How to paste over without overwriting register

Question

I don't like the default vim behavior of copying all text deleted with d, D, c, or C into the default register.

I've gotten around it by mapping d to "_d, c to "_c, and so on.

From my .vimrc:

"These are to cancel the default behavior of d, D, c, C
"  to put the text they delete in the default register.
"  Note that this means e.g. "ad won't copy the text into
"  register a anymore.  You have to explicitly yank it.
nnoremap d "_d
vnoremap d "_d
nnoremap D "_D
vnoremap D "_D
nnoremap c "_c
vnoremap c "_c
nnoremap C "_C
vnoremap C "_C

Use the following:

xnoremap p pgvy

this will reselect and re-yank any text that is pasted in visual mode.

Edit: in order this to work with "xp you can do:

xnoremap p pgv"@=v:register.'y'<cr>

v:register expands to the last register name used in a normal mode command.

"{register}p won't work as you describe. It will replace the selection with the content of the register. You will have instead to do something like:

" I haven't found how to hide this function (yet)
function! RestoreRegister()
  let @" = s:restore_reg
  return ''
endfunction

function! s:Repl()
    let s:restore_reg = @"
    return "p@=RestoreRegister()\<cr>"
endfunction

" NB: this supports "rp that replaces the selection by the contents of @r
vnoremap <silent> <expr> p <sid>Repl()

Which should be fine as long as you don't use a plugin that has a non-nore vmap to p, and that expects a register to be overwritten.

This code is available as a script there. Ingo Karkat also defined a plugin solving the same issue.

In your .vimrc

xnoremap p "_dP

I found this from a response on a similar thread, but the original source was http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Replace_a_word_with_yanked_text. It mentions some drawbacks, however it works fine for me.

Luc Hermitte's solution works like a charm. I was using it for about a week or so. Then I discovered a solution from Steve Losh's .vimrc that works nicely if YankRing is part of your plugin/bundle lineup:

function! YRRunAfterMaps()                                                                                                      
    " From Steve Losh, Preserve the yank post selection/put.    
    vnoremap p :<c-u>YRPaste 'p', 'v'<cr>gv:YRYankRange 'v'<cr> 
endfunction  

Try this in your ~/.vimrc:

xnoremap <expr> p 'pgv"'.v:register.'y'

• xnoremap means that this is only for Visual mode, not Visual + Select modes.

• <expr> means that {rhs} of the xnoremap {lhs} {rhs} setting is evaluated as an expression.

• In this case, our expression of 'pgv"'.v:register.'y' is using . for concatenation.

• v:register is evaluated to the register being used during the fulfillment of the mapping.

The result of "xp would evaluate to pgv"xy, where x is the register.

I was helped by an answer to this stackoverflow question: Vim - mapping with an optional register prefix in conjunction with Benoit's answer on this page

Luc's function worked well for me after I made a change to support the fact that I have clipboard=unnamed set:

function! RestoreRegister()
    let @" = s:restore_reg
    if &clipboard == "unnamed"
        let @* = s:restore_reg
    endif
    return ''
endfunction