Visual Studio: How to show Overloads in IntelliSense?

283
votes

Once code has been written, the only way I know of to view the overloads for a method is to actually edit the method by deleting the Parenthesis () and reopening them.

Is there a shortcut key that I could press to activate this instead of having to edit my files?

For an example, please reference the ShowDialog Overload screen shot below:

ShowDialog1 Overloads

10
c#visual-studiovisual-studio-2010
What ever happened to the good old up and down arrows? – Zapnologica
@Zapnologica: The Up and Down arrows still exist, but the IntelliSense box needs to be activated and opened before those arrows can be used to scroll through the overload options. This question is about how to get the IntelliSense box to open. – jp2code
How can you make it open by default, control space vs control shift space – Zapnologica
@Zapnologica: I use Control + Shift + Space sequence, like the old style Control + Alt + Delete combination. – jp2code
For people wondering where the nice auto up and down arrows went for overloads as you're typing: I'm not sure how long this option has been in VS settings but in VS Community 2019 v16.9.2 in Tools>Options>Text Editor>C#>IntelliSense there's a checkbox called 'Automatically show completion list in argument lists (experimental)'. If you uncheck that, the default behaviour of the up/down arrows scrolling through the overloads returns. – bsigma1

10 Answers

437
votes

Try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Space. This corresponds to Edit.ParameterInfo, in case you've changed the default.

Example:

descriptive screenshot, by jp2code

61
votes

Ctrl+Shift+Space shows the Edit.ParameterInfo for the selected method, and by selected method I mean the caret must be within the method parentheses.

Here is the Visual Studio 2010 Keybinding Poster.

And for those still using 2008.

54
votes

Tested only on Visual Studio 2010.

Place your cursor within the (), press Ctrl+K, then P.

Now navigate by pressing the  ↑  / ↓   arrow keys.

21
votes

The default key binding for this is Ctrl+Shift+Space. The underlying Visual Studio command is Edit.ParameterInfo.

If the standard keybinding doesn't work for you (possible in some profiles) then you can change it via the keyboard options page

  • Tools -> Options
  • Keyboard
  • Type in Edit.ParameterInfo
  • Change the shortcut key
  • Hit Assign
11
votes

It happens that none of the above methods work. Key binding is proper, but tool tip simply doesn't show in any case, neither as completion help or on demand.

To fix it just go to Tools\Text Editor\C# (or all languages) and check the 'Parameter Information'. Now it should work

8
votes

Great question; I had the same issue. Turns out that there is indeed a keyboard shortcut to bring up this list: Ctrl+Shift+Space (a variation of the basic IntelliSense shortcut of Ctrl+Space).

6
votes

  • The command Edit.ParameterInfo (mapped to Ctrl+Shift+Space by default) will show the overload tooltip if it's invoked when the cursor is inside the parameter brackets of a method call.

  • The command Edit.QuickInfo (mapped to Ctrl+KCtrl+I by default) will show the tooltip that you'd see if you moused over the cursor location.

3
votes

Every once and a while the suggestions above stop working, if I restart Visual Studio they start working again though.

2
votes

I know this is an old post, but for the newbies like myself who still hit this page this might be useful. when you hover on a method you get a non clickable info-box whereas if you just write a comma in the method parenthesis the IntelliSense will offer you the beloved info-box with the clickable arrows.

0
votes

Mine showed up in VS2010 after writing the first parenthesis..

so, prams.Add(

After doings something like that, the box with the up and down arrows appeared.