How to navigate to the last cursor position in Eclipse if it is in the same file and was not edited?

Question

I had used Eclipse earlier, afterwards I switched to IntelliJ for a while and now back to Eclipse. There is one thing from IntelliJ which I can't find in Eclipse: Navigating to the real last cursor position - even in the same file and even if the cursor was moved between the lines using the arrow keys on the keyboard or the mouse. IntelliJ is able to do it and I found it really useful.

For example:
I move the cursor using the keyboard's down arrow key successively on lines 10, 20, 30.
Now I am on line 30 and when I press Alt+left I would like the cursor to go to the line 20.
After pressing Alt+left again I would like the cursor to go to line 10.
After pressing Alt+right afterwards I would like the cursor to go to the line 20 again.

The following shortcuts are available in Eclipse:
Alt+left - it navigates back to the last cursor position in a different file, not to the last cursor position in the current file even if I already moved my cursor in the same file
Alt+right - it navigates forward to the next cursor position in a different file, not to the next cursor position in the current file even if I already moved my cursor in the same file
Ctrl+Q - moves the cursor to the last edit location

The latest version of Eclipse in which I tested the above-mentioned shortcuts: Eclipse Luna 4.4.0.

I found the following discussion about the same problem (lacking such functionality in Eclipse) which is quite old, but it seems that this functionality has not been implemented in Eclipse since that discussion in eclipse forum.

Does anyone of you know if this functionality will be implemented in Eclipse? Is there a plugin for Eclipse which provides such functionality of navigating back to the last cursor position?

Please note, that due to the reasons described above, I'm not satisfied with the solutions provided as an answer to this SO question 'How to navigate to the last cursor position in Eclipse?' or to the other SO question 'How to go back in Eclipse?'.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, Eclipse's cursor history is rather unpredictable. The Alt+Left/Right shortcuts can rewind some cursor movements and navigation actions like others said, but definitely less precisely than many other IDEs. There is no alternative as of now.

Answer 2

Use bookmarks for that because there is no another way of tracking the necessary code lines. Here is the link about how to use bookmarks http://www.luisdelarosa.com/2005/02/16/eclipse-tip-use-bookmarks-to-track-important-places-in-your-code/

Screenshot of the aforementioned article's content in the link:

Answer 3

Go to Preferences / General / Keys. You'll be able to see or edit the bindings for:

Backward History: default is Alt←
Forward History: default is Alt→

You may also use those shortcuts (and see the key bindings) in the toolbar:

answered Sep 7 '12 at 8:27 Denys Séguret

Answer 4

There is Alt+left arrow and Alt+right arrow to navigate to previous/next cursor positions, and CtrlQ to go to the last edited position

Answer 5

The key combination Ctrl + Q brings you back to the last locations, where editing was done.

Use Ctrl + L for an overview of shortcuts. See also Eclipse shortcuts or this Eclipse cheat sheet.

Answer 6

Navigate > Back (Alt+Left_Arrow) already allows to navigate back to previous cursor positions even in the same file. E.g. after you Ctrl+Click on a reference to a local variable (to go to the declaration), then Alt+Left puts the caret back to the reference.

Exlpanation source

Answer 7

I use the side buttons of my mouse and it works for me