Eclipse Intellisense?

Question

How do I tell Eclipse to automatically make suggestions as I type? I'm looking for a Visual Studio Intellisense-like feature with Resharper.

Currently I have to press CTRL+Space each time.

Insulting

Answer 1

You don't have to press CTRL * space but maybe the delay is too big or you don't like the trigger (default is '.'). Go to

Window -> Preferences -> Java/Editor/Content Assist

And change the settings under Auto Activation to your likings.

If this does not work for windows users then see this answer.

Genetics

user Kevin Rossi tried to edit to point this (which really is a comment) : "This doesn't work with the Eclipse Juno C/C++ distro" – Rauch

Each editor in Eclipse may have its own auto activation triggers--activating on the same characters wouldn't make sense in ever language. – Hsu

In Mac it is ADT -> Preferences -> Java/Editor/Content Assist – Myrna

Answer 2

I've get closer to VisualStudio-like behaviour by setting the "Autocomplete Trigger for Java" to

.(abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

and setting delay to 0.

Now I'd like to realize how to make it autocomplete method name when I press ( as VS's Intellisense does.

Harter

thanks for the tip, thats a little better but still no where near as good as VS! – Bolingbroke

Which version of eclipse is this? The "Auto activation triggers for Java" textbox lets me enter only 4 characters. – Inequality

This works very well. Much better, since it will actually show local variables and everything now. Thanks! @HappyCoder4U This may not help, but I'm using eclipse 3.7M5. – Making

you are genius :) no such setting for non-java languages though :( – Benyamin

Awesome. Thank you! Using Eclipse on Mac (3.6.1) the parameter name is 'Auto activation triggers for Java' – Marcheshvan

Not sure why the settings aren't like that by default. At 200ms delay, it doesn't even seem to work. – Touch

Everything worked but now I get some very irritating behavior: suppose I want to type "private int counter;" I start with private and the autocomplete kicks in with some suggestions (the firt is PrivateCredentialPermission). When I'm done typing private and press "space" PrivateCredentialPermission gets inserted. Any way around this? – Jewbaiting

Tony is a pure genius. – Nefen

I second on what @VM said. The inclusion of that variable name is rather annoying. – Mclyman

@Jewbaiting On the "Code Assist Preferences", on "Insertion", check the "Insert common prefixes automatically". – Harrisharrisburg

Great idea! and I help me better understand this eclipse feature. – Siberia

See this stack overflow question for some solutions to the space problem: #14298235 – Palomino

I added space to the list of my list of triggers. This lets me do things like "int x = " and immediately, it shows me a list of method names I can invoke if I so choose. – Procarp

Answer 3

Tony is a pure genius. However to achieve even better auto-completion try setting the triggers to this:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz =.(!+-*/~,[{@#$%^&

(specifically aranged in order of usage for faster performance :)

Andromeda

This method introduces some bugs. For example, if I type in =, it would immediately suggest something. If I press space, = , it would automatically insert the first match. – Mclyman

checking Java proposal, Java Type proposal and java non-type proposal and moving them on top in order, worked for me. – Firebrick

See this stack overflow question for some solutions to the space problem: #14298235 – Palomino

All of the special characters will make the Intellisense act screwy except for the period. Basically, if you will ever not want it to Intellisense after a character is typed, you don't want it in this list. – Mazurek

Answer 4

If it's not working even when you already have Code Assist enabled, Eclipse's configuration files are probably corrupt. A solution that worked for me (on Eclipse 3.5.2) was to:

1. Close Eclipse.
2. Rename the workspace directory.
3. Start Eclipse. (This creates a new workspace directory.)
4. Import (with copy) the Java projects from the old workspace.

Eberly

Fixed it for me aswell – Cram

Nice Solution, it was really helpful to me, my Eclipse was unable to show intellisense after (.) , I had to use ctrl+space 3 times to show it, Thanks for the nice Solution :-) – Lavine

Answer 5

I once had the same problem, and then I searched and found this and it worked for me:

I had got some of the boxes unchecked, so I checked them again, then it worked. Just go to

Windows > Preferences > Java > Editor > Content Assist > Advanced

and check the boxes which you want .

Hathaway

Also you can arrange the proposals in order of your priority. If it is to show methods and properties related to your identifier, put Java Proposals (Task Specific) first – Adulation

Answer 6

d3dave's answer is cool. However theGreenGarbage mentioned an issue about it which I too find rather annoying. So here's one that doesn't immediately suggest something after '=' sign and when typing blank space:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.(!+-*/~,[{@#$%^&

What I did was simply remove the space and '=' chars from the array :)

Alternatively if you want suggestions when typing blank space, but not after '=' sign:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz .(!+-*/~,[{@#$%^&

Tautog

This should be the accepted answer. Though, it leads to a bit of lagging. – Stefanstefanac