Live Templates

Live Templates are customizable rules that allow developers to abbreviate repetitive text patterns or surround code fragments with repetitive constructs in the editor.

When a user types the designated abbreviation followed by a configurable expansion key (usually Tab), the IDE transforms the preceding input sequence to its full-length output, and update the cursor position.

For example, consider a Java for loop. Typically, the end user would need to type for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {<Enter><Tab><Enter><Enter>}<Up>. This pattern may be shortened to fori<Tab> and the remaining contents will be expanded, leaving the following structure:

for (int i = [|]; i < []; i++) {
  []
}

As the user completes each section of the for loop and presses Tab, the cursor advances to the next position in the editor.

Another use-case for live templates is surrounding the selected code with additional constructs. When a user selects a code fragment and invokes the Code | Surround With... action and chooses the template from the list, the code is wrapped with the content defined in the template.

Consider the following Java method with the selected fragment inside <selection>:

public void testMethod() {
  <selection>getActions()</selection>
}

Invoking the Code | Surround With... action and selecting the Iterate Iterable or array template would transform the code to:

public void testMethod() {
  for (Action action : getActions()) {
    <cursor>
  }
}

For more information about creating Custom Live Templates, refer to the corresponding documentation.

These sections describe how to add Live Templates, and their associated building blocks, to plugins.

Last modified: 27 February 2023