Code Completion Improvements.pdf - Toad World

Code Completion Improvements General Description For version 5.0 a major overhaul of the code completion functionality has been made. For some items in the list you can now multi select items for insert from the list. The items that you can multi select will show up with a check box next to them. To check the checkbox you can either click on the checkbox or press the keyboard shortcut Control+Space. For other items where this makes sense (For instance schemas, databases and owners depending on you provider) you can now expand them to see other items that would be addressed by them right in the code completion drop down. This can be done other by clicking the + sign to the right of these items or pressing the keyboard shortcut Control+Right. For developers please note that this feature replaces the “AddDot” functionality that was previously in the code completion (There were no uses of it so I don’t think it will be missed much).

There is now also a small toolbar at the bottom of the screen that allows you to change the following code completion options (In order): Apply filter to editor, Include system objects, Merge secondary items. You can also grab the resize grip in the lower right corner to resize the code completion drop down (And the new size will be remembered between Toad sessions. You can now quickly navigate between items that match what you have written in the editor by pressing the keyboard shortcuts Control+Up or Control+Down. This is especially useful if you are searching for matches in different types and have the sort option to be by type. Items of code no longer fetch their parameter information when the list of code completion items is generated. Instead that information is generated when it is needed which leads to greatly improved Quest Software, Inc. All rights reserved

Toad Studio Module Implementation Document

performance. We also generate more detailed comments on code completion for these, including data type, direction and comments of parameters.

We now no longer include all the prefixing elements of objects in the code completion drop down which leaves more space for the relevant part of the name.

When selecting several items in a where clause we can also combine them correctly into a code snippet as can be seen below.

Normally items are just joined using a simple “, “ separator though. The code completion drop down will disappear if you click anywhere outside the drop down control. Also if you move the caret in the editor outside of where it could form a valid drop down entry it will also disappear (For instance if you move to the left of the insertion point). As you can see in the screenshots above we only show the expand button and checkboxes in the pop up when they are needed to save space for showing the names. Same as before you will still have the two “(Unfiltered)” and “(More)” if needed (The first if you have the “Apply filters to editor option enabled” and the second one if you don’t have the “Merge Secondary Items” checked). However in difference to before the code completion will not disappear when you select these items, but will stay visible until the new list is actually available. Finally we now have parameter hints when inserting code through code completion as can be seen in the screenshot below.

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Toad Studio Module Implementation Document

The parameter info will contain the description of the parameters where the parameter currently being edited will be in bold. Below that you will see a description of the code in case one exists and on the last line a description of the currently focused parameter.

Keyboard shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts are available to navigate the code completion popup. Key

Action

Up

Move up one item in the list.

Down

Move down one item in the list.

Tab or Enter

Insert selection. If you have any checkbox checked the checked item or items will be inserted regardless of the focused item in the list. If you have nothing checked the focused node will be inserted. One exception to this rule is if you have the node “(Unfiltered)” or “(More)” focused. If these nodes are focused checks are always ignored.

Page Up

Move up one page in the list.

Page Down

Move down one page in the list.

Home

Move to the top of the list.

End

Move to the end of the list.

Period, Escape

Close the code completion popup without inserting anything.

Control+Space

Toggle check on selected item if possible.

Control+Right

Expand current node if possible.

Control+Left

Collapse current node if possible.

Control+Up

Focus the next matching item in the list from the focused one looking upwards in the list.

Control+Down

Focus the next matching item in the list from the focused one looking downwards in the list.

Any other typing will simply be handled by the editor control normally.

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