Add Comments and Javadocs in Eclipse With a Single Keystroke
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Join For FreeWhen you want to work with comments in Eclipse, you could use the slow way of moving to the start of the line, pressing // and then repeating this for all the lines you have.
Or you could use the quick way of adding a comment with a single keystroke no matter where the cursor’s positioned in the statement.
The same goes for Javadocs – there are just too many things to type before you can start commenting the good stuff. That’s why Eclipse also has a shortcut that let’s you add Javadoc to a field, method or class.
Keyboard shortcuts for comments and JavaDocs
Here are the keyboard shortcuts for manipulating comments.
| Shortcut |
Command | Description |
| Ctrl+/ | Toggle Comment | Add/remove line comments (//…) from the current line. The position of the cursor can be anywhere on the line. Works with multiple selected lines as well. |
| Ctrl+Shift+/ | Add Block Comment | Wrap the selected lines in a block comment (/*… */). |
| Ctrl+Shift+\ | Remove Block Comment | Remove a block comment (/*… */) surrounding the selected lines. |
| Alt+Shift+J | Add Javadoc Comment | Add a Javadoc comment to the active field/method/class. See the notes below for more details on where to position the cursor. |
Bear the following in mind when using Add Javadoc comment (Alt+Shift+J):
- To add a comment to a field, position the cursor on the field declaration.
- To add a comment to a method, position the cursor anywhere in the method or on its declaration.
- To add a comment to a class, the easiest is to position the cursor on the class declaration. Also works if you’re in the class, but not in a method, field or nested type.
- The Javadoc comment inserted is based on the Code Templates defined under Window > Preferences > Java > Code Style > Code Templates. If you expand the Comments section, you can change the default for Fields, Methods, Types (eg. classes), etc.
Here’s a video to give you an idea of how fast and easy it is to add/remove comments using these shortcuts. The video shows toggling of single line comments, block comments and also adding a Javadoc comment to the method and class.
Once I’ve commented out lines, I often find myself copying them and moving them around (eg. to try different variations of the code). You can do this faster by moving and copying lines using with a single keystroke.
You can also have Eclipse format the comments whenever you save, saving you formatting time.
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