CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaeclipse
akd
akd

Reputation: 63

Automatically add private qualifier to fields in eclipse

Is there a way to automatically add the private qualifier while new variables are declared in Eclipse?

In a way I would like to override the default access to private

Upvotes: 6

Views: 1615

Answers (2)

Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson

Reputation: 47173

I don't know of a way to do this.

However, the way i write code, it would rarely be necessary. That's because i rarely define fields by hand; instead, i let Eclipse create them, and when it does that, it makes them private.

Say i want to create a class Foo with a single field bar of type int. Start with:

public class Foo {
}

Put the cursor in the class body, hit control-space, and choose 'default constructor' from the proposals menu. You now have:

public class Foo {
    public Foo() {
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }
}

Delete the helpful comment. Now manually add a constructor parameter for bar:

public class Foo {
    public Foo(int bar) {
    }
}

Now put the cursor on the declaration of bar and hit control-1. From the proposals menu, choose 'assign parameter to new field':

public class Foo {
    private final int bar;

    public Foo(int bar) {
        this.bar = bar;

    }
}

Bingo. You now have a private field.

There is a similar sequence of automatic operations which can create a field from an existing expression in a method (first creating a local variable, then promoting it to a field).

Upvotes: 4

minopret
minopret

Reputation: 4806

If you consider it more important to you than performance and readability, I suppose you could configure a relatively convenient solution as follows. I wouldn't do this myself.

For class and instance variables, modify the class template in preferences to incorporate this:

private static Object fields = new Object () {
    // declare all class variables here
};

private Object vars = new Object () {
    // declare all instance variables here
};

For local variables, modify the method template in preferences to incorporate this:

private Object locals = new Object () {
    // declare all local variables here
};

Class variable x will be declared in fields. It will be private at this.class.fields.x.

Instance variable y will be declared in vars. It will be private at this.vars.y.

Local variable z will be declared in locals. It will be private at locals.z.

If you do this, you can expect your entire program to be slower and use more memory that it would otherwise.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions