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IntelliJ IDEA

About IntelliJ IDEA

User Interface
Code Completion
Editor Basics
Navigation and more...

By Andrey Chepstov

ABOUT INTELLIJ IDE A

From the get go, IntelliJ IDEA has followed a simple,
overriding principle: if it doesnt make a Java developer
more productive, it doesnt go in the product. Period. With
a tight focus on what a professional Java developer needs,
IntelliJ IDEA can make you as productive as youre capable of
being. This Refcard is about unlocking that power. Focused
on IntelliJ IDEA 15, which will have a full release in fall of
2015, most of the tips, tricks, and shortcuts in this Refcard
will work for you regardless of your version of the IDE.

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Terminal

Alt+F12

F12

Editor

Esc

Esc

When you need to just focus on the code, try the Distraction
Free Mode. It removes all toolbars, tool windows, and editor
tabs. To switch to this mode, select View Enter Distraction
Free Mode.
An alternative to Distraction Free Mode is hiding all tool
windows by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F12 (Shift+Cmd+F12 for OS
X). Restore the layout to default by using the shortcut again.

U S E R I N T E R FAC E

The Navigation Bar is a compact alternative to the Project

tool window. To access the Navigation Bar, press Alt+Home
(Cmd+Up for OS X).

The IntelliJ IDEA editor is unique in a number of ways, most

notably that you can invoke almost any IDE feature without
leaving it, which allows you to organize a layout where you
have more screen space because auxiliary controls like
toolbars and windows are hidden.

Figure 2: The IntelliJ IDEA Navigation Bar

Most components in IntelliJ IDEA (both tool windows and

popups) provide speed search. This feature allows you to
filter the list or navigate to a particular item by using a
search query.

ENTERPRISE
EXCEL MOBILE
AT

Figure 1: The IntelliJ IDEA UI

&

INTELLIJ IDEA

Accessing a tool window via its shortcut moves the input

focus to it, so you can use all keyboard commands in its
context. When you need to go back to the editor, press Esc.
ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Project

Alt+1

Changes

Alt+9

Run

Alt+4

Debug

Alt+5

WITH A

DEVELOPMENT
SMARTER IDE
The most intelligent Java IDE

GET IT NOW
A free and open-source version is included www.jetbrains.com/idea

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INTELLIJ IDEA

typed expression to another one based on the postfix you type

after a period, the expression type, and its context.

EDITOR BA SICS
Since in IntelliJ IDEA you can undo refactorings and revert
changes from Local History, it makes no sense to ask you to
save your changes every timeIntelliJ IDEA autosaves your
changes for you.
Editor shortcuts include:

Figure 3: IntelliJ IDEA Speed Search

HOT
TIP

When you dont know the shortcut for an action,

try using the Find action feature by pressing
Ctrl+Shift+A (Shift+Cmd+A for OS X). Start typing to
find an action by its name, see its shortcut, or call it.

CO D E CO M P L E T I O N
Accessing Basic Completion by pressing Ctrl+Space offers
basic suggestions for variables, types, methods, expressions,
and so on. When you call Basic Completion twice, it shows you
more results, including private members and non-imported
static members.
The Smart Completion feature is aware of the expected type
and data flow and offers the option relevant to the context.
To call Smart Completion, press Shift+Ctrl+Space. When
you call Smart completion twice, it shows you more results,
including chains.

WINDOWS

OS X

Move the current line of code

Shift+Ctrl+Up
Shift+Ctrl+Down

Duplicate a line of code

Ctrl+D

Remove a line of code

Ctrl+Y

Comment or uncomment a line

of code

Ctrl+/

Comment a block of code

Shift+Ctrl+/

Find in the currently opened file

Alt+F3

Find and replace in the current

file

Ctrl+R

Next occurrence

F3

Previous occurrence

Shift+F3

Navigate between opened tabs

Alt+Left
Alt+Right

Navigate back/forward

Ctrl+Alt+Left
Ctrl+Alt+Right

[
]

Expand or collapse a code block

in the editor

Ctrl+NumPad+
Ctrl+NumPad-

+
-

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Create new

Ctrl+N

Surround with

Ctrl+Alt+T

Highlight usages of a symbol

Shift+Ctrl+F7

F7

Other useful editor actions:

To overwrite the identifier at the caret, instead of just inserting

the suggestion, press Tab. This is helpful if youre editing part
of an identifier, such as a file name.
To let the IDE complete a statement for you, press
Shift+Ctrl+Enter (Shift+Cmd+Enter for OS X). Statement
Completion will automatically add missing parentheses,
brackets, braces, and necessary formatting.

To expand a selection based on grammar, press Ctrl+W (Cmd+W

for OS X). To shrink it, press Shift+Ctrl+W (Shift+Cmd+W for
OS X).

PARAMETER INFO
If you want to see the suggested parameters for any method
or constructor, just press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P for OS X). IntelliJ
IDEA shows parameter info for every overloaded method or
constructor and highlights the best match for the parameters
already typed.

HOT
TIP

The Postfix Completion feature lets you transform an already

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ACTION

Its worth knowing that IntelliJ IDEA is able to select

more than one piece of code at a time. You can
select/deselect any piece of code via Alt+J (Ctrl+G
for OS X) / Shift+Alt+J (Shift+Ctrl+G for OS X) or by
clicking the code selection and pressing Shift+Alt.

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SELECT IN
If you need to open the file in a particular tool window (or
Finder/Explorer) you can do it via the Select In action by
pressing Alt+F1.

N AV I G AT I O N
RECENT FILES
Most of the time you work with a certain set of files and need
to switch between them quickly. A real time-saver here is an
action called Recent Files invoked by pressing Ctrl+E (Cmd+E
for OS X). By default, the focus is on the last accessed file. You
can open any tool window through this action.

Figure 6: IntelliJ IDEA Select In

Navigation shortcuts include:

Figure 4: IntelliJ IDEA Recent Files

Navigate to Class is available by pressing Ctrl+N (Cmd+O for OS

X) and supports sophisticated expressions, including camel
humps, path, line navigate to, middle name matching, and
many more. If you call it twice, it shows you the results out of
the project classes.
Navigate to File works similarly by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N
(Cmd+Shift+O for OS X) but is used for files and folders. To
navigate to a folder, end your expression with the / character.
Navigate to Symbol is available by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N
(Alt+Cmd+O for OS X) and allows you to find a method or field
by its name.
STRUCTURE
When you are not switching between files you are probably
navigating within a file. The shortest way to do this is to press
Ctrl+F12 (Cmd+F12 for OS X). The popup shows you the structure
of a file and allows you to quickly navigate to any item.

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Search everywhere

Double Shift

x2

Navigate to class

Ctrl+N

Navigate to file

Ctrl+Shift+N

Navigate to symbol

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N

Recent files

Ctrl+E

File structure

Ctrl+F12

F12

Select in

Alt+F1

F1

Navigate to declaration

Ctrl+B

Navigate to type hierarchy

Ctrl+H

^H

Show UML popup

Ctrl+Alt+U

Q U I C K P O P- U PS
Quick Pop-ups are helpful for checking additional information
related to the symbol at the caret. Here is a list of pop-ups you
should know if you want to be more productive.

Figure 5: IntelliJ IDEA File Structure Navigation

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ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Documentation

Ctrl+Q

^J

Quick definition

Shift+Ctrl+I

Space

Show usages

Alt+Ctrl+F7

F7

Show implementation

Ctrl+Alt+B

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Quick Pop-ups are available for symbols in the editor; however,
they are also available for items in any other list via the same
shortcuts.

INSPECTIONS
Inspections are built-in static code analysis tools that help
you find probable bugs, locate dead code, detect performance
issues, and improve the overall code structure.

R E FAC T O R I N G B A S I C S

Most inspections not only tell you where a problem is, but
provide quick fixes to deal with them right away. Press
Alt+Enter to choose a quick-fix.

IntelliJ IDEA offers a comprehensive set of automated code

refactorings that lead to significant productivity gains when
used correctly. You dont need to select anything before you
apply a refactoring. IntelliJ IDEA is smart enough to figure
out what statement youre going to refactor, and only asks for
confirmation if there are several possible choices.

HOT
TIP

INTELLIJ IDEA

The editor lets you quickly navigate between the highlighted

problems via keyboard shortcuts. Press F2 to go to the next
problem and Shift+F2 to go to the previous one.
Inspections that are too complex to be run on the fly are
available when you perform code analysis for the entire project.
You can do this one of two ways: by selecting Analyze
Inspect Code from the menu, or by selecting Analyze Run
Inspection by Name to run the inspection by its name.

To undo the last refactoring, switch your focus to the

Project tool window and press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z for
OS X).

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Rename

Shift+F6

F6

Extract variable

Ctrl+Alt+V

Extract field

Ctrl+Alt+F

Extract constant

Ctrl+Alt+C

Extract method

Ctrl+Alt+M

Extract parameter

Ctrl+Alt+P

Inline

Alt+Ctrl+N

IntelliJ IDEA automatically applies a code style youve

configured in the Settings Code Style menu as you edit,
and in most cases you dont need to call the Reformat Code
action explicitly.

Copy

F5

F5

Useful formatting shortcuts:

Move

F6

F6

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Reformat code

Ctrl+Alt+L

Auto-indent lines

Ctrl+Alt+I

^I

Optimize imports

Ctrl+O

^O

Refactor this

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T

While inspections provide quick-fixes for code that has

potential problems, intentions help you apply automatic
changes to code that is correct. To get a list of intentions
applicable to the code at the caret, press Alt+Enter.

CO D E S T Y L E A N D F O R M AT T I N G

A real time-saver is the ability to extract part of a string

expression with the help of the Extract... refactorings. Just
select a string fragment and apply a refactoring to replace all of
the selected fragment usages with the introduced constant or
variable.

HOT
TIP

FINDING USAGES
Find Usages helps you quickly find all pieces of code
referencing the symbol at the caret (cursor), no matter if
the symbol is a class, method, field, parameter, or another
statement. Just press Alt+F7 to get a list of references grouped
by usage type, module, and file.

V E R S I O N CO N T RO L B A S I C S
To check out a project from a Version Control System (VCS),
click Checkout from Version Control on the Welcome Screen or
in the VCS menu.

If you want to set custom options for the Find Usages

algorithm, press Shift+Alt+Ctrl+F7 (Shift+Alt+Cmd+F7 for OS X)
or click the first button on the right panel with search results.
If youre looking for plain text, use Find in Path by pressing
Shift+Ctrl+F (Shift+Cmd+F for OS X).

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By default, IntelliJ IDEA uses regular spaces for

indents instead of tabs. If you have files with lots
of indents, you may want to optimize their size by
enabling the Use tab character option.

HOT
TIP

To quickly perform a VCS operation on the current

file, directory, or the entire project, use the VCS
operations popup by pressing Alt+` (Ctrl+V for OS X).

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on saving. To compile a project, select Build Make Project

and press Ctrl+F9 (Cmd+F9 for OS X).

RUNNING A ND DEBUGGING
Once youve created a Run/Debug configuration by selecting
Run Edit Configurations, youre able to run and debug
your code.
ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Run

Shift+F10

F10

Debug

Shift+F9

F10

Figure 7: IntelliJ IDEA Version Control Operations

While in the debug mode, you can evaluate any expression

by using the Evaluate expression tool, which is accessed by
pressing Alt+F8. This tool provides code completion just as in
the editor, so its easy to enter any expression.

Once youve configured the VCS settings, youll see the Version
Control tool window. You can switch to it anytime by pressing
Alt+9 (Cmd+9 for OS X).
The Local Changes tab of the Version Control tool window
shows your local changes, both staged and unstaged.

Sometimes you may want to step into a particular method but

not the first one which will be invoked. In this case, use Smart
step into by pressing Shift+F7 (Cmd+F7 for OS X) to choose a
particular method.

Useful VCS shortcuts:

ACTION

WINDOWS

OS X

Version control tool window

Alt+9

VCS operations popup

Alt+`

^V

Commit changes

Ctrl+K

Update project

Ctrl+T

Push commits

Ctrl+Shift+K

HOT
TIP

Annotation (available from both the quick list, and

the main and context menus) allows you to see who
changed a line of code for any file and when
it changed.

BRANCHES
To perform an operation on a branch, use either Branches from
the main or context menu, the VCS operations popup, or the
widget on the right of the status bar.

WINDOWS

OS X

Toggle breakpoint

Ctrl+F8

F8

Step into

F7

F7

Smart step into

Shift+F7

F7

Step over

F8

F8

Step out

Shift+F8

F8

Resume

F9

Evaluate Expression

Alt+F8

F8

If you want to rewind while debugging you can do it via

the Drop Frame action. This is particularly helpful if you
mistakenly stepped too far. This will not revert the global state
of your application, but will at least let you revert to a previous
stack frame.

For multiple repositories, IntelliJ IDEA performs all VCS

operations on all branches simultaneously, so you dont need
to switch between them manually.

HOT
TIP

Shelves, Stashes, and Patches help you when you need to store
some of the local changes without committing them to the
repository. You can then switch to the repository versions of
the files, and then come back to your changes later.

Any breakpoint can be quickly disabled by clicking

on the gutter while holding Alt. To change breakpoint
details (e.g. conditions), press Shift+Ctrl+F8
(Shift+Cmd+F8 for OS X).

RELOADING CHANGES AND HOT SWAPPING

Sometimes you need to insert minor changes into your code
without shutting down the process. Since the Java VM has a
HotSwap feature, the IDE handles these cases automatically
when you call Make.

MAKE
By default, IntelliJ IDEA doesnt automatically compile projects

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ACTION

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A P P L I C AT I O N S E RV E R S

INTELLIJ IDEA

WORKING WITH BUILD TOOLS

(M AV E N/G R A D L E)

To deploy your application to a server:

1. Configure your artifacts by selecting Project Structure
Artifacts (done automatically for Maven and Gradle projects).

Once youve imported/created your Maven/Gradle project,

you are free to edit its pom.xml/build.gradle files directly via
the editor. Any changes to the underlying build configuration
will eventually need to be synced with the project model in
IntelliJ IDEA.

2. Configure an application server by selecting Settings

Application Servers.
3. Create a run configuration by selecting Run Edit
Configurations, then specify the artifacts to deploy and
the server to deploy it to.

If you want the IDE to synchronize your changes immediately,

perform the following:
For pom.xml, enable the corresponding option in Settings

You can always ask the IDE to build/rebuild your artifacts (once
theyre configured) by selecting Build Build Artifacts

Build, Execution, Deployment Build Tools Maven

Importing Import Maven projects automatically.

When you need to apply changes in the code to a running

application, in addition to Make you can use the Update action
by pressing Ctrl+F10 (Cmd+F10 for OS X). This action is only
available for the Exploded artifact type. Based on your choice,
it can update resources or update classes and resources.
When the Update action is applied in the Debug mode, it uses
HotSwap; otherwise, it uses Hot redeployment.

For build.gradle, enable the corresponding option in

Settings Build, Execution, Deployment Build Tools

Gradle Use auto-import.

For manual synchronization, use the corresponding action on

the Maven/Gradle tool window toolbar:
.

HOT
TIP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Any goal or task can be attached to be run before a

Run Configuration.

CREDITS

Andrey Cheptsov has been professionally writing

software for more than 10 years. His interests and
expertise include web development and JVM
languages. Hes passionate about programming
and productivity--and the tools that help you
achieve these. Andrey is an avid learner, an IntelliJ
IDEA guru, and a fan of the Kotlin language.

G. Ryan Spain

Editor

Yassee Mohebbi

Designer

Chris Smith

Production

Chris Brumfield

Sponsor Relations

Chelsea Bosworth

Marketing

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VERSION 1.0

$7.95

EXCEL
ENTERPRISE
MOBILE
DEVELOPMENT
SMARTER
AT

&

WITH A

IDE

The most intelligent Java IDE

GET IT NOW
A free and open-source version is included
www.jetbrains.com/idea