Top 10 Interesting NetBeans IDE Java Shortcuts I Never Knew Existed

I'm working on updating the NetBeans IDE Keyboard Shortcut Card (which you can always find under the "Help" menu in the IDE) and have learned about a lot of shortcuts I never knew about before. Here's a grab bag of things I have added to the shortcut card (some new, some old that hadn't been included before) that you might find interesting too.

1. Type "fcom" (without the quotes, same as all the rest below) and then press Tab. You now have this, i.e., a brand new code fold:

   // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="comment">
   // </editor-fold>

2. Type "bcom" and then press Tab to create the start of a new set of comments in your code:

   /**/

3. Type "runn" and press Tab and you'll have all of this:

   Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
   
       public void run() {
   
       }
   };

4. If I have this:

   String something = "";

   ...and then below that type "forst" and press Tab, I now have this:

   String something = "";
   for (StringTokenizer stringTokenizer = new StringTokenizer(something); stringTokenizer.hasMoreTokens();) {
       String token = stringTokenizer.nextToken();
   
   }

   Also, experiment with "forc", "fore", "fori", "forl", and "forv"!

5. I always knew that "sout" turns into "System.out.println("");" but did you know that (again assuming you first have a string something like above) if you type "soutv" you end up with this:

   System.out.println("something = " + something);

   Thanks Tom Wheeler for this tip.

6. Next, here are the new shortcuts that will work only in 6.9:
   
   
   • as - assert=true;
   • su - super
   • db - double
   • sh - short
   • na - native
   • tr - transient
   • vo - volatile


7. I knew that "ifelse" would resolve to an if/else block. But did you know that if you don't need an 'else', you can simply type "iff", press Tab, and then end up with this:

   if (exp) {
   
   }

8. In 6.9, the "sw" shortcut expands to the following:

   switch (var) {
       case val:
   
           break;
       default:
           throw new AssertionError();
   }

9. If you're using while loops, experiment with "whileit", "whilen", and "whilexp".


10. Always remember these: "im" expands to "implements; "ex" to "extends".