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Entering frequent text

During programming, we usually need to enter often similar words. This can take a long time in the case of long identifiers. For example, who likes to type Ada.Strings.Unbounded.UnboundedStrings more than once? Check out Table 4 if you like typing jumbo names just once.

 

Key Action Explanation

M-/ Find closest word, dynamic abbreviation expand This function is very useful if we have long variable names in programs. It looks backwards and expands to the closest word that starts with the same letters as we already typed. If no word backward in the text was found, the text forward of the point is searched.

C-x x (key) Save the region in the register (key) If we need to frequently insert the same pieces of text, we can store the text in a register.

C-x g (key) Insert register into buffer The text previously saved with the above command, is inserted in the text.

M-TAB Expand tag Tries to complete the word started to a function name or constant name. Ambiguities are presented in a separate buffer.

The abbrev commands provide further support for frequently typed data. Please refer to the manual for the details, or try M-x help a abbrev or M-x command-apropos abbrev, which should list all the possible commands of the abbrev mode.