Ctrl-Space in Eclipse without Pressing Ctrl-Space

98
votes

I've just started using Eclipse and I noticed that when I start typing a local variable name it doesn't come up with suggestions like Visual Studio does until I press Ctrl+Space. Is there any way to get it to do this automatically? I find Ctrl+Space an awkward key press.

4
eclipse
I hope this eventually gets "answered" by a bug fix. I want this too. I don't even remember how I know about CTRL-Space. Does it bring it up in Visual Studio? - Xonatron

4 Answers

174
votes

These bugs (and a solution if you use Eclipse >3.4) may be of interest to you:

A. Allow more character triggers as @Samuel said (fixed in 3.4 onwards):

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=159157 add the characters below to content assist in Preferences

Change the default in Auto activation triggers for Java to ._abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

B. Allow content assist everywhere automatically (not fixed):

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=101420

23
votes

What works:

Change the Auto activation triggers to .abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_

You're unlikely to type anything else to get assist started.

12
votes
  1. Window -> Preferences
  2. Java -> Editor -> Content Assist
  3. Change auto-activation to suit your preferences

You will probably want to set the delay to 0.

4
votes

Also to make Auto Complete work in XML files do the following changes in Preferences -> XML -> XML Files -> Editor -> Content Assist

Under Auto Activation section, provide the following values

  1. Make Auto activation delay (ms): 0
  2. Prompt when these characters are inserted: <=:._abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Following screenshot explains the same

enter image description here