How do I append yanked text to an existing register without overwriting it in Vim?

Explanation

Using an uppercase register letter with any operator appends to the register instead of replacing it. This lets you collect text from multiple locations across a file into a single register for a combined paste — without the overhead of intermediate buffers or repeated yanking.

How it works

Every named register (a–z) has a corresponding uppercase alias (A–Z). When you prefix an operator with the uppercase version, Vim appends the new text to whatever the register already holds:

• "Ay{motion} — appends yanked text to register a
• "Ad{motion} — deletes and appends the deleted text to register a
• "Ac{motion} — changes text and appends the old content to register a

Start with a fresh register by clearing it: qaq records an empty macro into a, effectively zeroing it out.

Example

Imagine you want to collect three function signatures from different parts of a large file:

" Clear register a first
qaq

" Go to first signature, yank the line, appending to a
"Ayy

" Go to second signature
"Ayy

" Go to third signature
"Ayy

" Paste all three at once
"ap

The result in a is a concatenation of all three yanked lines, ready to paste together.

func Add(a, b int) int
func Sub(a, b int) int
func Mul(a, b int) int

Tips

• Works with any operator and any motion: "AyiW appends a WORD, "Adip appends a paragraph after deleting it
• Use "ad (lowercase) to start a fresh collection — the first delete/yank replaces the register, subsequent uppercase appends accumulate
• :registers a shows the current content of register a so you can verify what has been collected
• This technique is especially useful when building up a snippet list for documentation or refactoring across a codebase