Emacs: Name Completion

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Emacs has many different word completion systems builtin. Here's a list of the most useful ones.

completion-at-point

Alt+x completion-at-point 【Ctrl+Alt+i】
For completing the word under cursor.

Mostly used for completing function names in programing language source code. This works best in emacs-lisp-mode for coding emacs lisp. Usually does not work for other languages, such as JavaScript, Python, Ruby, unless you install supporting packages.

emacs completion at point 2017 07 11
completion-at-point, with plain gnu emacs in emacs-lisp-mode.

hippie-expand

For expanding current word to any matching string that occurs in any existing buffers. [see Emacs: Hippie Expand]

Abbrev Mode

For expanding current word to any string, emoji, template, etc. You define the abbrevs. [see Emacs: Abbrev Mode by Lisp Code]

Completion for Minibuffer Prompts

For minibuffer prompt name completion. (command name, variable name, file name.) [see Emacs: icomplete, Name Completion]

2012-11-29 thanks to Ba Manzi (杨贵龙) for a tip.

Emacs Name Completion