How to replace a region in emacs with yank buffer contents?

Question

When I use VIM or most modeless editors (Eclipse, NetBeans etc.) I frequently do the following. If I have similar text blocks and I need to change them all, I will change on

Answer 1

Add this to your .emacs:

(delete-selection-mode 1)

Anything that writes to the buffer while the region is active will overwrite it, including paste, but also simply typing something or hitting backspace