Live templates

Types of live templates

The following types of live templates are distinguished:

• Simple templates contain only fixed plain text. When you expand a simple template, the text is automatically inserted into your source code, replacing the abbreviation.

  Abbreviation	Expands to
  psfs	public static final String
  main or psvm	public static void main(String[] args){ }
  sout	System.out.println();

• Parameterized templates contain variables that enable user input. When you expand a parameterized template, variables are either replaced by input fields for the user to specify manually, or calculated by IntelliJ IDEA automatically.

  Abbreviation	Expands to
  fori	for (int i = 0; i < ; i++) { }
  ifn	if (var == null) { }

• Surround templates wrap a block of the selected code with the text specified by the user. For example, T expands into a pair of tags, for which you can specify a name. You can also select a block of code, then press Ctrl+Alt+J to open the Select Template popup and select the T template to wrap the selection with a pair of tags.

Postfix code completion is similar to live templates. It transforms the current expression without selecting it. For example, you can type .if after an expression to invoke the corresponding postfix completion and wrap the expression with an if statement.

Configure live templates

To configure live templates, open the Editor | Live Templates page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S. On the Live Templates page, you can see all the available live templates, edit them and create new templates.

Templates are grouped according to the context where they can be used (usually, by the corresponding language). To move a template to another group, right-click the template, select Move, and then select the necessary group name.

Each live template is defined by an abbreviation containing alphanumeric characters, dots, and hyphens. The abbreviation must be unique within a group, but the same abbreviation may be used in different groups and expand to different constructs according to the context of the corresponding group. Abbreviations of modified default templates are shown in the list with blue font.