Can eclipse extract a second class in class file to its own file

Bill K picture Bill K · Sep 19, 2008 · Viewed 9.8k times · Source

I often refactor code first by creating an inner class inside the class I'm working on--When I'm done, I move the entire thing into a new class file. This makes refactoring code into the new class extremely easy because A) I'm only dealing with a single file, and B) I don't create new files until I have a pretty good idea of the name/names (Sometimes it ends up as more than one class).

Is there any way Eclipse can help me with the final move? I should just be able to tell it what package I want the class in, it can figure out the filename from the class name and the directory from the package.

This seems like a trivial refactor and really obvious, but I can't figure out the keystrokes/gestures/whatever to make it happen. I've tried dragging, menus, context menus, and browsing through the keyboard shortcuts.

Anyone know this one?

[edit] These are already "Top Level" classes in this file, not inner classes, and "Move" doesn't seem to want to create a new class for me. This is the hard way that I usually do it--involves going out, creating an empty class, coming back and moving. I would like to do the whole thing in a single step.

Answer

scubabbl picture scubabbl · Sep 19, 2008

I'm sorry I gave the wrong answer before. I rechecked, and it didn't do quite want you want. I did find a solution for you though, again, in 3.4.

Highlight the class, do a copy CTRL-C or cut CTRL-X, click on the package you want the class do go into, and do a paste, CTRL-V. Eclipse will auto generate the class for you.

Convert Member Type to Top Level doesn't quite work. Doing that will create a field of the outer class and generate a constructor that takes the outer class as a parameter.