Stop Vim from yanking visual selected text

Question

Let's say I have a file like this

(abc)
(123)
(456)

I want to yank abc and paste it in place of 123 and 456. I would yi) on the first line. Then go down a line and paste it with vi)p. But for the 456, vim will paste the last visual selected text which is 123 instead of abc. The file is now looks like this:

(abc)
(abc)
(123)

This can be solve by specify a register before the yank/paste operation but I usually forget to include it. Is there anyway I can prevent vim visual select from yanking selected text?

Answer 1

The result of the second paste is determined by the first paste that substitute de default register with what has been overridden.

The standard solution for that is to include the following mapping in your .vimrc file:

xnoremap p pgvy

When you paste in visual mode (x):

• It select what has been previously selected (gv) and
• Yank it (y)

Answer 2

Since patch 8.2.4242 you can use P in place of p in visual mode to put without yanking- i.e., use vi)P in your example to get the desired behavior.

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To go slightly further, I have created a plugin visput which enables this behavior for both p and P and also enables . repeat to work after visual operations.