(First time please be gentle etc. etc.)
Let's say I was lazy/unthinking/pressed for time and hardcoded a string instead of making a global variable. And I repeated this mistake over hundreds of classes and test cases that I wrote. Now, I want to fix this, since I found out I'll eventually need to update that string. Is there some refactoring method in Eclipse or elsewhere that will let me replace all instances of that specific string with a global variable?
I can think of a programmatic solution, to run through all those files and replace the string, but I'd prefer not to go down that route unless absolutely necessary.
Thanks a lot!
Well you can use search and replace within Eclipse across all the files in your project, for one thing. You don't need to write that yourself.
It doesn't look like the "Extract Constant" refactoring of Eclipse is willing to extract it across classes, unfortunately. That would obviously be the nicer solution.
Eclipse provide Refactor option.
right click on value which you want to replace with variable, you will see option Refactor.
this will help you replace value from all other occurance.
You can find referenced place to an element in eclipse as following:
Selected element.(variable of String in your case)
Sight click on selected element
Selected menu References
Select Workspace item for finding all references in your workspace
Then you can edit evry item in result
Exist another way such as using search and replace feature.
Related
I'm doing android app from a book, for some reason the exact method source code I wrote myself does not work as expected and I am trying to debug it.
I have two exact chunks of code, my method and the sample method.
How to compare them in eclipse?
Select both files by clicking the first, then while holding CTRL click on the second.
Now both of them got selected.
Now click one of them (doesn't matter which one) with the right mouse button.
From the appearing context menu choose:
Compare
Each other
Now you can do a text compare.
Did I get right that neither of the sample method nor your method do what they should?
Then there are two possibilities why the code won't do what it should:
The book is obsolet
You made something wrong
either way, google for your specific problem, maybe someone else has encountered it as well and already solved it.
for your Question: already answered in another comment
use beyond compare, it's a great tool for comparing classes, and methods! download beyond compare
I know there is a Ctrl+Space dialog box that show the methods options that I have.
But if i have a method that I not fully remember the name of it and I remember only a part of the name.
For example: There is a big static class which contains tons of methods starting with "add"
add1_Buffer, add2_Render, add7_Function and so on..
now I don't remember the fully name but i remember only "Buffer".
so I want to type "buffer" press Ctrl+Space and get the "add1_Buffer" method and all the names
that contain the name "buffer" in it.
Edit:
By the way, i need it on the OpenGL api where there are tons of functions and i am not familiar with all of them i know only keywords, I was searching for something like in visual studio that is really fast and easy.
If you start typing the a in add1_Buffer and then an upper B and then press Ctrl + Space you will find the correct method.
You can then continue writing the word Buffer if there are more methods starting with add and then having an upper B.
This means that you'll have to remember at least the first part of your method but hopefully you do.
Add the CodeRecommenders plugin to your installation. That has a subwords completion, which the normal JDT code completion does not have.
Use search. From the Search menu at the top of the window, select "Java Search". You can limit your search to methods and use wildcards to search for *Buffer* if you know that Buffer is in the method name.
The shortcut Ctrl + O gives an outline of the current source. So you can view and search all your methods in your current class. Use wildcards when needed.
This merely meets you req: alt+/, just a replacement for ctrl+space
Currently there is no direct way to do that in eclipse. But i found these are helpful. here
This post resembles your's look at it. Similar one here
I have recently stumbled upon a neat feature in Intellij IDEA that has let me to question one of my practices. It's the String auto-complete. Basically, if I define a key-value pair in a properties file, and then begin typing a String in java code that has the save value as the key in the properties files, IDEA can auto-complete it. More, I can navigate to it with ctrl+click and can refactor it!
The practice that I was talking about is related to displaying a value from the properties file. I am currently using an enum for this, whose types have the same name as the keys in the properties file. I was doing this because I gained type checking and refactoring. But it seems that I can have the same benefits just by using strings in IDEA (well, it doesn't really give me type checking, but it's kind of close).
I was wondering if any of you are using simple String values for retrieving messages. Is this a good practice?
I don't think it's a good practice. You shouldn't depend on your IDE when you're developing application. If somebody elses uses e.g. eclipse he has a chance to mess up all this.I like solution with enums more than string only because it gives compile time checks. You can even build you enum so it also reads properties file and every item in enum contains both key and value from property file.
A compromise would be to have an enum with properties where enum value is the property string. This way you get type safety and IDEA will recognize that enum value comes from property and let you easily navigate to it.
Its probably better to use an Enum and to make everyone you work with use intellij, if they complain show them this question (and many others).
Also worth bearing in mind that some string values require compile time constants , which makes things a bit more complex.
I work in a pretty large Java-project (2500+ classes) that uses an old code standard where all
member variables are prefixed with "m_" (e.g m_temperature). There is really no reason for this any longer and I'd like to get rid of them but:
In order to make the change I must do all variables at once.
It must not generate any bugs.
The first naive approach of simply renaming all the "m_variable" to just "variable" will not be sufficient as that could produce name collisions between an already existing variable named "variable", and the newly renamed one.
So, to sum up:
How do I rename all these pesky member variablest without getting into trouble and are there any more problems than the one mentioned above?
Yes, I'm aware of the refactoring/renaming features within IDEs, please bear in mind that I want to do the changes to all variables matching the criteria at once and not by right-clicking on variables and renaming them one-by-one.
How about below from : mass renaming of java variables
by Simulant
click on the variable name.
1:press [alt] + [shift] + [R]
2:enter the new name.
3:press [enter] to confirm.
-->all instances of this variable will be renamed.
Theres a question on SC which is about a massive refactoring in java too. The best answer is using japvaparser and implementing a visitor to do the actual refactoring. This shouldn't be that much work for a simple rename.
To answer your second question (are there any more problems)
I would avoid global variables. Favour encapsulation such that you can localise functionality.
I would implement some unit tests such that you can verify future changes. At the moment it appears your only available check is that your project compiles properly.
I realise both of these are potentially sizable issues in an existing project. But it's worth lookingto identify possible pain points and work on those first of all.
Refactoring tool will help in this case. When you rename a variable, it will rename it in all dependent places including if it is called in different class file. While doing this, it will alert you in case if your renamed variable matches with already existing name.
However we have to do it manually for each variable.
I don't know if this can work.
But I find this link to find and replace all occurence in a project using IntelliJ.
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/finding-and-replacing-text-in-project.html
If you are using eclispe IDE, you can do it in easy manner.
Steps:
select the variable
right click on it
click on refactor
click on rename
even in netbeans you can follow same steps.
The IDE finds the reference and usages and replace it all.
My need is pretty simple: I want to change a method call objClass1.method1() by a call objClass2.method2() in my whole Eclipse project. Unfortunately, I can't find a plugin able to do this. Can you help?
Edit:
To be more accurate, objClass1 is part of a third party library, so I need to change the method calls. I can't start at the method definition. When I right-click on a method1 call, I have no "rename" option in my "Refactor" menu.
I don't want to change or rename my methods. I want to exchange one call by another in my whole project.
An example of what needs to be done:
Before refactoring:
Injector injector=Guice.createInjector(new IContactModule());
After refactoring:
Injector injector=IContactInjectorSingleton.getInjector();
And this needs to be done a several points in my project.
What you ask for is no refactoring. A refactoring is defined as "a change that alters the code while not changing the behavior of the code". In this sense renaming a class or renaming a method is a refactoring (you change the code but the program does the same as before). But what you suggest does NOT preserve the behavior of the code so there will never be a "refactoring" for this.
Of course one might be able to write a plugin that is able to perform the text changes you want in a more or less safe way. But this will only work in very specific circumstances (what if your new method needs an argument the old one dons't need? What if there are more than one method with the same name but different parameters? ...). So I don't believe such a plugin exists, nor it makes much sense to develop such a plugin.
Just right click on the class/method name and choose Refactor > Rename.
EDIT:
To be more accurate, objClass1 is part of a third party library, so I need to change the method calls. I can't start at the method definition. When I right-click on a method1 call, I have no "rename" option in my "Refactor" menu.
Hence I would suggest you to simply make a replacement:
Search menu > File, type the old name, choose the context of the search ("Enclosing project"), click on Replace and type the new name.
EDIT2:
From the example you added to the question I think that a manual replacement, using the tool I just suggested, it's the best way. It's a complex issue, as #Arne pointed out, so it's better to make it in a controlled way. Moreover I doubt it is such a frequent operation to require a plugin to be built.
You could use the eclipse refactoring by selecting the methods name. Right click for context menu or Alt-Shift-R, in the Rename-Dialog a preview dialog is available which shows all suggested changes in one place.
First, move the body of objClass1.method1() into objClass2.method2(), and have method1 simply call method2. It may not be quite as "simple" as that, if for instance method1 uses fields of Class1 for instance, in which case you should probably include this as a parameter to the new method and perhaps use getters for the fields. If you can make the method static before doing this, it will be easier to avoid those kinds of problems. Anyway, make that transformation, so method1 is just calling method2. Now use the Inline Method refactoring to make method1 go away. You're done.