IntelliJ IDE - Productivity Tricks

IntelliJ Tricks to boost productivity

IntelliJ is a smart IDE used to code Java/Scala/Kotlin. It uses something called Jetbrains to almost code for you. Here is my favorite summery of keyboard shortcuts which made me WAY more productive in this heavy IDE.

Moving the cursor

• One word at a time:

  • Ctrl + Cursor

• Move cursor to beginning of line:

  • Home

• Move cursor to end of line:

  • End

Moving the lines

• Move line up:

  • Shift + Alt + Up

• Move line down:

  • Shift + Alt + Down

Format code

• Duplicate line:

  • Ctrl + D

• Delete line:

  • Ctrl + Y

• Parameter info:

  • Ctrl + P

• Comment out selected line:

  • Ctrl + /

• Comment out code block:

  • Shift + Ctrl + /

• Fold code block:

  • Shift + Ctrl + -/+

Navigate through code

• To class:

  • Ctrl + N

• To file:

  • Shift + Ctrl + N

• To symbol:

  • Shift + Ctrl + Alt + N

• Go back:

  • Shift + Ctrl + <-/->

• Find action:

  • Shift + Ctrl + A

• Search everywhere

  • Searches classes/files/symbols/actions)
  • Use tab to jump to type
  • Shift + Shift

The Nr 1 Productivity killer

File tabs

When using intelliJ you collect file tabs of previous files you have looked through or coded in.

This makes for bad productivity since you would have to pause your work and close the tabs one by one.

Instead! Disable tabs and use the recent files function!

1. In the find action, search for "tabs placement"
2. Disable "tabs placement"
3. Then use the following shortcut to navigate your recent files:

• Recent files

  • Ctrl + E
  • Search in recent files by writing the filename of the file you desire to look/work on.

• Recent edited files:

  • Shift + Ctrl + E

Code selection

• Select line

  • Shift + Home/End

• Select words

  • Shift + Ctrl + <-/->

• Select characters

  • Shift + <-/->

• Extending selection

  • Ctrl + W

• Shrinking selection

  • Shift + Ctrl + W

Code completion

• Envoking smart code completion:

  • Shift + Ctrl + Space
  • Most usefull:
  • After the new keyword in an object declaration
  • In the list of parameters of a method call
  • In return statements
  • Shift + Ctrl + Space Twice
  • Invokes smart code which completes:
  • Static expressions
  • Collections, lists and arrays

• Static method completion:

  • Ctrl + Space + Ctrl + Space

Postfix completion

What is postfix expressions?

• Postfix notation is used to represent algebraic expressions.

Example:

public class PostFixCompletion {
    void method(Collection<String> s) {
        // Postfix expression:
        if (s == null) {
            //...
        }
    }
}

The method method takes in a colleciton of string s.
By writing s. then using the postfix completion shortcut: Ctrl + J
Will bring up a list of postfix expressions to choose.
Filter the list by writing:

• nn / null -> Checks expression to be null.
• notnull -> Checks expression to be not-null.
• synchronized -> Produces synchronization statement.
• try -> Inserts statement in try-catch block.
• for -> Iterates over enumerable collection.
• fori -> Iterates with index over collection
• forr -> Iterates with index in reverse order.

Code Generation

Getter & Setter methods

• Alt + Insert

Stub test, setUp, tearDown methods

• Alt + Insert

Version Control tricks

Commiting changes:

• Ctrl + K
  • Brings up the built inn commit interface

Commit flow:

Inside the commit interface, the focus starts in the commit message box.

1. Write your commit message.

2. Go to your change list:

• Shift + Tab

1. See the differance in a file:

• Ctrl + D
• Changes here are automatically sent to the change set.
• Press Esc key to leave diff view.

1. Revert changes in a file:

• Ctrl + Alt + Z
• tab to the revert button
• Press Enter key to confirm revert file.

1. Before commit actions:

• Select to perform task before commit.

1. Press Tab button to move the focus to the Commit button
   • Press Enter

VC Popup Menu

• Get a popup list of alle VC operations directly from a keyboard shortcut

  • Alt + Back Quote

• Each list item is accociated with a number which you can access by pressing on your keyboard.

• When selecting branch, search by typing in your search word.

  • Intellij will automatically filter the branch list as your typing.

Reformat:

• Tab to move selection one tab stop to the right

• Shift + Tab to move selection one tab stop to the left

• Ctrl + Alt + L to reformat current selection or current file

• Ctrl + W to extend selection

• Alt + 1 to move focus to the project tool window

TIP!

Use Ctrl + W to expand selection, then Ctrl + Alt + L to reformat the code.

Optimaizing imports

Imports can get messy when coding, which leads to libraries included that are not used.
This can be solved easily by using the optimizing imports shortcut:;

• Ctrl + Alt + O

Optimize imports on the fly

When this is activated, intellij automatically changes and optimizes the imports as you code.

• Shift + Ctrl + A to open the Actions popup search field.
• Search for "optimizing imports on the fly" and activate it.

Only optimize imports on commited files

• Ctrl + K to bring up the commit interface.
• Select Optimize imports in the before commit field.
• Select Commit

Navigate to Compilation Error

When compiling an application in IntelliJ you will receive errors in the event log.
Instead of using the mouse to click the error that will send you to the errors location, simply do this:

• After a compilation error.
• Press Esc.
• Press Ctrl + Alt + Down to move to next error.
• Press Ctrl + Alt + Up to move back to the previous error.
• Then press Esc to move to the error location.

Bonus

Language injection

Other's

MultiCursor

ctrl + ctrl (hold last ctrl and move cursor)

Comments

[Christian Vasquez]

Thanks for sharing this Andre!

I consider myself to be fairly familiar with shortcuts on JetBrains IDEs and I still learned a couple of new ones from this posts 👏🏻..

[Xie]

Thank you 🐢🌊

[EliasAgg]

This is awesome, thank you!

[Abhay Prajapati]

I recently started using intellij, it's gonna help 🙂 me.