Visual Studio Hacks

Master IntelliSense #8

Chapter 2, Master the Editor

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43

HACK

located inside of the method parameters parenthesis, pressing Ctrl-Shift-

Space (Edit.ParameterInfo) will display the parameter information pop up.

Figure 2-9 shows this pop up.

Quick Info

When you move your mouse over a method or variable, you will see a small

tool tip pop up that contains information about that method or variable.

This is commonly called Quick Info. If you are navigating by keyboard, you

can also get this small pop up by pressing Ctrl-K and then Ctrl-I (Edit.

QuickInfo). Using this shortcut is also the only way to bring up this infor-

mational pop up during debug, since the default behavior is to show the

value of the object you are hovering over when using the mouse.

Stub Completion

Another form of autocompletion called stub completion can be very useful

when working with interfaces or event handlers or when overriding a

method. This feature can be used to automatically stub out the methods

required by the interface or the default code for an overridden method or

event handler. This is a feature that was added to Visual Studio .NET 2003,

but its presence is not always obvious when you are coding quickly.

Interface. When you first create a class and add the interface name after the

colon (or the Implements in Visual Basic), a small yellow window will pop

up for just a few seconds, offering you the ability to press the Tab key, as

shown in Figure 2-10.

Figure 2-9. Parameter info IntelliSense pop up

Figure 2-10. Interface IntelliSense prompt

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Chapter 2, Master the Editor

#8 Master IntelliSense

HACK

When you press the Tab key with this window still displayed, the methods

required by the interface will be automatically added to your class, includ-

ing TODO comments to remind you to complete the methods:

public class CarCollection : IEnumerable

{

public CarCollection( )

{

}

#region IEnumerable Members

public IEnumerator GetEnumerator( )

{

// TODO: Add CarCollection.GetEnumerator implementation

return null;

}

#endregion

}

Overriding methods. When you type override into the document window,

you will see a list of methods you can override in the base class. This can be

seen in Figure 2-11.

When you select the method you want to override, Visual Studio will create

the method and automatically add a call to the method you are overriding

on your base class like this:

public override void Start( )

{

base.Start ( );

}

Event handlers. When adding a new event handler to your class, Visual Stu-

dio will automatically create the stub of this event handler, much as when

working with an interface. When you type the code to add an event handler

to an event, you will see a prompt inviting you to press the Tab key, as

shown in Figure 2-12.

Figure 2-11. Override IntelliSense