How do you open a new buffer in the current window?

Question

I've got a few tabs open with different window setups.

I'd like to open a new blank buffer in the current window, without having any more splits/windows or tabs

Is there any way to do this?

I know I could do something like :n then C-w j then :q but that seems a bit messy.

Or similar with tabs: :tabe gT :q

I'm slightly confused about the relationship between windows and buffers in general - you can have lots of buffers open without being visible which you can clean up using bd but if they aren't visible then they must be saved, because you can't hide them (using :q) without either saving or discarding changes... that seems a little odd.

Answer 1

The answer is to use :ene[w]

Hah I should have looked at the help before!

My first instinct was to try :e without any arguments.

I looked at the help for this and a bit further down is

:ene[w]     Edit a new, unnamed buffer.  This fails when changes
            have been made to the current buffer, unless 'hidden'
            is set or 'autowriteall' is set and the file can be
            written.
            If 'fileformats' is not empty, the first format given
            will be used for the new buffer.  If 'fileformats' is
            empty, the 'fileformat' of the current buffer is used.
            {not in Vi}