How do I clear or reset a specific register in Vim?

Explanation

Registers persist their contents throughout your Vim session and even across sessions if viminfo or shada is enabled. You can explicitly clear individual registers using :let, which is useful when registers contain sensitive data or stale content you no longer need.

How it works

• :let @a = '' — clears register a by setting it to an empty string
• :let @a = 'new content' — replaces register content entirely
• :let @" = '' — clears the unnamed (default) register
• :let @+ = '' — clears the system clipboard register

Example

" Clear a named register
:let @a = ''

" Clear all lowercase registers with a loop
:for i in range(char2nr('a'), char2nr('z')) | call setreg(nr2char(i), '') | endfor

" Clear the search register (removes highlighting)
:let @/ = ''

Tips

• Clearing @/ removes search highlighting without :nohlsearch
• Use setreg('a', '', 'c') to also reset the register type to characterwise
• Registers a-z persist in viminfo/shada — clearing them prevents leaking sensitive data
• The black hole register "_ doesn't need clearing — it always discards