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This article discusses the process of moving uncommitted changes to a new branch.

You might be working on your master branch and realize that you have to create a new branch and move your uncommitted changes over. If you are in a similar situation, stay here.

Move existing uncommitted changes to a new branch

Take this hypothetical scenario: You are working on the master branch and realize that your code needs testing before you can commit it to master .

You have to create a new branch, move your uncommitted changes and reset your master branch. What do you think of this?

There are two ways to do this.

1. Use git checkoutthe command or git switchthe command.
2. Use git stashthe command.

git checkout and git switch commands

If you have been using Git for many years, you probably know that the git checkout command has multiple uses. You know that we can use git checkoutthe command to create and switch to a new branch.

Assuming we are on the master branch, our workspace looks like this:

$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to ...)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to ...)
        modified:   LICENSE.md
        modified:   README.md
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include...)
        scripts.txt
no changes added to commit (use..)

How do we move these changes to a new branch?

To move our changes to a new branch, for example, a new develop branch, we would run:

$ git checkout -b development

Alternatively, we can use git switchthe command as shown below.

$ git switch -c development

Both commands will create a develop branch and move our uncommitted changes to the new branch. Below is our working directory on the develop branch.

We can then add the file to the index and commit it.

If we switch back to the master branch and run the git status command, we will see that our working tree is clean.

$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
nothing to commit, working directory clean
the git stash Command

We can git stashmove our changes to a new branch using the command. This will store the uncommitted changes in a patch file.

$ git stash

You can then create a new branch where you will store your uncommitted changes. Use git checkoutthe command to create and switch to a new branch, as shown below.

$ git checkout -b <new branch>

Pop the stash to apply uncommitted changes in the workspace of the newly created branch. Use the git stash popor git stash applycommand.

$ git stash pop

You may encounter merge conflicts, which you will have to resolve manually to your liking. If you are happy with the changes, go ahead and commit.

In short, to move uncommitted changes from one branch to another, you have two options. You can use git stashthe sh command or the regular swipe git switchand git checkoutswipe commands.