50 Keybinds EVERY Intellij user MUST know! ⌨✔

Experiment! ⚗

I conducted a little experiment where I logged the keyboard shortcuts I used in Intellij from roughly a days dev. The list below contains the top 50 keybinds I used in order of count.

Note: I removed a few keybinds that are not strictly Intellij e.g. ctrl + shift + arrow keys for highlighting text, ctrl + c, ctrl + v, among many others.

No.Keybind (Mac)What it doesCount
1Alt+Up/Down (^Up/Down)Jump to next method137
2Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right (⌥[/])Go back/forward location101
3Alt+Left/RightSwitch to next file65
4Alt+Enter (⌥Enter)Show action intentions56
5Ctrl+B (⌘B)Go to declaration51
6Ctrl+Shift+F (⇧⌘F)Find in path47
7Ctrl+Alt+L (⌥⌘L)Reformat code44
8Ctrl+Alt+O (^⌥O)Organise Imports44
9F8(In debug) Step over43
10Ctrl+F (⌘F)Search current file32
11Alt+Insert (⌘N)Generate code (can be done in multiple views)31
12Ctrl+Alt+M (⌥⌘M)(With code highlighted) Extract method28
13Alt+F8 (⌥F8)(In debug) Open evaluation window26
14Ctrl+/ (⌘/)Comment code26
15F7(In debug) Step into22
16Ctrl+Shift+N (⇧⌘O)Search classes/files/symbols/actions22
17Ctrl+F4Close current tab21
18Alt+F7 (⌥F7)Find all usages17
19Ctrl+F8 (⌘F8)Add breakpoint17
20Ctrl+Up/DownMove view16
21Alt+1 (⌘1)Opens up file explorer15
22Ctrl+D (⌘D)Duplicates line14
23Ctrl+Space (^Space)Basic code completion14
24Shift+F9 (^D)Begin debugger11
25F9 (⌥⌘F9)(In debug) Resume Program11
26Ctrl+Shift+Space (^⇧Space)Complete current statement9
27Alt+1, Alt+Insert (⌘1, ⌘N)Create new file7
28shift + alt + up/down (⌥⇧Up/Down)Move code6
29Alt+F9 (⌥F9)(In debug) Continue execution and stop at cursor5
30Ctrl+E (⌘E)Recent files5
31Alt+F10 (⌥F10)(In debug) Go to where execution stopped4
32Ctrl+Shift+V (⇧⌘V)Paste from recent clipboards4
33Double ShiftSearch anywhere4
34Ctrl+P (⌘P)Parameter info4
35Ctrl+Shift+/ (⌥⌘/)Comment block code3
36Ctrl+X (⌘X)Cut (line or highlighted)3
37Shift+F6 (⇧F6)Rename3
38Ctrl+Alt+S (⌘,)Settings3
39Ctrl+K (⌘K)Commit changes window2
40Ctrl+Shift+R (⇧⌘R)Replace in path2
41Ctrl+O (^O)Override methods2
42Ctrl+Shift+E (⇧⌘E)Recent locations2
43Ctrl+R (⌘R)Replace1
44Alt+J (^G)Select next occurence1
45Ctrl+Alt+V (⌥⌘V)Extract variable1
46Shift+F10 (^R)Run1
47Ctrl+Alt+F7 (⌥⌘F7)Show usages1
48Ctrl+Alt+TSurround with1
49Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T (⌥⌘T)Refactor this1
50Double CtrlRun anything1

Conclusion 🔎

It’s quite funny looking at these results, I feel as though I could have a good guess at what sort of code I was writing just from the keybinds I use. Also, it highlights potential ways I could increase my productivity by focusing more on some keybinds that could do with more usage such as the Surround with shortcut, I’m sure I could have used it > 30 times.

Of course, your mileage will vary depending upon your preferences, the task you’re working on or even just the way you code.

These are also by no means all the keyboard shortcuts in IntelliJ (There are bloody hundreds) they are just the useful ones I’ve picked up from my years of hacking away in it.

I hope this is of use to some of you, I know it will be for me if I ever go long periods of time without using the IDE (Probably not 😆).

VSCode – Intellij IDEA Extension

If you’re coming from an Intellij background and you use VSCode, install the IntelliJ IDEA Keybindings Extension, it is bloody marvelous.

Follow me on twitter if you don’t want to miss out on absolutely brilliant programming insight: 🤣 @luke_garrigan

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