Write and edit source code

When you work with code, GoLand ensures that your work is stress-free. It offers various shortcuts and features to help you add, select, copy, move, edit, fold, find occurrences, and save code.

For navigation inside the editor, refer to Editor basics.

Find action

If you do not remember a shortcut for the action you want to use, press Ctrl+Shift+A to find any action by name.

You can use the same dialog to find classes, files, or symbols. For more information, refer to Searching Everywhere.

Add a new class, file, package, or scratch file

In the editor, press Ctrl+Alt+Insert to add a class, file, or package.
If the focus is inside the Project tool window and you want to add a new element, press Alt+Insert.
To create a new Scratch file, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Insert.
GoLand creates a temporary file that you can run and debug. For more information, refer to Scratch files.

Select code constructs

In the editor, place the caret at the item you want to select and press Ctrl+W/Ctrl+Shift+W to extend or shrink your selection.
For example, in a plain text file, the selection starts within the whole word then extends to the sentence, paragraph, and so on.
If you need just to highlight your braces, place the caret immediately after the block closing brace/bracket or before the block opening brace/bracket.

Select code according to capitalization

In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Editor | General | Smart Keys.
Select the Use "CamelHumps" words checkbox.

If you want to use double-click when selecting according to capitalization, make sure that the Honor CamelHumps words... checkbox is selected on the Editor | General page of the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S).

Configure tabs and indents

In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Editor | Code Style.
Select a language for which you want to configure the indentation.
From the options on the right, on the Tabs and Indents, select the Use tab character for the editor to use tabs when you press Tab, indent, or reformat code. You can also configure the tab size if you need. If you don't select this option, GoLand will use spaces.

Copy and paste code

You can use the standard shortcuts to copy Ctrl+C and paste Ctrl+V any selected code fragment. If nothing is selected, GoLand automatically copies as is the whole line where the caret is located.

By default, when you paste anything in the editor, GoLand performs "smart" paste, for example, pasting multiple lines in comments will automatically add the appropriate markers to the lines you are pasting. If you need to paste just plain text, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V.

When you copy (Ctrl+C) or cut (Ctrl+X) a line without any code selected, the paste action will add the contents of the clipboard to above the current line, not at your caret.
Place the caret at a line or a symbol, right-click to open the context menu, select Copy/Paste Special | Copy Reference. When you select the Copy Reference (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C) option, GoLand creates a reference string that includes the line number of the selected line or symbol. You can press Ctrl+V to paste the copied reference anywhere.
GoLand keeps track of everything you copy to the clipboard. To paste from history, in the editor, from the context menu, select Copy/Paste Special | Paste from History (Ctrl+Shift+V). In the dialog that opens, select your entry and click Paste.
The default number of items stored in the clipboard history is 100.
When you copy and paste code to the editor, GoLand displays the hidden (special) characters represented by their Unicode name abbreviation.

Transpose characters

In the editor, place the caret at the characters you want to swap.
From the main menu, select Edit | Transpose.
There is no default shortcut for this action. You can assign a custom shortcut.

Create a type

Select a place in code where you want to create a type.
Click Code | Implement Methods (or press Ctrl+I).
Click Create Type, and specify a name of the interface that you want to implement.

Lines of code

GoLand offers several useful shortcuts for manipulating code lines.

To add a line after the current one, press Shift+Enter. GoLand moves the caret to the next line.
To add a line before the current one, press Ctrl+Alt+Enter. GoLand moves the caret to the previous line.
To duplicate a line, press Ctrl+D.
To sort lines alphabetically in the whole file or in a code selection, from the main menu, select Edit | Sort Lines or Edit | Reverse Lines. These actions might be helpful when you work with property files, data sets, text files, log files, and so on. If you need to assign shortcuts to those actions, refer to Keyboard shortcuts for more information.
To delete a line, place the caret at the line you need and press Ctrl+Y.
To join lines, place the caret at the line to which you want to join the other lines and press Ctrl+Shift+J. Keep pressing the keys until all the needed elements are joined.
You can also join string literals, a field or variable declaration, and a statement. Note that GoLand checks the code style settings and eliminates unwanted spaces and redundant characters.
To split string literals into two parts, press Enter.
GoLand splits the string and provides the correct syntax. You can also use the Break string on '\n' intention to split string literals. Press Alt+Enter or click to select this intention.
To comment a line of code, place the caret at the appropriate line and press Ctrl+/. Press Ctrl+/ again on the same line to uncomment it.
To move a line up or down, press Alt+Shift+Up or Alt+Shift+Down respectively.
To move (swap) an XML or HTML tag attribute to the left or to the right, place the caret at it, or select it and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left for left or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right for right.

Code statements

Move statements

In the editor, place the caret at the needed statement and press Ctrl+Shift+Up to move a statement up or Ctrl+Shift+Down to move a statement down. GoLand moves the selected statement performing a syntax check.

Complete current statement

In the editor, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter or from the main menu select Code | Complete Current Statement. GoLand inserts the required trailing comma automatically in structs, slices, and other composite literals. The caret is moved to the position where you can start typing the next statement.

Unwrap or remove statement

Place the caret at the expression you want to remove or unwrap.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete.
GoLand shows a popup with all actions available in the current context. To make it easier to distinguish between statements to be extracted and statements to be removed, GoLand uses different background colors.
Select an action and press Enter.

Code fragments

Move and copy code fragments by dragging them in the editor.
- To move a code fragment, select it and drag the selection to the target location.
- To copy a code selection, keeping Ctrl pressed, drag it to the target location.
  The copy action might not be available in macOS since it can conflict with global OS shortcuts.
The drag functionality is enabled by default. To disable it, in the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Editor | General and clear the Enable Drag'n'Drop functionality in editor checkbox in the Mouse section.
To toggle between the upper and lower case for the selected code fragment, press Ctrl+Shift+U.
Note that when you apply the toggle case action to the CamelCase name format, GoLand converts the name to the lower case.
To comment or uncomment a code fragment, select it and press Ctrl+Shift+/.
To configure settings for commenting behavior, use options in the Comment Code section, on the Code Generation tab located in the language-specific pages under File | Settings/Preferences | Editor | Code Style.

Parameter hints

Parameter hints show the names of parameters in methods and functions to make your code easier to read. By default, parameter hints are enabled and shown only for values that are literals or function expressions but not for named objects.

Configure parameter hints

Open the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) and go to Editor | Inlay Hints.
Expand <required language> under Parameter names.
Specify the context in which you want parameter hints shown by selecting the corresponding checkboxes.
The preview shows how the changes you make in the settings affect the code appearance.
For some methods and functions, GoLand does not show parameter hints in any context. Click Exclude list... to view these methods and functions, possibly enable parameter hints for them, or add new items to the list.

Code folding

Folded code fragments are shown as shaded ellipses (). If a folded code fragment contains errors, GoLand highlights the fragment in red.

To configure the default code folding behavior, in the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Editor | General | Code Folding.

Expand or collapse code elements

To fold or unfold a code fragment, press Ctrl+NumPad -/Ctrl+NumPad +. GoLand folds or unfolds the current code fragment, for example, a single method.
To collapse or expand all code fragments, press Ctrl+Shift+NumPad -/Ctrl+Shift+NumPad +.
GoLand collapses or expands all fragments within the selection, or, if nothing is selected, all fragments in the current file, for example, all methods in a file.
To collapse or expand code recursively, press Ctrl+Alt+NumPad -/Ctrl+Alt+NumPad +. GoLand collapses or expands the current fragment and all its subordinate regions within that fragment.
To fold blocks of code, press Ctrl+Shift+.. This action collapses the code fragment between the matched pair of curly braces {}, creates a custom folding region for that fragment, and makes it "foldable".
To collapse or expand doc comments in the current file, in the main menu select Code | Folding | Expand doc comments/Collapse doc comments.
To collapse or expand a custom code fragment, select it and press Ctrl+..
You can fold or unfold any manually selected regions in code.

Fold or unfold nested fragments

To expand the current fragment and all the nested fragments, press Ctrl+NumPad *, 1. You can expand the current fragment up to the specified nesting level (from 1 to 5).
To expand all the collapsed fragments in the file, press Ctrl+Shift+NumPad *, 1. You can expand the collapsed fragments up to the specified nesting level (from 1 to 5).

Use the Surround With action

You can collapse or expand code using the Surround With action.

In the editor, select a code fragment and press Ctrl+Alt+T.
From the popup menu, select <editor-fold...> Comments or region...endregion Comments.
Optionally, specify a description under which the collapsed fragment will be hidden.
To collapse or expand the created region, press Ctrl+..
To navigate to the created custom region, press Ctrl+Alt+..

Disable code folding outline

You can disable the code folding outline that appears on the gutter.

In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Editor | General | Code Folding.
Clear the Show code folding outline checkbox.

Last modified: 12 December 2022