Boost Your Coding Speed: Hidden IntelliJ IDEA Shortcuts You Must Know

Forward/Backward

Just like a browser, IDEA lets you jump back to previously visited code locations and forward again.

Windows: Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right

Mac: ⌘ + ⌥ + ← / →

View History

Instead of stepping back repeatedly, open the history window to quickly locate earlier files.

Windows: ctrl + E

Mac: ⌘ + E

Recent Edits

Jump directly to the most recently modified code positions.

Windows: ctrl + shift + E

Mac: ⌘ + ⇧ + E

Tip

Set the editor tab limit (Tab Limit) to 10 to prevent hidden tabs from cluttering the view.

Auto Complete Code

This shortcut automatically adds missing semicolons, matching brackets, and formats the code.

Windows: ctrl + shift + Enter

Mac: ⌘ + ⇧ + ⏎

Extract Variable

Use the "Introduce Variable" refactoring to create a variable from an existing expression.

Windows: ctrl + alt + V

Mac: ⌥ + ⌘ + V

Rename

The Rename refactoring updates the identifier and all its references in one step.

Windows: shift + F6

Mac: ⇧ + F6

GenerateSerialVersionUID Plugin

Install the GenerateSerialVersionUID plugin to let IDEA automatically generate a random serialVersionUID , which is especially handy when working with Dubbo.