content of you registers.

So if you’re stuck in a yank hell, I would definitively recommend looking at this plugin Yank Rink.