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FAQ What Java refactoring support is available?
In the Java perspective, a menu called Refactor is enabled. It contains all possible refactoring operations currently implemented by the JDT. All operations are listed, even though they may not be applicable to the current selection. When a given element is selected in the Java editor, the context menu will show the refactoring operations that are specifically applicable to the selection. Refer to the Help > Help Contents > Java Development User Guide > Refactoring support for a comprehensive discussion on what refactoring techniques are available, how to preview a refactoring, and how to undo/redo refactorings.
It is important to realize the existence of the underlying mechanisms that allow for refactoring. For instance, when a given method is being renamed, all source files that have a reference to the method will have to be visited and their reference to the renamed method changed. The only way to do these kinds of refactorings in a scalable and manageable way is by using an underlying model of the Java source being refactored. Such a model is commonly referred to as a Document Object Model (DOM).
Frequent refactorings for which you may want to remember the keyboard shortcuts are rename with shortcut Alt+Shift+R and extract method with shortcut Alt+Shift+M. You can create or change key bindings for all refactorings from the Workbench > Keys preference page.
See Also:
FAQ_How_do_I_support_refactoring_for_my_own_language?
IBM developerWorks article on refactoring (http://ibm.com/developerworks)
This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.