jump into interface implementation in Eclipse IDE

Question

You know how in Eclipse, pressing F3 over a method will take you to its declaration? Well I have a method that is part of an interface; clicking F3 over this naturally takes me to the declaring interface.

Obviously there is an object implementing this interface and this is where the method is actually implemented. I want, when I press F3, to jump to the implementation, not the interface declaration. I know that the implementation may not be known at compile-time, so is there a way for eclipse to show me all the classes implementing the interface so that I can select which implemented method to view? Right now when this happens I am just manually searching for this to find the implemented method.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's what I do:

• In the interface, move the cursor to the method name. Press F4. => Type Hierarchy view appears
• In the lower part of the view, the method should already be selected. In its toolbar, click "Lock view and show members in hierarchy" (should be the leftmost toolbar icon).
• In the upper part of the view, you can browse through all implementations of the method.

The procedure isn't very quick, but it gives you a good overview.

Answer 2

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2105979/in-eclipse-ctrl-click-goes-to-the-declaration-of-the-method-i-clicked-for-inter for some alternative solutions.

• Anyway, I think you might be looking for something like this:

http://eclipse-tools.sourceforge.net/implementors/

Answer 3

Press ctrl-t on the method name (rather than F3). This gives the type hierarchy as a pop-up so is slightly faster than using F4 and the type hierarchy view.

Also, when done on a method, subtypes that don't implement/override the method will be greyed out, and when you double click on a class in the list it will take you straight to the method in that class.

Answer 4

Well... well... I hope you use Eclipse Helios, because what you asked is available on Helios.

Put your text cursor again on the method and click menu Navigate → Open Implementation. Now if you have more than one implementation of the method, you will get choice to pick which implementation to open.

By defining a keybinding on Preferences → General → Keys you can even use the feature easier, but before you do that, see if this shortcut is fast enough for you.

Click Ctrl and hold it. Now move your mouse over the same method. Tadam… you will get choice.

If you pick Open Implementation you’ll get the same choice as before.

UPDATE now with picture

Answer 5

If you are really looking to speed your code navigation, you might want to take a look at nWire for Java. It is a code exploration plugin for Eclipse. You can instantly see all the related artifacts. So, in that case, you will focus on the method call and instantly see all possible implementations, declarations, invocations, etc.