Android Studio tips & tricks -Part 1(for beginners)

Published in

Programming Geeks

6 min readJan 10, 2019

It doesn’t matter how powerful the weapon unless you knew how to use at its best. We as developers are fortunate to have a powerful tool like Android Studio, thanks to google but you should know how to use it productively.

In the process of learning how to be efficient with studio first thing I learn is to reduce the usage of the mouse while coding, So this article is about the basic shortcuts that any Android developer should know.

1.Basic code suggestions

You don’t need to type everything while you’re using the android studio, For example, you need to write TextView then type Text and press Ctrl + space there you will see respective suggetions. These suggestions aren’t any class or layout specific, suggestions will be provided at the project level.

Windows: ctrl + space
Mac : cmd + space

2. Find anything in the project

For example, if your searching for a class, layout file, drawable, etc literally anything in the project just simply double click shift and type the file name.

Windows: double click shift
Mac : double click shift

3. Import libraries easily

For example, when you copy paste the code some libraries won’t import so that will result in errors, then place the cursor on that error and press alt + enter if their any libraries that aren’t imported will import now.

Windows: alt + enter
Mac : option + enter

4. Find anything in the active tab (class, layout, drawable)

Press ctrl + F and type what you’re looking for, there will arrows beside the word you’re the type to see how many occurrences of that word in the active tab. Have a look

Windows: ctrl + F
Mac : cmd + F

5. Find & Replace anything in active tab

Press ctrl + R then type the old word
Click the tab button and type the new word
Click Replace to replace on current selector you can replace all occurrences of that word by clicking on replace all option

Windows: ctrl + R
Mac : cmd + R

6. Format the code

If the code appears with uneven spaces or lines just press ctrl + alt + l to format.

Windows: ctrl + alt + l
Mac : cmd + option + l

7. Close active tab

To close active tab press ctrl + F4

Windows: ctrl + F4
Mac : cmd + w

8. Go to specific line number

Press ctrl + g and type the line number to want jump and press enter.

Windows: ctrl + G
Mac : cmd + L

9. Return to editor window

Android studio usually shows suggetions in a tool window, there will be times when you want to hide that window and get back to editor for that just press Esc

Windows: Esc
Mac : Esc

10. Jump to source

If you want to see the source of a resource file string, drawable, color, anything in the project just press ctrl + mouse left click on that resource.Have a look

Windows: alt + mouse left click
Mac : cmd + down arrow

11. Move between tabs

To switch between tabs press alt + right/left arrow based which side you want to switch

Windows: alt + left/right arrow
Mac : cmd + left/right arrow

12. Move between Design / Text tabs

In layout’s file to switch between text and design format click alt + shift + right/left arrow

Windows: alt + shift + left/right arrow
Mac : cmd + left/right arrow

13. New window

press shift+F4 to open active tab in new window.

Windows: shift + F4
Mac : shift + F4

14. Show/Hide line numbers

Mouse right click on the left edge of editor which results in a popup with option show line number. Have a look

15. Increase and Decrease character size in editor

Click File -> Settings -> General

Then you will see the option to change font size(Zoom) with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel

16. Move hardcoded strings to resources

Place the cursor on hardcoded string and press alt + enter then type a name for the string in resource files. Have a look

Windows: alt + enter
Mac : cmd + N

17. Collapse Method Body

As time passes project will grow so does the methods in the classes. In such times it would be hard to go through the code where this tip comes to rescue, to collapse specific method press ctrl + minus and to collapse all the methods press ctrl + shift + minus

Specific method

Windows: ctrl + minus
Mac : cmd + minus

All methods

Windows: ctrl + shift + minus
Mac : cmd + shift + minus

18. Expand Method Body

As time passes project will grow so does the methods in the classes. In such times it would be hard to go through the code where this tip comes to rescue, to collapse specific method press ctrl + plus and to collapse all the methods press ctrl + shift + plus

Specific method

Windows: ctrl + plus
Mac : cmd + plus

All methods

Windows: ctrl + shift + plus
Mac : cmd + shift + plus

19. Usage of REGION in Studio

As we collapsing the body of all methods will result to only specific level of clarty of the code but with REGION you will fully organize the code to the extact where normal person can also understand the codeing formate. Have a properly look on how to implement REGION