Monday, September 21, 2015

IntelliJ IDEA - Keyboard Shortcuts And More for An Ex-Eclipse User

Since, couple years ago, JetBrains made available its IntelliJ IDEA to users for free (yes, only its Community Edition), it became an interesting alternative to Eclipse IDE.  While Eclipse is a great IDE, people looking for something more (even if just a little more), may be tempted to switch to IDEA, so here's something for them from another developer tempted to switch as well.

I have bolded out the actions I tend to use all the time in Eclipse.


Basic Shortcuts:

  • C-N - open class
  • C-S-N - open any file
  • A-F7 - find all usages of the object in the workspace
  • C-Q - quick doco (info) about the object under cursor
  • C-click - go to definition/implementation
  • C-F12 - show quick outline of the class
  • C-Space - auto complete
  • C-S-Space - power auto complete (Tan and Enter - both select, but differently)
  • A-Insert - code generate
  • C-/ - comments with //
  • C-S-/ - comments with /*...*/
  • C-D - duplicates the selection
  • C-S-BckSpc - move back in change-history locations
  • C-S-F7 - highlight an identifier; F3 and S-F3 move to next/prev usage; Esc - de-highlight
  • Code | Optimize Imports - from menu
  • C-E - recent files list
  • call tree of the current method: C-A-H
  • locate the current file in the project tree: there is an icon in the project viewer
  • move selected statements up or down the file: C-S-up and down
  • go to declaration of the object: C-B 
  • go back in the browsing history (as opposed to change history):
    C-A-left and right or C-[
  • synchronize a file or a project against the SVN repo: see Version Control tool
Legend: C means Control, S - Shift and A - Alt

Advanced Shortcuts:

  • S-F6 - refactor: rename
  • Esc - in a tool window - moves focus to editor (S-Esc - also hides the tool window)
  • F12 - opposite to Esc
  • C-A-T - surround it
  • C-W - extend the selection
  • C-A-V - refactor: extract variable
  • Tab - live templates (np. itar Tab)
  • Local History | Show History - from file or directory shows and lets  revert to any version all changes in this file or directory

Create a New Project from Sources in IntelliJ: 

  • Open from sources or from SVN/GIT
  • Open Project Structure dialog (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S) and specify which are source folders using the Module item from the left-hand panel