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everyone I'm trying to achieve a behaviour described here Fundamentals of multiple-cursors.

Particulraly the following comment:

Edit several places simultaneously. Either mark several instances of a string like before, but cancel the selection (but not the cursors) immediately using C-g

The only problem is that there is not detailed explanation or description of the commands to achieve that.

Can someone please give an example on can I accomplish that? Thanks in advance!

Kirk Walla
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1 Answers1

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For example, if I have the following text:

var1 = 17

var1 = var1 + 34

function(var1)

Say I want to change the name of my variable from var1 to myvar1. To use the recipe from the linked answer, the steps are:

  1. Select the first instance of var1
  2. Mark the next instance of var1 with mc/mark-next-like-this, which I have bound to C->. Repeat until all the var1 are marked
  3. Alternatively, you could use mc/mark-all-like-this, which I have bound to C-c C-<, to mark all instances of var1 at once.
  4. Press C-g. This cancels the selection of var1, but leaves a cursor at the beginning of each one.
  5. type my, which will then be inserted in front of each instance of var1.
  6. type <enter> when you're done

Obviously you can mix and match this in all kinds of ways, once you get the hang of it.

Tyler
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  • Thank your for your answer. Just a clarification what if your code is like this:

    var1 = 17 new_var = myvar + 34 function(input)

    Let's say I want to edit and var1, myvar and input how can I achieve that?

    Many thanks!

     – Kirk Walla Aug 25 '18 at 21:00
  • I don't know of a way to mark multiple things that aren't either the same text (eg, "var1"), or at the same column in consecutive lines. ie, you can put a cursor at the beginnings of a bunch of lines, the end of a bunch of lines, or at column 5 of a bunch of lines. It's may be possible, but the normal workflow is designed around modifying multiple instances of the same name, or adding text to the beginning or end of a bunch of lines. – Tyler Aug 26 '18 at 01:20
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    @Tyler There is the command mc/add-cursor-on-click which you can bind to a mouse button (with modifiers, say). There is also the ace-mc package that uses ace-jump style selection of multiple cursor locations. – Omar Aug 28 '18 at 05:29