Code Documentation
Auto-Generating JavaDoc stubs
If you type /** before the method declaration and press Enter, the javadoc comment block will be generated automatically, with parameter and return attributes already inserted as necessary.
Code completion in JavaDoc comments
Code completion is available within javadoc comments. For example, having typed @ and pressed Ctrl + Space, you will get a lookup window with possible javadoc attributes to be inserted.
JavaDoc popup tooltips
You can press Ctrl + Q on any element in the code to see JavaDoc for the current symbol. If you have JavaDoc comments in your source code, IntelliJ IDEA will generate documentation on the fly and show it in the lookup.
This feature also works in code completion and GoTo lookup lists.
Opening JavaDocs in an external browser
IntelliJ IDEA allows you to browse JavaDocs for classes, methods, fields, or any other symbols directly from the code. Pressing Shift + F1 on a usage of any class, method or field immediately opens a browser and navigates to the corresponding place in the JavaDoc. When configuring JavaDoc in project settings, you can specify URLs as JavaDoc paths.
Generating JavaDoc
IntelliJ IDEA integrates with the standard JavaDoc tool from JDK to help you generate javadoc documentation for existing classes.
JavaDoc error highlighting and code inspections
IntelliJ IDEA provides a set of javadoc code inspections that help you to quickly discover the following problems:
- no javadoc where it is required
- required tag is missing (you can define the set of required tags)
- invalid or incomplete tag
- javadoc description is missing or incomplete
- unresolved references in javadocs
Found problems are highlighted as errors or warnings and accompanied by the intelligent quick fixes.
Read more about IntelliJ IDEA code inspections and static code analysis ».