In Vim, is there a way to paste text in the search line?

Question

I want to search for $maximumTotalAllowedAfterFinish and replace it with $minimumTotalAllowedAfterFinish. Instead of typing the long text:

Answer 1

Or create the command in a vim buffer , e.g. type it in the buffer:

s/foo/bar/gci

And copy it to a named register, with "ayy (if the cursor is on that line!).

Now you can execute the contents of the "a" register from Vim's Ex command line with:

:[OPTIONAL_RANGE]@a

I use it all the time.