Unlock 17 Powerful IntelliJ IDEA Alt+Enter Shortcuts to Boost Your Java Coding

IntelliJ IDEA provides a universal shortcut (Alt+Enter) that offers context‑aware actions, greatly speeding up Java development.

Below are 17 useful operations that can be triggered with this shortcut:

Convert to lambda expression

Flip equals comparison

Auto‑import missing classes

Generate exception handling blocks

Wrap SimpleDateFormat in ThreadLocal

Move comments

Convenient JSON string manipulation

Convert code to efficient binary operations

Replace if…else with ternary operator and other simplifications

Introduce local variables

Implement interfaces

Implement abstract classes

Modify method return types, add/remove parameters, generate methods

String‑related operations

Swap positions of commas, plus signs, less‑than signs, etc.

Change Java access modifiers

Generate getters/setters automatically

Each tip is demonstrated with a GIF illustration:

Convert lambda expression

Flip equals comparison

Auto‑import missing classes

Generate exception handling blocks

Move comments

Convert to efficient binary operations

Replace if…else with ternary operator and other simplifications

Introduce local variables

Implement interfaces

Implement abstract classes

Swap commas, plus signs, and less‑than signs

Change Java access modifiers

Generate getters/setters automatically

In summary, the Alt+Enter universal shortcut is a powerful tool that can surprise you with useful actions you might not know exist, so give it a try whenever you need to perform an operation.