Essential Eclipse shortcuts & my favorite Eclipse shortcut list for Java beginners

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Eclipse Handy Keyboard Shortcuts

Are you a Java Developer? Java Expert?

Eclipse is a lifeline tool for us. Any resource in the workspace is literally seconds away. Ditto to classes (and interfaces, and members, and so on). Why waste time and brain cycles to wade through countless lines in countless files?

I thought that every Eclipse user knows this, in fact, if you’re reading this, most probably you already know this too.

The list of shortcuts in Eclipse is fairly long yet readily available. In fact starting with Eclipse 3.1 the full list of shortcuts can be displayed from anywhere via CMD+Shift+L if you are on Mac OS X OR Ctrl+Shift+L for windows.

Nevertheless, call it information fatigue or simply a matter of style, deserving shortcuts frequently remain overlooked.

Here are the list of all Eclipse Keyboard Shortcuts for Java Programmers

Below is a list of those shortcuts I find essential. What I mean by that is if you don’t use them then you probably need additional time to execute essential everyday tasks and are not very comfortable navigating around.

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips1

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips2

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips3

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips4

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips5

Eclipse Shortcut Tutorial - Crunchify Tips6

How can I modify default Eclipse Shortcuts?

Also, you could go to General -> Keys to modify update Shortcuts.

Eclipse General Keys Shortcuts

My Favorite Eclipse shortcuts for all Java Developers

In addition to all above shortcuts, below are the essential shortcuts for all beginner Java Developers.

Shortcuts

Description

F10 Main menu
Shift F10 Context menu
Ctrl F10 View menu

Workspace navigation

F12 Activate editor
Ctrl+Shift+W Switch editor
Ctrl F6 Next editor
Ctrl Shift F6 Prev editor
Ctrl F7 Next workspace
Ctrl Shift F7 Prev workspace
Ctrl F8 Next perspective
Ctrl Shift F8 Prev perspective
Alt Left Back
Alt Right Forward

Files

Alt Shift S Show in
Ctrl Shift R Jump to file
Ctrl N New file
Ctrl S Save file
Ctrl Shift S Save all files
Ctrl F4 Close file
Ctrl Shift F4 Close all files

Find

Ctrl L Goto line
Ctrl F Find
Ctrl J Incremental find
Ctrl Shift J Incremental find prev
Ctrl K Find next
Ctrl Shift K Find prev
Ctrl H Search workspace
Ctrl (dot) Navigate next
Ctrl (comma) Navigate prev

Java navigation

F3 Goto declaration
Ctrl Shift U Find references in file
Ctrl Shift G Find references in workspace
Ctrl G Find declarations in workspace
Ctrl Shift P Navigate to matching bracket/brace
Ctrl T Popup type hierarchy
Ctrl Shift T Open Type
Ctrl O Outline of current source
Ctrl F3 Outline of current cursor position
Ctrl Shift Arrow Jump between methods up or down
F2 Show Javadoc
F4 Show hierarchy
Ctrl Alt H Open call hierarchy

General editing

Alt Arrow Move line(s) up or down
Alt Shift Up Expand selection to enclosing element
Alt Shift Right Expand selection to next element
Alt Shift Left Expand selection to previous element
Alt Shift Down Restore previous selection
Ctrl Alt Arrow Duplicate line(s) up or down
Shift Enter Insert line below
Ctrl Shift Enter Insert line above
Ctrl D Delete line
Ctrl Shift Q Toggle Quick Diff
Ctrl Shift Y Convert to lowercase
Ctrl Shift X Convert to uppercase

Java editing

Alt Shift U Remove occurrence annotations
Ctrl 1 Quick fix (works even when there are no errors
Ctrl Shift M Add import
Ctrl Shift F Reformat
Ctrl Shift O Organize Imports
Ctrl / Comment
Ctrl \ UnComment
Ctrl Shift Space Parameter hints
Ctrl Hyperlink identifier
Ctrl I Correct indentation
Shift Space Incremental content assist

Debugger

F5 Step into
F6 Step over
F7 Run to return
F8 Resume
F9 Relaunch last
F11 Run/debug last
Ctrl F11 Run
Ctrl Shift B Toggle breakpoint
Ctrl D Display
Ctrl Q Inspect
Ctrl R Run to line
Ctrl U Run snippet

Refactoring

Alt T Refactoring menu
Ctrl Shift Z Undo refactor
Ctrl Shift Y Redo refactor
Alt Shift R Rename
Alt Shift V Move
Alt Shift I Inline
Alt Shift M Extract method
Alt Shift L Extract local
Alt Shift C Change method signature

Misc

F5 Refresh
F1 Info-pop
F2 Show resizable hover

Eclipse has a LOT of shortcuts to make things real easy for you.

Java (or heck, any software) development is hard. We shouldn’t make it harder on ourselves by fighting our tools!

Let our tools help us as much as possible.

11 thoughts on “Essential Eclipse shortcuts & my favorite Eclipse shortcut list for Java beginners”

  1. I’ve always disliked autoformat. I know it helps a ton, but not when I have a long line of code! I like to keep those intact 🙂

    Reply

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