10 Tips and Tricks For Java Developers
The Java extension for Visual Studio Code lets you debug your code and run your tests with ease. In this tutorial, we will get you started with the Java extension in VS Code by first installing the extension, then running a short demo.
If you want to contribute to the extension, you can learn how here.
Installing the Java Extension Pack
Installing the Java Extension Pack is really simple. Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter:
ext install java
The Java Extension Pack consists of these extensions: Language Support for Java(TM) by Red Hat; Debugger for Java; Test Runner/Debugger for Java; Maven for Java; Gradle Language Support. By installing these extensions together, all required dependencies are installed automatically.
Once completed, reload VS Code to activate your new extension.
Java Test Runner/Debugger
Once the extension is installed, it will be available in VS Code’s list of debug configurations. To begin with, create a simple “Hello World!” application as follows:
Create a folder called HelloWorld and open it in VS Code (File > Open Folder). Add a HelloWorld.java file to the folder that contains
The Visual Studio Code editor has lots of features that help you be productive as a Java developer. Below, I highlight 10 of my favorite Visual Studio Code features and how to use them.
But before I get started, I want to give you a big thank you for being a loyal reader to the Top 10 series. It is my goal with this blog series to share my top tips and tricks around a specific developer tool or technology.
In this post, I will show you some of the best Visual Studio Code tips and tricks to increase productivity when writing Java code.
Visual Studio Code is a great code editor and has gained immense popularity in the recent times. It’s built on top of the open source Eclipse platform and supports languages such as C, C++, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Java etc.
VSCode can be installed on all major operating systems like Windows, Linux and Mac OS. You can even install it on a Raspberry Pi or a Chromebook. In this post I would like to share some of the tips and tricks that I use while developing Java applications in Visual Studio Code.
Visual Studio Code is extremely easy to install. If you already have a JDK installed on your system then you can directly install Visual Studio Code by downloading it from here: https://code.visualstudio.com/
If you don’t have Java installed on your system then you can go ahead and download it from here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html
Once you have both Java and VSCode installed we can move onto configuring VSCode for developing Java applications.
Microsoft has released a new version of Visual Studio Code (1.11) which allows debugging Java applications without needing to open the folder that contains the source files. This is great news for Java developers who have been using VS Code to develop Spring Boot applications (or any other type of application, for that matter).
In this blog post, I’ll show you how to get started with VS Code and give you some tips for Java development, including:
How to use the Java Debugger
Using the VS Code integrated terminal
Formatting your code automatically
1.IntelliSense in Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code provides IntelliSense for Java. Visual Studio Code has a great support for many languages out of the box including the most popular programming language i.e. JavaScript, TypeScript, C++, PHP, Python, Go and many others.
It also supports Java through many extensions available on its marketplace. Out of which I recommend installing the following extensions:
Java Extension Pack consists of Language Support for Java(TM) by Red Hat, Debugger for Java and Java Test Runner by Microsoft.
Java Dependency Viewer helps in understanding dependencies among your classes and methods. It comes with a good search feature to help you quickly find dependencies among your classes and methods. It also help you find where all the methods are used through references.
2.Outline View in Visual Studio Code
Outline view gives you a quick overview of the structure of your file or document and helps you navigate in it easily without scrolling through it linearly. It is especially helpful when working with large documents. For example in case of large xml files or json files or Java files with lots of methods/classes defined in them etc., where it becomes hard to find something specific without using this feature. You can easily toggle outline
Oracle at one point sold the IDE for Java development, which is why it’s still called “Java”- and most Java developers still refer to their entire development environment as Java. However, there are some great options for Java development in VS Code including the widely used Language Support for Java by Red Hat and Debugger for Java.
Java has never been easier to get started with thanks to free tools like VS Code and OpenJDK. This guide will walk you through setting up both tools and getting a project ready to go.