Work with source code
When you work with code, PyCharm 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.
If you do not remember a shortcut for the action you want to use, press CtrlShift0A to find any action by name.
You can use the same dialog to find classes, files, or symbols. For more information, refer to Search for a target by name (Search everywhere).
If a file is read-only, it is marked with the closed lock icon in the status bar, in its editor tab, or in the Project tool window. If a file is writable, it is marked with the open lock icon in the Status bar.
Open file in the editor or select it in the Project tool window.
Do one of the following:
Go to File | File Properties | Make File Read-only or File | File Properties | Make File Writable.
Click the lock icon in the status bar.
If a read-only status is set by a version control system, it's suggested that you use PyCharm version control integration features. For more information, refer to Version control.
In the editor, place the caret at the characters you want to swap.
Go to Edit | Transpose.
There is no default shortcut for this action. You can assign a custom shortcut.
PyCharm offers several useful shortcuts for manipulating code lines.
note
If you need to undo or redo your changes, press Ctrl0Z/CtrlShift0Z respectively.
To add a line after the current one, press ShiftEnter. PyCharm moves the caret to the next line.
To add a line before the current one, press CtrlAltEnter. PyCharm moves the caret to the previous line.
To duplicate a line, press Ctrl0D.
To sort lines alphabetically in the whole file or in a code selection, go to 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 Configure keyboard shortcuts for more information.
To delete a line, place the caret at the line you need and press Ctrl0Y.
To join lines, place the caret at the line to which you want to join the other lines and press CtrlShift0J. 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 PyCharm checks the code style settings and eliminates unwanted spaces and redundant characters.
To split string literals into two parts, press Enter.
PyCharm splits the string and provides the correct syntax. You can also use the Break string on '\n' intention to split string literals. Press AltEnter or click to select this intention.
To comment a line of code, place the caret at the appropriate line and press Ctrl0/. Press Ctrl0/ again on the same line to uncomment it.
To move a line up or down, press AltShift0↑ or AltShift0↓ respectively.
To move (swap) a code element to the left or to the right, place the caret at it, or select it and press CtrlAltShift0← for left or CtrlAltShift0→ for right.
You can use the standard shortcuts to copy Ctrl0C and paste Ctrl0V any selected code fragment. If nothing is selected, PyCharm automatically copies as is the whole line where the caret is located.
By default, when you paste anything in the editor, PyCharm 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 CtrlAltShift0V.
When you copy (Ctrl0C) or cut (Ctrl0X) 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.
If you want to paste your copied code at the caret, select the Paste at the caret position option in the advanced settings.
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 (CtrlAltShift0C) option, PyCharm creates a reference string that includes the line number of the selected line or symbol. You can press Ctrl0V to paste the copied reference anywhere.
PyCharm 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 (CtrlShift0V). In the dialog that opens, select your entry and click Paste.
tip
The default number of items stored in the clipboard history is 100.
When you copy and paste code to the editor, PyCharm displays the hidden (special) characters represented by their Unicode name abbreviation.
You can copy the reference to a line or a symbol.
Place the caret at a certain line of code and press CtrlAltShift0C (or select Copy Reference from the context menu or from the Edit menu). PyCharm creates a string in the format that depends on a symbol at caret. For example:
Solver.Solver.discr
for a Python methodSolver\Solver.py:14
for a Python file
In the editor, place the caret at the item you want to select and press Ctrl0W/CtrlShift0W 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.
In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , go to Editor | General | Smart Keys.
Select the Use "CamelHumps" words checkbox.
If you want to select words with a double click according to capitalization, make sure that the Honor "CamelHumps" words settings when selecting on double click checkbox right below is also selected.
In the editor, place the caret at the needed statement and press CtrlShift0↑ to move a statement up or CtrlShift0↓ to move a statement down. PyCharm moves the selected statement performing a syntax check.
note
If moving of the statement is not allowed in the current context, the actions will be disabled.
In the editor, press CtrlShiftEnter or from the main menu select Code | Complete Current Statement. PyCharm 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.
Place the caret at the expression you want to remove or unwrap.
Press CtrlShiftDelete or select Code | Unwrap/Remove from the main menu.
PyCharm 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, PyCharm uses different background colors.
Select an action and press Enter.
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.
note
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 dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , go to Editor | General and clear the Move code fragments with drag-and-drop checkbox in the Mouse Control section.
To toggle between the upper and lower case for the selected code fragment, press CtrlShift0U.
Note that when you apply the toggle case action to the CamelCase name format, PyCharm converts the name to the lower case.
warning
Block comments do not apply to Python scripts!
To comment or uncomment a code fragment, select it and press CtrlShift0/.
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 | Editor | Code Style.
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.
Open the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) 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, PyCharm 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.
PyCharm automatically recognizes certain code structures and makes them foldable. You can also define custom folding regions.
Folded code fragments are shown as shaded ellipses (). If a folded code fragment has errors, PyCharm highlights the fragment in red.
By default, folding icons in the gutter show up on hover. You can change this and configure other code folding settings in Settings | Editor | General | Code Folding.
Go to Help | Find Action in the main menu (CtrlShift0A) and search for folding
. PyCharm will show a popup with all folding actions with their shortcuts:
To fold or unfold a code fragment, press CtrlNumPad -/CtrlNumPad +. PyCharm folds or unfolds the current code fragment, for example, a single method.
To collapse or expand all code fragments, press CtrlShiftNumPad -/CtrlShiftNumPad +.
PyCharm 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 CtrlAltNumPad -/CtrlAltNumPad +. PyCharm collapses or expands the current fragment and all its subordinate regions within that fragment.
To fold blocks of code, select a code fragment and press CtrlAlt0T, from the popup menu select region...endregion Comments. Use CtrlAlt0. to navigate to the custom folding block.
To collapse or expand doc comments in the current file, in the main menu select Code | Folding | Expand Doc Comments or Collapse Doc Comments.
To collapse or expand a custom code fragment, select it and press Ctrl0.. Alternatively, mark the code fragment as Custom folding region.
You can fold or unfold any manually selected regions in code.
note
If code in a folded fragment is changed during reformatting or refactoring, PyCharm automatically expands the folded fragment.
To expand the current fragment and all the nested fragments, press CtrlNumPad *,01. 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 CtrlShiftNumPad *,01. You can expand the collapsed fragments up to the specified nesting level (from 1 to 5).
You can make any code fragment foldable by marking it as a custom folding region with dedicated comments. After that, you can expand and collapse the fragment with Ctrl0. or have it collapsed automatically on opening the file.
In the editor, select a code fragment and press CtrlAlt0T.
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 Ctrl0..
To navigate to the created custom region, press CtrlAlt0..
You can select how to display folding icons that appear in the gutter or disable them completely.
Press CtrlAlt0S to open settings and then select Editor | General | Code Folding.
From the Show code folding arrows list, select Always or On mouse hover.
Clear the checkbox to disable the icons.
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