Type ahead autocompletion in Eclipse

Question

Do Eclipse have a plugin for type ahead autocompletion like Visual Studio, so I don't have to destroy my spacebar by pressing Ctrl+Space all the time? (If you don't know how it works in Visual Studio, please don't bother answering.)

And also, can I limit the autocomplete to imported packages, rather than every single Java class on earth? It's fustrating seeing suggestions from awt and swing etc., when I'm working with GWT. And I don't want to add every single Java class to the filter, that's just stupid. (Again, like how it's done in Visual Studio!)

Answer 1

My answer may come too late, but maybe will help others searching this feature in eclipse. This workaround works for me (eclipse helios):

Go to Windows -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Content Assist. Here, enable Auto activation and set Auto activation delay to a low value, let's say 50 ms. Then comes the workaround: In Auto activation triggers for java, simply put all the characters: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

And there you go, just type something.

Answer 2

Regarding your second part, yes you can

• Open Eclipse
• Select Window/Preferences from the menu
• Expand Java/Appearance/Type Filters from the menu on the left
• Click the "Add package" button, enter "java.awt" (without the quotes) and click OK
• OK your way out

This will make Eclipse remove any matching classes from the java.awt package from your type ahead list. Very nice...

So "type-ahead" exists in Eclipse (mentioned in this status report in June 2006), but is synonym of auto-completion, most often triggered by CTRL+ Space... (which is not exactly what you are looking for)

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To be more specific, the kind of automatic auto-completion (completion while you are typing, with a "Common" or "All" list of possible completions) you have in Visual Studio is not there in Eclipse (actually read below):

Original answer January 2010:

At least, not without a dedicating plugin.
And even with that plugin, it would have to follow a TemplateCompletionProcessor, meaning it would need a list of characters triggering said completion (again, not what you are looking for), by redefining method getCompletionProposalAutoActivationCharacters().

Update November 2011:

Cristi mentions in his answer (upvoted) a great workaround, which consists adding all the letters as Auto activation triggers for java.
See also "Automatically opening completion window in Eclipse".

From the thread "Eclipse auto-completion ":

Windows -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Content Assist

• Set delay to: 0 (actually >0 is better: 50, it avoids CPU picks because of constant listening)
• Set triggers to:

    .(abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV WXYZ@