Replace with fixed character (e.g. spaces) and add replaced text to register

Question

I would like to have a selection that whose contents I replace with a command like r, but the replaced text is added to a register.

The use case is editing a Markdown table in Vim, where I want to remove an entry and move it around. I would like to use vAwr_ (where the underscore is a space character) and then move to another cell to paste the result with e.g. R<C-r>"

I am hoping there is a built-in way to do this, but otherwise guidance on a new keybinding that performs the equivalent task would be helpful (perhaps modifying r in visual mode so that it copies to a register before replacing.)

Another alternative is creating a new text-object to select between the | symbols of the Markdown table, but I would rather solve this general problem first.

Answer 1

Just copy text and restore the selection immediately with ygv. Then you can proceed with r_ or whatever.

If you believe that this extra three key presses is too much then make a mapping like

xnoremap r ygvr

Then every "r" in Visual mode will also copy the selection into default register first.