Tips for Migrating from Eclipse to IntelliJ - Re-learning shortcuts and other Tips

Migrating from Eclipse to IntelliJ:  Re-learning shortcuts and other Tips

As a long-time Eclipse user(Spring Tools Suite and Groovy and Grails Tools Suite), the transition to using IntelliJ was jarring in many ways.  Keyboard shortcuts are different, the layout is different and the way you do things is different.

It is worth it to go through with the transition.  Auto-complete and searching is better.  Logs and consoles are better.  The tooling is better.  There are plenty of articles out there that highlight the changes.  Most importantly though is that it is does everything you need well and is very fast.

Here are some things that will help with your transition:

How to Change the JDK

---

Setup the JDK locations

Here you will want to setup the location of the Java SDKs you have installed.

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S -> Platform Settings -> SDKs:  Change JDK

Update the JDK in the IntelliJ IDE

Setup the Project SDK

Then you will need to set the Project SDK

Then go to Project Settings -> Project and change the Project SDK

Set Project Java SDK for IntelliJ

Keyboard Shortcuts

---

Here is a mapping of Eclipse vs IntelliJ keyboard shortcuts.

Here are a couple of the most used:

• ctrl+n:  Find a file by class name

• ctrl+shift+f:  Search the entire project within files for a string

• ctrl+s:  Save all files

• ctrl+shift+N:  Find Resource

Grails Specific Shortcuts

• ctrl+alt+G:  Open Grails Command line(Run Grails Target)

Here is a more comprehensive list:

Eclipse	IntelliJ IDEA	Description
F4	ctrl+h	show the type hierarchy
ctrl+alt+g	ctrl+alt+F7	find usages
ctrl+shift+u	ctrl+f7	finds the usages in the same file
alt+shift+r	shift+F6	rename
ctrl+shift+r	ctrl+shift+N	find file / open resource
ctrl+shift+x, j	ctrl+shift+F10	run (java program)
ctrl+shift+o	ctrl+alt+o	organize imports
ctrl+o	ctrl+F12	show current file structure / outline
ctrl+shift+m	ctrl+alt+V	create local variable refactoring
syso ctrl+space	sout ctrj+j	System.out.println(“”)
alt + up/down	ctrl + shift + up/down	move lines
ctrl + d	ctrl + y	delete current line
???	alt + h	show subversion history
ctrl + h	ctrl + shift + f	search (find in path)
“semi” set in window-> preferences	ctrl + shift + enter	if I want to add the semi-colon at the end of a statement
ctrl + 1 or ctrl + shift + l	ctrl + alt + v	introduce local variable
alt + shift + s	alt + insert	generate getters / setters
ctrl + shift + f	ctrl + alt + l	format code
ctrl + y	ctrl + shift + z	redo
ctrl + shift + c	ctrl + /	comment out lines (my own IDEA shortcut definition for comment/uncomment on german keyboard layout on laptop: ctrl + shift + y)
ctrl + alt + h	ctrl + alt + h (same!)	show call hierarchy
none ?	ctrl + alt + f7	to jump to one of the callers of a method
ctrl + shift + i	alt + f8	evaluate expression (in debugger)
F3	ctrl + b	go to declaration (e.g. go to method)