Eclipse Content Assist doesn't activate

Question

I can get an empty box to appear by pressing Ctrl Space, but content assist won't pop up at all otherwise. I've read lots of answers here on this topic but none have helped.

I'm using...

Ubuntu 12.10 Eclipse Version: 3.8.0 Build id: I20120502-2000 Java openjdk-7-jre 7u15-2.3.7-0ubuntu1~12.10 Execution Environment JavaSE-1.7 (java-6-openjdk)

I've checked the Preferences settings and they seem reasonable. I've checked the project build settings and they look ok. I don't have any compile errors (and only a few lines of code.)

Any suggestions as to what my next move is?

Bankbook

Answer 1

Windows → Preference → General → Keys → Restore Default

Another thing you can check:

Windows → Preference → Java → Editor → Content Assist → Advanced → Java Proposals should be checked.

This should fix the problem.

Note that you don't have to restore the default, make sure that CTRL + SPACE is not overridden by another operation.

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As mentioned on the comments, sometime creating a new project workspace fixes this problem.. for some reason.

Meshach

Tried that again, but nothing. Ctrl-Space is the content assist key. Restarted it too, just in case. – Bankbook

Do you have the same problem if you create a new project workspace? – Meshach

Ah! Created new workspace and opened a new project in it and it is now working. I shall therefore manually create a new project and copy the code across. Thanks for the help. Still no idea what the problem was, so I hope that it doesn't happen again. Case closed though. – Bankbook

@Bankbook I'm glad it helped, I edited my answer and you can accepted if it helped you :) – Meshach

This happens now and then and nobody knows why. – Kathyrnkati

Windows → Preference → Java → Editor → Content Assist → Advanced → Java Proposals should be checked, helped me. Thanks! – Perryperryman

For me pressing Ctrl + Space, changes the language to Chinese/Korean (Idk). How to stop that ? – Nauseate

Answer 2

Go to Preferences > Java > Editor > Content Assist and paste "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz." (note the dot after z) into the "Auto activation triggers for Java:" field.

Mailable

This is the best solution! – Angelikaangelina

Answer 3

I had this problem myself, as it turns out, my window manager (XFCE), or something, traps space. So mapping it to something else than ctrl+space solved it for me.

Chatter

thx, I had the same problem. XFCE was "eating" the shortcut ctrl+space. You can test this by going to the keys preference in eclipse and press ctrl+space in the binding field. if space appears, eclipse recieves the shortcut. others the window manager does not forward this shortcut. this was the case for me. in xubuntu you have to go to settings->keyboard input methods->keyboard shortcuts and change the shortcut to other than ctrl+space. this solved my problem. Here is the link which brought me to my solution: nixnote.blogspot.de/2012/08/… – Tricrotic

@user1415926 Thanks man! Input methods shortcut was the issue in my case. – Typesetter

Answer 4

When you started the Eclipse, the content assist (ctrl+space) may not work on the opened resource files from the previous session (e.g. main.cpp). Try to close those files and reopen them. Control whether (ctrl+space) works or not again.

Roving