Vim Tip: Highlight on Yank -- HighlightedYank Plugin Made Easy

HighlightedYank.md

Note: This gist is now part of VimBits plugin.

The HighlightedYank plugin is a handy tool for ensuring that the text you intended to yank is actually yanked. This can help prevent surprises when you paste, especially if you accidentally hit the wrong keys.

Vim already has enough scaffolding now to implement this using a short snippet. Put the following code in your .vimrc.

This feature is now included in Vim help.

    # hlgroup: Highlight group used for highlighting yanked region.
    # duration: Duration of highlight in milliseconds.
    # in_visual: Whether to highlight the region if selected from visual mode.
    def HighlightedYank(hlgroup = 'IncSearch', duration = 300, in_visual = true)
        if v:event.operator ==? 'y'
            if !in_visual && visualmode() != null_string
                visualmode(1)
                return
            endif
            var [beg, end] = [getpos("'["), getpos("']")]
            var type = v:event.regtype ?? 'v'
            var pos = getregionpos(beg, end, {type: type})
            var end_offset = (type == 'V' || v:event.inclusive) ? 1 : 0
            var m = matchaddpos(hlgroup, pos->mapnew((_, v) => {
                var col_beg = v[0][2] + v[0][3]
                var col_end = v[1][2] + v[1][3] + end_offset
                return [v[0][1], col_beg, col_end - col_beg]
            }))
            var winid = win_getid()
            timer_start(duration, (_) => m->matchdelete(winid))
        endif
    enddef
    augroup highlightedyank | autocmd!
        autocmd TextYankPost * HighlightedYank()
    augroup END