How to paste yanked text to vim command-line?

Question

Hi is there any way I can paste the yanked text from a vim buffer to a vim command line, as I need to search for some file names which appear in current open text and I have to manually type the file name after :e

Answer 1

Yes you can use ctrl+r + " and can see this as a reference https://stackoverflow.com/questions/906535/how-to-copy-yanked-text-to-vi-command-prompt

Answer 2

You can do <C-r>" to paste from the default register or <C-r>a to paste from register a.

Answer 3

If your cursor is on the filename before you go to command mode use Ctrl-rCtrl-f.

You could also use the command-line window for this, and then edit the command line like you would in the file buffer.

See :help c_CTRL-R_CTRL-F and :help command-line-window for more.

Answer 4

If you type q:, you will bring up your command-line history; this can be edited with conventional vim commands, including p.

I find accessing this history very useful, so I have the following three lines in my vimrc:

" Switch ; and : in normal and visual modes
noremap ; :
noremap : ;
noremap q; q:
cnoremap ;; <c-f>

The last one is the most useful -- with it you can either use q; or ;;; to access the command line history; and if you've already started typing a command then you can quickly hit ;; and gain access to your familiar vim keys. I find this easier than memorising a bunch of key chords (if I wanted that, I'd be using emacs).