No, I will simply expose a portion of the three wires (2,3,4) and wrap an striped wire around it so it can split off the connection.
That will not work.
The reason I have to wire it like that is that If I try to add extra int pins like below:
latch = 2; // set the latch pin
int clock = 3; // set the clock pin
int data = 4; // set the data pin
latch = 5; // set the latch pin
int clock = 6; // set the clock pin
int data = 7; // set the data pinThe sketch would give me an error in the upload.
Well, of course it will. You could study the message, and see that it is telling you that you can't have two variables of the same name.
Hint:
int latch1 = 2;
int latch2 = 5;
Technically, the error is not in the upload. That happens after the compiler gets done and the linker does its job. You are causing a failure far earlier that the uploader.