Eclipse Cookbook

1.9. Completing Code Automatically

Problem

While entering code, you forgot the name of either a method you wanted to call or some of a method’s parameters.

Solution

Use Eclipse’s code assist (also called content assist) to help out. When you enter the name of an object or class in the JDT code editor followed by a period (.) and then pause, code assist displays the members of that object or class, and you can select the one you want. You also can bring up code assist at any time (e.g., when you’ve positioned the cursor inside a method’s parentheses, and you want to see what arguments that method takes) by pressing Ctrl-Space or by selecting Edit→ Content Assist.

Discussion

Code (or content) assist is one of the good things about using a full Java IDE. It’s an invaluable tool that accelerates development, and it’s a handy resource that you’ll probably find yourself relying on in time. In the code example we’ve been developing over the previous few recipes, enter the following code to display some text:

public class FirstApp
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    System.out.println("Stay cool.");
  }
}

To work with code assist, enter System. in the main method of the FirstApp project, then pause. Code assist displays the classes and methods in the System namespace, as shown in Figure 1-11.

Figure 1-11. Using code assist

Double-click out in the code assist list so that code assist inserts ...