How to Checkout the Previous Branch in Git

Sometimes, I forget the last branch name with how many branches I jump between.

Here's a simple way to switch to your previous branch in Git.

git checkout -

Or another way:

git checkout @{-1}

This second one is handy because you can use it to checkout N-th last branch/commit. So if you wanted to checkout 3 branches ago you could use:

git checkout @{-3}

I use the second way mostly because I find the @{-N} very useful (and it's a built-in reflex of mine now).

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Written by Niall Maher

Founder of Codú - The web developer community! I've worked in nearly every corner of technology businesses: Lead Developer, Software Architect, Product Manager, CTO, and now happily a Founder.

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