In a view of a Java developer, there are not a lot of new features. German readers will find at jaxenter a nice article with all new Java features.

The only one, which seems noteworthy, is the new toString() wizard:

Just open the Team Synchronization Perspective, open the View’s menu and choose Schedule…

Define the time schedule and press okay. That’s it.

Now, you’re almost always up to date!

public class DemoApplication {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        DemoApplication calc = new DemoApplication();
        System.out.println(calc.divide(calc.add(17, 19), 2));
    }
 
    public int add(int i, int j) {
        return i + j;
    }
 
    public int divide(int i, int j) {
        return i / j;
    }
}

In earlier times, I stepped one step further to get into the method divide. Then I got the result of add(17,19) in my parameter.

But Eclipse is offering a better solution. In the Debugging Perspective, there is a view called Expressions. Just add a new expression add(17,19) and the Debugger is printing out the result.

The result is directly printed out:

A simple, but helpful feature in Eclipse!

There are interesting clean ups like “Remove unnecessary casts” or to add missing Annotations like “@Override”.

After creating your profile, simply right click to the project and choose Source – Clean up.

Nice feature. If you want to know more about this feature, you will find here more information’s.

Use CTRL + 1 to assign a parameter of a constructor as a field:

Or use CTRL + 1 to extract a String or another variable to a constant:

Are you a real men (or women)? Because if you are one, Eclipse offers you the possiblity to “don’t click” Try to use the simple shortcut CTRL + 3. What happens? Eclipse opens the Quick access window:

Now, type what you want, for example “new xml file”, and Eclipse searches for the command, which consists of these words:

Also very interesting is the access to the Preferences window. Try to search for “classpath variables” or “build path”, you get direct access to these settings. Also interesting is “Generate Getters”. If you don’t know a specific shortcut, just use CTRL + 3 from now on!

Now, just press CTRL + O again and you can see all inherited methods.

I know, the hint is mentioned in the bottom right corner, but I didn’t noticed this until today…

But did you know, that Eclipse is also capable of using templates. Templates can be defined in Window – Preferences – Java – Editor – Templates.

For example, instead of typing the main function every time manually, just type main and press CTRL + Space, choose the template main and press Enter. The whole main method is created.

Interesting default templates are:

sysout: creates a System.out.println() entry

runnable: creates a complete Runnable inner class

public_method: template for a public method (same with private, default, and so on)

Of course, you also can define your own template. E.g. for an EJB 3.0 stateless or message-driven bean!