How to yank a line with a certain line number?

Question

Say that I am on line 20 and I would like to yank line 4, how can I do that?

And similarly, how can I yank a line relative to my cursor position, say the one 3 lines up?

Answer 1

From :help :yank:

:[range]y[ank] [x]      Yank `[range]` lines [into register x].

So, to yank line 4, one would type:

:4yank

Note you can easily do this from insert mode with <C-o>; this allows you to execute one command, after which you're returned to insert mode; for example:

<C-o>:4yank

You can, of course, also use other ranges. Some examples:

• Lines 1 to 3: :1,3yank
• The entire buffer: :%yank
• From the current line to the end of the buffer: :.,$:yank
• The current line and the next 3: :.,+3yank
• The current line and the previous 3: :-3,.yank
• The line 3 lines above the current line: :-3yank

The most useful things to remember about ranges:

• It's in the form of :line1,line2command.
• A . is the current line (you can actually omit the dot in most cases; :.,+3yank and :,+3yank are the same)
• You specify lines relative to the current position with +n and -n.

By default the lines will be yanked into the default register (""). If you want to use a named register, add a space an then the name of the register (naked, not prefixed with a double quote), eg:

:30,30yank a
> 10 lines yanked into "a

See :help [range] for more information.

Answer 2

In addition to Carpetsmoker's answer, I should point out the awesome :help :m and :help :t.

If you want to copy line 4 to right below the current line you can do this:

:4t.

or that, if you want to copy that line right above the current line:

:4t-

Answer 3

Simply type

:4y

to yank line 4

it will go into the unnamed register. Then, (for example) you can use p to put it elsewhere. You can also use [n]p, e.g. 10p to paste it 10 times.

You can put it into a named register such as "a" with

:4y a

Answer 4

Besides the ex-mode commands that you've got you can achieve that also it in command mode, e.g. by: 4GY'' - which means: goto line 4 (4G), yank line (Y), and return to previous line ('').

You can also use jump marks; for your second question, e.g. by: mm3kY'm - which means: set mark m (mm), go three lines up (3k), yank line (Y), return to mark m ('m).

Answer 5

You can do

:10y <Enter> (to copy the line 10)
p (paste line 10 where the cursor is)

Setting up relative number helps in moving between lines of code as well.

:set relativenumber

Now you can copy the 5th line above the cursor with:

:-5y <Enter>
:p (to paste)