How to yank a particular line without moving the cursor in vim?

Question

For example

How can I yank and paste Line 4 only to Line 12 without having to move the cursor to Line 4?

Answer 1

If the cursor is already on line 12, then a simple

:4y
P

does it for me.

Answer 2

Try this:

:4,4y  
P

Answer 3

How about this: Cursor is on line 11, you're in "vi" mode.

:4co.<return>

You can apparently also do it with a pattern:

:/^Yank/co.<return>

You could use "mo" (move) instead of "co" (copy) to just move the line, instead of yank and put.

Answer 4

This should do it:

:4,12y
p
k

Answer 5

Try:

:4co11

You can use an argument of 0 to paste to line 1. This will also work with ranges:

:m,n co k

will copy lines m through n to line k+1. In addition it doesn't matter where you are in the buffer. The move command, m, works similarly.