How to apply a specific stash entry?

Applying a Specific Stash Entry

Git's stash feature allows you to temporarily save your local changes, which can be useful when you need to switch to a different branch or task without committing your current work. When you have multiple stash entries, you may want to apply a specific one rather than the most recent one. Here's how you can do that:

Understanding Git Stash

Git stash is a way to temporarily save your local changes without committing them. When you stash your changes, Git creates a new stash entry that you can later apply or drop. This is particularly useful when you need to switch to a different branch or task but don't want to commit your current work.

Here's a simple example of how to use Git stash:

# Make some changes to your working directory
git stash save "My changes"
# Switch to a different branch
git checkout other-branch
# Apply the stashed changes
git stash apply

In this example, we first make some changes to our working directory, then we use git stash save to create a new stash entry with the message "My changes". After that, we switch to a different branch and use git stash apply to apply the stashed changes.

Applying a Specific Stash Entry

When you have multiple stash entries, you can apply a specific one using the following command:

git stash apply stash@{index}

Here, stash@{index} refers to the specific stash entry you want to apply, where index is the position of the stash entry in the stash list. The most recent stash entry is stash@{0}, the second most recent is stash@{1}, and so on.

For example, let's say you have the following stash entries:

stash@{0}: WIP on main: 1234567 Add new feature
stash@{1}: WIP on main: 7654321 Fix bug
stash@{2}: WIP on main: 9876543 Refactor code

To apply the second stash entry (stash@{1}), you would use the following command:

git stash apply stash@{1}

This will apply the changes from the "Fix bug" stash entry without affecting the other stash entries.

Visualizing Stash Entries

To better understand how Git stash works, let's use a Mermaid diagram to visualize the stash entries:

In this diagram, we can see that the working directory is connected to the stash, and the stash contains multiple entries, each with a unique index. When you apply a specific stash entry, you're essentially applying the changes from that particular entry, without affecting the other stash entries.

Applying Stash Entries in Real Life

Imagine you're a software developer working on a new feature for your company's website. You've been making progress, but your manager suddenly asks you to switch to a different task to fix a critical bug. You don't want to commit your current work, as it's not ready for production yet. This is where Git stash comes in handy.

You can use git stash save "Working on new feature" to save your current changes, then switch to the bug fix branch and apply the stashed changes when you're ready to continue working on the new feature. If you have multiple stash entries, you can use git stash apply stash@{1} to apply the second most recent stash entry, without affecting the other stash entries.

This way, you can efficiently manage your work and switch between tasks without losing your progress or having to commit unfinished work.