Hidden Features of Xcode

Question

With a huge influx of newbies to Xcode  I m sure there are lots of Xcode tips and tricks to be shared   What are yours

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Move back or forward a full word with alt-. Move back or forward a file in your history with cmd-alt-. Switch between interface and implementation with cmd-alt-.

Jump to the next error in the list of build errors with cmd-=. Display the multiple Find panel with cmd-shift-f. Toggle full editor visibility with cmd-shift-e.

Jump to the Project tab with cmd-0, to the build tab with cmd-shift-b and to the debug tab with cmd-shift-y (same as the key commands for the action, with shift added).

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Right click on a variable in your function and click edit all in scope   Been using it a lot since I found this out   ctrl   T

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Cmd Option O to open a file in a separate window  Can configure Tab to always indent  I frequently use it to indent an entire file  Ctrl Arrow keys to move between camel case words  If you have OneTwo  you can move from One to Two with Ctrl Right arrow  You can use emacs bindings  there s even kill ring  I use the Ctrl w and Cmd C together when I need to copy two different pieces of text  In the documentation browser  you can restrict your searches to a particular library  e g   just iOS 4 2 library  This helps me focus on API available only on a particular iOS Mac version of the SDK  Cmd Shift A to build and analyze

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The fact that I can use Emacs as my editor and Xcode as my builder debugger    Best of both worlds  in my humble opinion

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Select a block of text and type cmd-  to comment it out  Do it again to remove the comments characters   This is especially useful when combined with brace-matching by double-clicking on balanced chars  parens  braces  brackets

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To Open the debugging window on Debugger starts Change the Debugging preferences shown in the image   To clear the console log everytime app runs  check the Auto clear Debug Console

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Cmd      tilde - looks weird  on the button      To switch between any open Xcode window - also when multiple projects are open

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I have created my own file templates for NSObject  UIView and UIViewController so when I create new classes  the files are all set up with private sections and logging of class  address in init and dealloc   Example  NSObject derived class named  test  will start like this                                                               Private Interface                                                           interface test  private   end                                                             Public Implementation                                                           implementation test  -  void dealloc       NSLog    gt  gt  gt  Dealloc  test  0x X    self        super dealloc       NSLog    lt  lt  lt  Dealloc  test       -  id  init       self    super init       if self            NSLog    gt  gt  gt  Alloc  test  0x X    self             return self      end                                                             Private Implementation                                                           implementation test  private   end   Plenty of resources are available for this  for example Cocoa dev  Design your own Xcode project templates

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Being able to split the current editor window horizontally  which is great for wide screen monitors to be able to view the source and header file side by side  There are two different methods for doing depending on what version of Xcode you are using   In Xcode 3 0 it is under Preferences  Key Bindings  Text Key Bindings at the bottom of that list   In Xcode 2 5 it is under Preferences  Key Bindings  Menu Key Bindings  View menu

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Ctrl   2  Access the popup list of methods and symbols in the current file   This is super useful because with this shortcut you can navigate through a file entirely using the keyboard  When you get to the list  start typing characters and the list will type-select to the symbol you are looking for

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Navigate among open files back and forth     larr     rarr

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Key bindings to Xcode actions  I also adore the  re-indent   True there is no default shortcut  but you can add one from the Text Key Bindings tab of the Key Bindings preference pane   Which is a time-saver all on its own  Just lookup your favorite actions and add edit keyboard shortcuts   One set of defaults I do find handy are the CMD   and CMD   to add remove vertical splits  Hold down option for these and now you have the same for horizontal  But if these gestures don t work for you  you can always change them

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Show chooser for open symbol              click over a symbol  Shows    You can choose open the symbol in    the current tab in an existing tab in a new one  with the   in the upper right corner  in a vertical split  with the   in the right  or in a new window  with the   in the left

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Not much of a keyboard shortcut but the TODO comments in the source show up in the method function dropdown at the top of the editor   So for example      TODO  Some task that needs to be done    shows up in the drop down list of methods and functions so you can jump to it directly   Most Java IDEs show a marker for these task tags in the scrollbar  which is nicer  but this also works

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Xcode supports text macros that can be invoked via the Insert Text Macro menu at the end of the Edit menu   They can also be invoked using Code Sense  Xcode s code completion technology   For example  Typing the key sequence p i m control-period will insert  import  file  into your code  with file as an editable token just like with code completion

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In PyObjC  you can do the equivalent of  pragma mark for the symbols dropdown    MARK  Foo  and    MARK  -

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A  It will build and analyze  meaning that Xcode will warn you about possible leaks

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Double-click on the square brackets or parentheses to obtain bracket and parentheses matching

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With Trackpad     Swipe Three Fingers Up - Switch between header and source file  which is easier than Cmd   Opt   Up   Swipe three fingers down - Switch between declaration and definition when selecting a class or method  found these two kind currently   Swipe three fingers left - Go back  Cmd   Opt   Left    Swipe three fingers right - Go forward  Cmd   Opt   Right      Tested with Xcode 3 2 5

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The class browser in Xcode  Reached by pressing shift       c  You can reduce the scope to only show your active project  It gives you a less cluttered view as long as you only want to browse the class hierarchy

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Move back or forward a full word with alt-. Move back or forward a file in your history with cmd-alt-. Switch between interface and implementation with cmd-alt-.

Jump to the next error in the list of build errors with cmd-=. Display the multiple Find panel with cmd-shift-f. Toggle full editor visibility with cmd-shift-e.

Jump to the Project tab with cmd-0, to the build tab with cmd-shift-b and to the debug tab with cmd-shift-y (same as the key commands for the action, with shift added).

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I have no idea if everybody knows this already  but I was delighted when I learned I could use  code folding  and hide nested functions that I didn t want to look at by clicking on the gray area nearest to the code that you want to fold   Hard to explain

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Use xcodebuild command line to do a clean build on the shared build machine   cd project directory xcodebuild -configuration Release -alltargets clean xcodebuild -configuration Release -alltargets

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Command   alt   shift T   reveal the current edited file in the project tree

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Turn off the  undo past the last point  warning  When you attempt to undo after saving  you will get the following prompt       You are about to undo past the last   point this file was saved   Do you   want to do this     To get rid of this warning  enter the following into a terminal window   defaults write com apple Xcode XCShowUndoPastSaveWarning NO     Change the company name in template files  Paste this into the Terminal application   defaults write com apple Xcode PBXCustomTemplateMacroDefinitions    ORGANIZATIONNAME     Microsoft         Change  com yourcompanyname  in all your templates    Find the directory   Developer Platforms iPhoneOS platform Developer Library Xcode Project Templates Application Use your favourite multi-file search-and-replace tool to change com yourcompany to whatever value you normally use to build for a device  I used BBEdit s multi-find-and-replace after I opened the whole directory  You should be replacing the value in all the info plist files  I found 8 files to change   The number of times a build has failed because I forgot to change this string is ridiculous      Quickly jump to a Group in the Groups and Files pane        Control   Option   Shift      lt First letter of a Group name gt       If you hold down the three keys above  you can quickly jump to groups in the left  Groups and Files  page by pressing the first letter of a groups name  For example  Control  Option  Shift  T takes you to Targets and Control  Option  Shift  S to Source  Press it again and it jumps to SCM  Sometimes it takes several tries for this to work  I don t know why      Cycling between autocompletion choices        Control       Shift   Control      Cycles backwards between autocompletion choices         Control     Control-Period  after a word automatically accepts the first choice from the autocompletion menu  Try typing log then Control     and you ll get a nice NSLog statement  Press it again to cycle through any choices  To see all the mutable choices  type NSMu then Control        Quick Help        Control   Command      While your cursor is in the symbol to look up    Option      lt Double-click a symbol gt    Help   Quick Help      To get to the documentation from the Quick Help window  click the book icon on the top right     See the documentation for a symbol        Command   Option      lt Double-click a symbol gt        Takes you straight to the full documentation     Make non-adjacent text selections        Command   Control      lt Double-click in the editor gt       Use the above shortcut for a strange way of selecting multiple words  You can make selections of words in totally different places  then delete or copy them all at once  Not sure if this is useful  It s Xcode only as far as I can tell     Use Emacs key bindings to navigate through your code  This trick works in all Cocoa application on the Mac  TextEdit  Mail  etc   and is possibly one of the most useful things to know         Command   Left Arrow or Command   Right Arrow Takes you to the beginning and end of a line    Control   a and Control   e Do the same thing   Control   n and Control   p Move the cursor up or down one line    Control   f and Control   b Move the cursor back or forward one space      Pressing Shift   with any of these selects the text between move points  Put the cursor in the middle of a line and press Shift   Control   e and you can select to the end of the line   Pressing Option   will let you navigate words with the keyboard  Option   Control   f skips to the end of the current word  Option   Control   b skips to the beginning of the current word  You can also use Option   with the left and right arrow keys to move one-word-at-a-time     Control   Left Arrow and Control   Right Arrow moves the cursor between camel-cased parts of a word    Try it with NSMutableArray  You can quickly change it to NSArray by putting your cursor after the NS  pressing Shift   Control   Right Arrow then Delete

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Double-click on the square brackets or parentheses to obtain bracket and parentheses matching

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Might go without saying  but if you want to use intra-word navigation  make sure you change the key presets in for Spaces  in the Expose  amp  Spaces preference pane   if you use it   I switched Spaces to use Ctrl-Option Left Right   Edit  To set Spaces to Ctrl-Option Left Right  select the  To switch between spaces   popup and hold down the Option key  The first item will change from Ctrl Arrow Keys to Ctrl-Option Arrow Keys

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Hold down option while selecting text to select non-contiguous sections of text   Hold down option while clicking on the symbol name drop down to sort by name rather than the order they appear in the file

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Open Quickly      Command   Shift   D  File  gt  Open Quickly       I m a big fan of the Open Quickly feature  which is particularly good in Xcode 3 1 and later  When you want to open a file or a symbol definition that s in your project or in a framework  just hit the keyboard shortcut  type a bit of the file or symbol s name  use Up Arrow   and Down Arrow   to pick to the right result  if need be   and then hit Return   to open the file or navigate to the symbol definition  On Xcode 4    Command   Shift   o    Open Quickly uses the current word as a search term Also  something I didn t know about Xcode until two minutes ago  when schwa pointed it out in a comment  is that  if the editor s text caret is inside of a word when Open Quickly is invoked  that word will be used as the Open Quickly search term

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The class browser in Xcode  Reached by pressing shift       c  You can reduce the scope to only show your active project  It gives you a less cluttered view as long as you only want to browse the class hierarchy

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Right click on any word and select  Find Selected Text in API Reference  to search the API for that word  This is very helpful if you need to look up the available properties and or methods for a class  Instead of heading to Apple com or Google you will get a popup window of what you were looking for  or what was found

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Select a block of text and use  Command          To comment out the block of text  Selected the commented block and use the same shortcut to uncomment it

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Not much of a keyboard shortcut but the TODO comments in the source show up in the method function dropdown at the top of the editor   So for example      TODO  Some task that needs to be done    shows up in the drop down list of methods and functions so you can jump to it directly   Most Java IDEs show a marker for these task tags in the scrollbar  which is nicer  but this also works

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Snapshots  File Make Snapshot  provides a quick way to save a revision of your project if you aren t using a proper version control system  Great way to experiment with a large  potentially damaging change

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Print Complete Xcode Keyboard Shortcut List and put it next to your monitor

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Pressing    D activates  Open this Quickly   which navigates you to the first result from  Open Quickly  using the selected text  If the selected text is in the format  lt filename lineNumber gt    with or without  lt     Open this Quickly  takes you to the file plus line number   You can combine this with the following tip    You can write logs that contain the filename and line number of the log entry using this macro   Make sure to define -DDEBUG 1 on your C Flags used in your target s debug configuration    ifdef DEBUG  define DLog fmt       NSLog     s  lt     d gt    fmt     PRETTY FUNCTION      NSString stringWithFormat    s     FILE     lastPathComponent     LINE        VA ARGS     else  define DLog format        endif   In your DLog   output  double-clicking on the   lt   character to select the  lt filename lineNumber gt  and pressing    D will open the line where the log is in the source code

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Alt-Left  amp  Right to go to the end start of the line  This along with the CTRL-Left  amp  Right to move to the next capital letter  or word break  these two save me so much time

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Debugging - how to use GDB  Being new to this still  I find trapping and identifying faults a rather daunting job  The console  despite it being a powerful tool  usually does not yield very intuitive results and knowing what you are looking at in the debugger can be equally difficult to understand  With the help of some of they guys on Stack nbsp Overflow and the good article about debugging that can be found at Cocoa With Love it becomes a little more friendly

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Code Completion

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If you have a multi-touch capable Mac - use MultiClutch to map some of the keystrokes described by mouse gestures   I use three finger forward and back to go forward and back in file history  cmd-alt-    and pinch to switch between  h and  m

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Use  pragma for organization  You can use    pragma mark Foo       as a way to organize methods in your source files  When browsing symbols via the pop up menu  whatever you place in Foo will appear bold in the list   To display a separator  i e  horizontal line   use    pragma mark -   It s very useful  especially for grouping together delegate methods or other groups of methods

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-  and  -  to indent and unindent selected text   Makes cleaning up source code much easier

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Get Colin Wheeler s Complete Xcode Keyboard Shortcut List  available as PDF or PNG   Print it and keep it somewhere visible  I ve got it on the wall next to my screen    edit  Updated versions for Xcode 3 2   edit 2  Updated versions for Xcode 4

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Control R to execute selected text as a shell script which returns with the pasted output following the selection

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I don t really like the code-formatting reindent feature that is built into xcode  so I found using uncrustify as a code formatter very useful  It can be used as a User Script  http   hackertoys com 2008 09 18 adding-a-code-beautifier-script-to-xcode

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Some tips to be found in Xcode Tools Tips

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Right click on a variable in your function and click edit all in scope   Been using it a lot since I found this out   ctrl   T

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Xcode code formatting    is one of the thing you need when you want to make your code readable and look good   You can do the code formatting by yourself or save some time using scripts   One good way is   use Uncrustify  It is explained in Code Formatting in Xcode

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Build success failure noise  from term   defaults write com apple Xcode PBXBuildSuccessSound   Library Sounds metal  stamp wav defaults write com apple Xcode PBXBuildFailureSound   Library Sounds Elephant

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I came into Xcode right from Windows world  as MANY others   and one of the first quirks which I was faced to  was trying to  indent a selected block of text  with the TAB key   Typically  when using a Windows editor  you select a block of text  and whenever you press TAB  or shift TAB  keys  the selected text jumps right left  Then  once you decide the new position of the text  you stop pressing TAB   OK  in Xcode  this is completely different  because when you press TAB  the whole block of text disappears  leaving you with a silly face  and some anger inside     But then  just by chance or intuition or something  one day I discovered some kind of workaround to achieve the same effect you might get under a proper windows editor   The steps should be these    Select the text block as you might do under Windows  Instead of pressing TAB  leave your instincts away  and  copy the text block   typically CTRL C  yuck    Then  without deselecting the text   pressing SHIFT if needed   extend the beginning of the selection and place it on the position you would like your new text to appear  Paste the beforementioned text  typically CTRL V  yuck again    Result  The previous text block gets substituted by  the new  one  of course  itself   but the  auto indent  capabilities of Xcode  or someone else  who cares   will auto place the text starting onto the new position we chose in step 3  A big smile appears on your face    It s kind of tricky  but when you get used to it  you find yourself using it a lot   Enjoy

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Use the Class Browser to show inherited methods  Apple s API reference documentation does not show methods inherited from a superclass  Sometimes  though  it s useful to be able to see the full range of functionality available for a class -- including a custom class of your own  You can use the Class Browser  from the Project menu  to display a flat or hierarchical list of all the classes related to a current project  The upper pane on the right hand side of the browser window shows a list of methods associated with the object selected in the browser  You can use the Configure Options sheet to select  Show Inherited Members  to show inherited methods as well as those defined by the selected class itself  You click the small book symbol to go to the corresponding documentation

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to properly format  reindent  your code   EDIT  Apparently re-indent feature  Edit   Format   Reindent  has no default shortcut  I guess I assigned one  in Preferences   Key bindings  a long time ago and don t even remember about that  Sorry for misleading you

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There are many adjustments you can make to how Xcode treats the formatting of your code  but only if you change the settings via command line  I threw together a little program that lets you adjust them to your liking  Enjoy     Xcode Formatting Options

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As for  Open Quickly  feature - it s great  but I ve always missed TextMate s cmd-shift-t for browsing the projects and files  symbols  methods  etc     That s why I ve released an Xcode plugin that provides just that  It s called Code Pilot and you might want to take a look at it  http   macoscope net en mac codepilot

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To display the current autocompletion options in a popup menu by default  without having to press ESC first   type  defaults write com apple Xcode XCCodeSenseAutoSuggestionStyle List   in the Terminal and restart Xcode

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Recompile-free debug logging  cdespinosa s answer to Stack Overflow question How do I debug with NSLog     Inside of the iPhone Simulator      gives a method for a debugging-via-logging technique that requires no recompilation of source  An amazing trick that keeps code free of debugging cruft  has a quick turnaround  and would have saved me countless headaches had I known about it earlier   TODO comments  Prefixing a comment with TODO  will cause it to show up in the function  shortcut  dropdown menu  a la   int  p 0      TODO  initialize me

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Control Xcode s text editor from the command line  xed   gt  xed -x                  open a new untitled document  gt  xed -xc foo txt         create foo txt and open it  gt  xed -l 2000 foo txt     open foo txt and go to line 2000    set Xcode to be your EDITOR for command line tools   e g  for subversion commit  gt  echo  export EDITOR  xed -wcx    gt  gt     profile   gt  man xed                 there s a man page  too

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Debugging - how to use GDB  Being new to this still  I find trapping and identifying faults a rather daunting job  The console  despite it being a powerful tool  usually does not yield very intuitive results and knowing what you are looking at in the debugger can be equally difficult to understand  With the help of some of they guys on Stack nbsp Overflow and the good article about debugging that can be found at Cocoa With Love it becomes a little more friendly

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Ctrl   2  Access the popup list of methods and symbols in the current file   This is super useful because with this shortcut you can navigate through a file entirely using the keyboard  When you get to the list  start typing characters and the list will type-select to the symbol you are looking for

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Ctrl-left Ctrl-right to navigate words within a variable or method name  Can t live without this one

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The entire shortcut list can be found here  http   iphonehuston blogspot com 2009 08 shortcuts-for-xcode html

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ctrl   alt       r to clear the log

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When typing a method press ESC to see the code completion options  no doubt this has been mentioned before   I already knew about this  but TODAY I discovered that if you press the button in the lower-right-hand corner of the code completion window  it ll be either an  A  or Pi  you can toggle between alphabetical sorting and what appears to be sorting by class hierarchy    All of a sudden this window is useful

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Sort contents of Groups in Xcode s Groups and Files pane by selecting the Group  then Edit   Sort By   Name   You would expect to find this in the contextual menu for the group  but it isn t there   Credit  Sorting of files in Xcode

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In shell build phases you can write to stderr using the following format    lt filename gt   lt linenumber gt   error   warn   note    lt message gt  n  It s the same format gcc uses to show errors  The filename linenumber part can be omitted  Depending on the mode  error  warn  note   Xcode will show your message with a red or yellow badge   If you include an absolute file path and a line number  if the error occurred in a file   double clicking the error in the build log lets Xcode open the file and jumps to the line  even if it is not part of the project  Very handy

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Hold Option while splitting windows to split vertically rather than horizontally

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One more      Hex Color Picker     it add s hex tab to your interface builder s color panel     so now you can use  hex color directly from Interface Builder

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I just discovered how to change the indentation behavior used in the text macros   For example  if you are like me and don t like this   if  cond      code      but prefer this instead   if  cond      code      then you can change this globally  for all languages  by setting the following defaults in the terminal   defaults write com apple Xcode XCCodeSenseFormattingOptions -dict-add BlockSeparator   n    This has been bugging me for years  I hope it is of some interest for someone else as well   The documentation for this feature can be found in the Xcode User Default Reference

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Right click on any word and select  Find Selected Text in API Reference  to search the API for that word  This is very helpful if you need to look up the available properties and or methods for a class  Instead of heading to Apple com or Google you will get a popup window of what you were looking for  or what was found

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Technically an Interface Builder tip  but they re a book-matched pair  so I don t think this is off topic     Shift   Right Click on one of your controls and you get a nice pick list of the object hierarchy   No more click  click  click  frustration

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Hold down option while selecting text to select non-contiguous sections of text   Hold down option while clicking on the symbol name drop down to sort by name rather than the order they appear in the file

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You can have Xcode run the preprocessor over your Info plist file             lt key gt CFBundleShortVersionString lt  key gt       ifdef DEBUG          lt string gt 1 0  debug  lt  string gt       else          lt string gt 1 0 lt  string gt       endif   See http   developer apple com technotes tn2007 tn2175 html for details

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The User Scripts menu has a lot of goodies in it  and it s relatively easy to add your own  For example  I added a shortcut and bound it to cmd-opt-- to insert a comment divider and a  pragma mark in my code to quickly break up a file         bin sh   echo -n                                            pragma mark     When I hit cmd-opt--  these lines are inserted into my code and the cursor is pre-positioned to edit the pragma mark component  which shows up in the symbol popup

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-  and  -  to indent and unindent selected text   Makes cleaning up source code much easier

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Use the Class Browser to show inherited methods  Apple s API reference documentation does not show methods inherited from a superclass  Sometimes  though  it s useful to be able to see the full range of functionality available for a class -- including a custom class of your own  You can use the Class Browser  from the Project menu  to display a flat or hierarchical list of all the classes related to a current project  The upper pane on the right hand side of the browser window shows a list of methods associated with the object selected in the browser  You can use the Configure Options sheet to select  Show Inherited Members  to show inherited methods as well as those defined by the selected class itself  You click the small book symbol to go to the corresponding documentation

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A different way to set the your company name in a project template is to    Add a contact for yourself in Address Book  Edit Company field in your contact to your Company name Now select your contact then go to menu and select Card -  Make This My Card Your contact card should now be bold in address book to confirm this    This should now add your company name to all your project templates as well as providing other applications with more autofill information

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Auto-completion Keyboard Shortcuts  Tab   OR Control      Select the next auto-completion argument   Shift   Tab   OR Shift   Control      Select the previous auto-completion argument   Escape    Shows the auto completion pop-up list

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Highlight Blocks of Code  Focus Follows Selection   Activate  Focus Follow Selection  from View -  Code Folding -  Focus Follows Selection or ControlOptionf   This also works for Python code  but leading whitespace in a line will throw it off  To fix it  install Google s Xcode Plugin and activate  Correct Whitespace on Save  in the preference thing that it installs  This will clear trailing whitespace every time you save a file  so if the highlighting get s screwed up  you can just save the file and it will work again   And see  this is actually two hints in one  because this feature from the plugin is useful to have on its own    Here is an example with some random Python code I just wrote  I am using the Midnight Xcode syntax coloring theme     This is really helpful for highly nested parts of the code  to keep track of what is where  Also  notice how on the left  just to the right of the line numbers  those parts are colored too  That is the code folding bar  If you run your mouse down the side  it highlights the part under the mouse  And any of those colored bars can be folded  in other words  the parts of the code that are highlighted are exactly those parts that can be folded

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Being able to quickly see all the methods that can be overriden from a super class  For example when extending UITableViewController I just type in my implementation   - ta   and then I hit ESC to see all the methods from my superclass that begin with  ta  such as   -  UITableViewCell    tableView  UITableView   tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath   This also works when adopting protocols

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If the hilighting gets messed up  if your ivars aren t hilighted or anything else  just do  -A  -X  -V  which will select all  cut  and paste and all the hilighting will be corrected  So just hold down   and press A then X then V

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Some tips to be found in Xcode Tools Tips

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1  Breakpoint on  objc exception throw   You should always have a breakpoint on objc exception throw   2  Debugging retain release problems with  Zombie  variables  Use the following code   NSZombieEnabled   YES  NSDeallocateZombies   NO        to debug retain and release problems  For more information  see the  Finding Memory Leaks  section of Apple s Debugging Applications document   3  Jumping to a class in Xcode from Interface Builder  Command     Double-click on an object in Interface Builder s Document Window to jump to that class in Xcode  This is very handy with File s Owner   4  Reusing customized objects in Interface Builder  Drag a customized object back to Interface Builder s Library for later reuse   5  Select overlapping items in Interface Builder  Control   Shift     Click on an object in Interface Builder to see a menu of all of the objects under the mouse   6  Interface Builder Gesture Guide  Interface Builder Gesture Guide

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The User Scripts menu has a lot of goodies in it  and it s relatively easy to add your own  For example  I added a shortcut and bound it to cmd-opt-- to insert a comment divider and a  pragma mark in my code to quickly break up a file         bin sh   echo -n                                            pragma mark     When I hit cmd-opt--  these lines are inserted into my code and the cursor is pre-positioned to edit the pragma mark component  which shows up in the symbol popup

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For me it   s always been  Command     0   After you debug or run or anything  if you quit the iPhone Simulator or the debugging app  you   re left with the debugger window    When you   re using    Single-Window Layout     going back to the editor must be done with a click in the toolbar which is annoying  plus you later need to    remove the detail pane        The above shortcut does it and leaves you ready to code

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Ctrl Left Right Arrow  to do intra-word text navigation   I use this feature to jump the cursor from the one  camel hump  in a variable to the next

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When using Code Sense with many keyboards  use control     to show the list of available completions  control     to insert the most likely completion  and control      amp  shift   control     to move between placeholder tokens   The keys are all together on the keyboard right under the home row  which is good for muscle memory

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Zoom Editor In If your window displays both the detail and editor view  you can zoom the editor in to expand the editor view to the full height of the window   This is fairly easily found  but many seem to overlook it   You can do this by using one of the following methods    Command   Shift   E  View  gt  Zoom Editor In  Drag the splitter  between the editor window and the file list above it  upwards

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Command   Double-Click on a symbol  Jump to Definition of a symbol     Option   Double-Click on a symbol  Find Text in Documentation of a symbol   Only works if you have they symbol s Doc Set installed    Favorites Bar   Favorites bar is just like you have in Safari for storing - well - favorites  I often use it as a place to store shortcuts  which you can do by drag-dropping  to files I am using right now  Generally this is more useful when I m working with a large or unfamiliar project    To show the Favorites Bar  select the following menu option    View   Layout   Show Favorites Bar

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Use AppKiDo to browse the documentation   Use Accessorizer for a bunch of mundane  repetitive tasks in Xcode

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Cmd   Ctrl   up   down collapses all of your functions or uncollapses them

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When you use code completion on a method and it has multiple arguments  using CTRL     to move to the next argument you need to fill in

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Check out a nice screencast about  becoming productive in Xcode   becoming-productive-in-xcode

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ctrl   alt       r to clear the log

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Use  T to swap the previous two letters  This works in all Cocoa apps  but I like it especially when coding  Use  T  Control-T  to swap the two letters adjacent to the caret  or when the caret is at the end  the two letters before the caret  For example   fi T      becomes   if      which is a common typo I make

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I find that using the shortcuts for building cleaning and running your project really saved me some time    Cmd-R  Build  amp  Run  Cmd-Y  Build  amp  Debug  Cmd-Shift-Enter  Stop running project Cmd-Shift-K  Clean build

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Use  pragma for organization  You can use    pragma mark Foo       as a way to organize methods in your source files  When browsing symbols via the pop up menu  whatever you place in Foo will appear bold in the list   To display a separator  i e  horizontal line   use    pragma mark -   It s very useful  especially for grouping together delegate methods or other groups of methods

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pragma mark  Example    pragma mark     Initialization       Writing this line above all initialization methods will generate a nice heading in the dropdown menu above the editor   Open Quickly  Shift   cmd   D Start typing a file name you d like to open  Very cool if you look for framework headers  They have nice comments too  sometimes additional info to the docs   ESC  When your text-cursor is on a uncomplete method name for example  press ESC  It will shop up everything that might fit in there  and you can quickly complete very large method names  It s also good if you can t remember exactly the name of a method  Just press ESC   I think these are the best ones I know until now    Migrated from deleted question by Stack Overflow user Thanks

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Switch to Header Source File   Option   Command   Up Arrow    View  gt  Switch to Header Source File    Switches between the  m and  h files    In Xcode 4 this is ctrl Command   Up Arrow

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Being able to split the current editor window horizontally  which is great for wide screen monitors to be able to view the source and header file side by side  There are two different methods for doing depending on what version of Xcode you are using   In Xcode 3 0 it is under Preferences  Key Bindings  Text Key Bindings at the bottom of that list   In Xcode 2 5 it is under Preferences  Key Bindings  Menu Key Bindings  View menu

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Cmd-  to automatically insert      for comments   Technically the same number of keystrokes  but it feels faster     Also the default project structure is to put resources and class files in separate places   For larger amounts of code create logical groups and place related code and xib files together   Groups created in XCode are just logical structures and do not change where your files are on disk  though you can set them up to replicate a real directory structure if you wish

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Rename a file shared by multiple projects    Open all the projects  Rename the file in one project  Xcode automatically adjusts all the open projects to reflect the file s new name

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To link a new framework   In the Groups and Files pane  open the Targets disclosure triangle to display the targets associated with your project      In the Groups and Files pane  double-click your current project target to display the Target Info panel  In the Info panel  select the General tab  The lower pane displays the currently-linked frameworks  Add a new framework by pressing the   button at the bottom left of the panel and selecting from the list presented in the sheet that appears    Importantly  the list in the sheet shows only the frameworks relevant to the target        This wasn t available two years ago  but it s nevertheless worth pointing out as a significant time-saver over finding the framework in the filesystem and dragging it into the project

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In PyObjC  you can do the equivalent of  pragma mark for the symbols dropdown    MARK  Foo  and    MARK  -

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My favorites have to be these general editor shortcuts        0 returns you back to your editor from debug mode      Shift   R takes you from debug mode to editor view  project mode      Shift   E  maximizes  the editor  This is very useful when you have build results  etc  displayed above your editor and you just want to make your source editor taller  Ctrl   2 displays an outline of your current code     Return runs the application     Shift   Return ends the application

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To  set next statement   just drag the red instruction pointer to the next line to execute   source

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Using   to automatically insert   in the correct location  I come from a  NET background  so I m used to typing a symbol and then typing one of its method names  So I always forget to include the   before I start typing the object name  Usually this meant I would need to go to the beginning of the line and add the   manually  I didn t realize I could just press   at the current cursor position  and it will be added automatically   There are ways to use this  either after typing the function s name  or right before typing the function s name   Method 1  after the function name  myObject testMethod       becomes    myObject testMethod        with the caret positioned after the     Method 2  before the function name  myObject       becomes    myObject         with the caret positioned right before the     The advantage of the latter  2  is that code completion will filter on the methods of your object  Whereas with the former  1  if you try to invoke code completion immediately after myObject  it won t be filtered  Another advantage to  2  is it behaves more like other programming languages that use dot notation  You type the name of the object then simply   instead of   to access a method

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