Vim: Use + as default register only for yank command

Question

I\'d like to use + register (system clipboard) only for yank command (that is, don\'t overwrite this register on dd or other commands).

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Answer 1

You can overwrite the default yank commands so that they default to the system clipboard, unless another register is explicitly given:

:nnoremap <expr> y (v:register ==# '"' ? '"+' : '') . 'y'
:nnoremap <expr> yy (v:register ==# '"' ? '"+' : '') . 'yy'
:nnoremap <expr> Y (v:register ==# '"' ? '"+' : '') . 'Y'
:xnoremap <expr> y (v:register ==# '"' ? '"+' : '') . 'y'
:xnoremap <expr> Y (v:register ==# '"' ? '"+' : '') . 'Y'

Answer 2

d is more like "cut" than "delete". What you get is normal behavior.

You can use the "black hole register", though: "_d. I have mapped it to <leader>d.