A cheatsheet for common yank (copy), delete (cut), and paste commands in Neovim. Yanking is used to copy text without removing it, with commands like yy to copy a line or y$ to copy from the cursor to the end of a line. Deleting, which acts as a “cut” operation, removes text and stores it for pasting, with common commands like dd to cut a line or dG to cut from the current line to the end of the file. Pasting, done with p or P, allows you to insert the copied or cut text either after or before the cursor. Neovim also supports visual selection for targeted operations and includes register management to handle multiple copies or cuts simultaneously. For those needing clipboard integration, commands like "+y and "+p enable seamless interaction with the system clipboard, making these commands flexible for a variety of workflows.
Yanking (Copy)
Command
Description
yy
Yank (copy) the current line.
3yy
Yank 3 lines starting from the current line.
y$
Yank from the cursor to the end of the line.
y^
Yank from the cursor to the beginning of the line (excluding indentation).
y0
Yank from the cursor to the beginning of the line.
yG
Yank from the current line to the end of the file.
ygg
Yank from the current line to the beginning of the file.
yw
Yank a word starting at the cursor.
yiw
Yank the current word under the cursor.
yap
Yank the entire paragraph (including surrounding blank lines).
test
Deleting (Cut)
Command
Description
dd
Delete (cut) the current line.
3dd
Delete (cut) 3 lines starting from the current line.
d$
Delete from the cursor to the end of the line.
d^
Delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line (excluding indentation).
d0
Delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line.
dG
Delete from the current line to the end of the file.
dgg
Delete from the current line to the beginning of the file.
dw
Delete a word starting at the cursor.
diw
Delete the current word under the cursor.
dap
Delete the entire paragraph.
Pasting
Command
Description
p
Paste below or after the cursor.
P
Paste above or before the cursor.
Registers
Command
Description
"ay
Yank into register a.
"aP
Paste from register a.
"0p
Paste from the default yank register.
:reg
View all registers.
System Clipboard Integration
If clipboard integration is enabled in Neovim (check with :echo has("clipboard")):