How do you copy and paste in VIM?

Copy = "yank" (yy for a line), paste = "put" (p after the cursor) — vim's words for clipboard operations.

The terminology trips people up: in vim yank means copy and put means paste. Like delete, y is an operator that pairs with motions — yw yanks a word, y$ to end of line, 3yy three lines.

Yank (copy) commands:

Put (paste) commands:

Workflow example:

yy      " Yank current line
jjj     " Move down 3 lines
p       " Paste below current line

Using Visual mode:

1. Press v to start selection
2. Move cursor to select text
3. Press y to yank
4. Move to destination
5. Press p to paste

Go deeper:

• Vim help: change.txt — yank and put (vimhelp.org) — yy/yw (yank) and p/P (put) and how registers connect them.