XCode 5 -- Jump To Previous Cursor Location

Question

I would like to jump to the previous cursor position within a file in XCode 5 (with either a keyboard hotkey or a drop-down menu path).

This SO post worked for XCode 3: Does XCode have a cursor navigation stack like Visual Studio?

But for XCode 5, I could not find this functionality here: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/Machx/Xcode-Keyboard-Shortcuts/Xcode_Shortcuts.pdf, nor in the Apple Documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/xcode_help-command_shortcuts/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010560-CH1-SW1

EDIT

Sorry I wasn't clear earlier. I do not want to switch between files. As the answers below state, that is what ctrl+cmd+left/right does. I want to switch between cursor positions within a file. For example:

I am working in MyViewController.m.

I write a function -(void)doStuff at line 178.

In -(void)doStuff, I realize that I need to update an @property to be readwrite.

I go to the top of MyViewController.m to line 10. I add the line @property (nonatomic, strong, readwrite) NSMutableArray *myArray;

Now I want to return to finish writing my -(void)doStuff method. What is the best way to get there? This is when I'd like to say "Go to the last text cursor position."

Could you tell me what works for you. XCode is driving me nuts. — James Franco, May 05 '15 at 21:57
In XCode 8. cmd+ctrl + -> works just great. It moves you to previous cursor position, not to the previous visited file. — Sergey Dryganets, Dec 15 '16 at 00:39
Amazing plugin for navigation, but it can't be installed with modern Xcode(( https://github.com/merrickp/JumpMarks — Nike Kov, Feb 05 '19 at 07:32

niksawtschuk · Answer 1 · 2014-05-07T21:23:07.883

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As Owen commented on your post, I believe the behaviour you want is to Go Forward/Backward, which is a behaviour represented by those two arrows at the top left of the text entry field:

Location of Go Forward/Backward buttons

In the pdf you linked these actions actually have shortcuts to the keys cmd+control+arrow, where the arrow key you press represents forward/backward motion through your XCode behaviour (left being back, right being forward).

edited May 07 '14 at 21:23

answered May 07 '14 at 20:26

niksawtschuk

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cant even tell you how USEFUL this answer was – eveo May 07 '14 at 21:18
Though helpful, this isn't my intended use case. See edit for clarification. – rizzes May 08 '14 at 04:37
Technically in that use case this would still work, as long as you didn't visit some other file in between the two actions. – niksawtschuk May 08 '14 at 05:24
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`Cmd+control+arrow` does not work in this use case. `cmd+control+arrow` only works to switch _between_ files, not within a _single_ file. `cmd+control+arrow` does not move my cursor from line 10 to line 187 within a _single_ file. – rizzes May 12 '14 at 17:29

CIFilter · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-26T22:23:18.880

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A useful trick I found is to bind opening the Document Items menu (by default Ctrl + 6) to something easier to type for me. Then when I'm about to, say, jump to some method definition (that may or may not be in the same file I'm already in), I first open the Document Items menu then just hit Enter. That marks my current location in the navigation stack. It also marks the line the cursor is at in the current method, too.

enter image description here

It takes a little training to remember to mark your place, but being able to open that menu and hit Enter quickly from the keyboard makes it less painful to force Xcode to mark your navigation within a single file.

edited Jan 26 '15 at 22:23

answered Jan 22 '15 at 21:57

CIFilter

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Very cool solution. How do you bind opening the Documents Items menu to something other than `ctrl + 6`? I think that'd be a helpful addition to this answer. – rizzes Jan 26 '15 at 00:18
You can change it in Xcode's Key Bindings preferences, just like any of the other commands. – CIFilter Jan 26 '15 at 22:22
Yeah, dumb question, sorry. I just changed mine to cmd+enter and it works great! – rizzes Feb 24 '15 at 16:47
this is really bad, having to go through this pain just to mark your current position which be a feature in an IDE the scale of xcode – Bhargav Nov 08 '16 at 13:04

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered May 13 '14 at 20:28

cmd+ctrl+arrow can work in this situation. But, it depends on how you change cursor locations.

If you use a file navigation control to change cursor location, cmd+ctrl+arrow will work. ctrl+6 switches to a method within a given file. If you start on line 178 then ctrl+6 to switch to another method on line 10, cmd+ctrl+arrow will return your cursor to line 178.

If you manually change cursor location, cmd+ctrl+arrow will not work. If you start on line 178 then scroll to line 10, cmd+ctrl+arrow will not return your cursor to line 178.

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '14 at 12:28

I was searching for this for so long time and what works for me is:

⌃ + 2 (Ctrl + 2 - Shows previous history) then click ↓ - this will jump back to previous definition

⌃ + 3 (Ctrl + 3 - Shows next history) then click ↓ - this will jump to next definition

This will only work if you navigate through your class using ⌃ + 6 to jump between definitions.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 03 '14 at 11:28

Unfortunately Xcode does not comes up with this feature . but If you are going to different line for copy content to paste to previous location then tricky using (Undo and Redo) Command + Z and then Shift +command +Z shortcut key one short simulate same effect.

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered May 07 '14 at 20:24

-1

Ctrl-command-leftKey does exactly that. (It's called "Go Back" in the documentation).

answered May 07 '14 at 20:24

Brean

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its not taking the cursor last location. On the contrary its taking to last file file opened. – Vikas Bansal Oct 07 '15 at 06:21

XCode 5 -- Jump To Previous Cursor Location

6 Answers6