Code Editor

The Code Editor pane contains general options that affect the appearance and behavior of SQL Developer when you edit functions, procedures, and packages.

Autopin PL/SQL Editors: Keeps the current PL/SQL editor open when you open another function, procedure, or package.

Max Open PL/SQL Editors: Specifies the maximum number of PL/SQL editors that can be kept open ("pinned").

Auto-Indent New Lines: Automatically indents a new line when you press Enter at the end of a line. The new line will automatically be indented at the same initial indentation as the line preceding it.

Perform Block Indent or Outdent for Selections: Performs a block indent or block outdent on a selection when your press Tab or Shift+Tab, respectively. With this option selected, when you press Tab on a selected block of text, the entire block will be indented to the current tab size. Shift+Tab on the same block would outdent it, as a block, to the current tab size.

Use Smart Home: Contextualizes the cursor's understanding of home (the beginning of the line). With this setting selected, pressing Home positions the cursor at the start of the line after any leading spaces or tabs. Pressing Home again repositions the cursor at the start of the line before any leading spaces or tabs. Continuing to press Home toggles the cursor between these two locations.

With this setting deselected, pressing Home simply places the cursor at the start of the line.

Use Smart End: Contextualizes the cursor's understanding of end of line. The behavior is analogous to that for Smart Home, except that the cursor responds to the End key, and its behavior regarding the end of the line and any trailing spaces is altered.

Use Jump Scrolling for Keyboard Navigation: Implement jump scrolling, which involves behavior of the keyboard arrow keys. With this setting selected, when you navigate off-screen using the keyboard arrow keys, the editor view will "jump" to recenter the cursor location in the middle of the editor view.

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With this setting deselected, the editor view will scroll the editor view the minimum amount to bring the cursor back into view.

Use Change of Case As Word Boundary: Has change of case regarded as the boundary of a word, for example, when you double-click to select a word.

Enable Cut or Copy of Current Line with No Selection: Applies all cut and copy operations to the current line whenever there is no text selection in the editor.

Automatically Copy Paste Imports: Automatically add imports when references are introduced to objects that have not yet been imported.

Adjust Indentation When Pasting: Corrects the indentation of a pasted in item that includes indentation.

Reformat Code Block When Pasting: Reformats the code correctly when you paste it into a new location.

Escape When Pasting in String Literals: Includes the correct escape characters in pasted-in string literals.

Code Editor: Bookmarks

The Bookmarks pane contains options that determine the persistence and search behavior for bookmarks that you create when using the code editor.

Code Editor: Caret Behavior

The Caret Behavior pane contains options that determine the shape, color, and blinking characteristics of the caret (cursor) in the code editor.

Code Editor: Completion Insight

The Completion Insight pane contains options for the logical completion

(autocomplete options) of keywords and names while you are coding in the SQL Worksheet.

When you pause for the auto-popup time (if the auto-popup is enabled) or when you press Ctrl+Space, code insight provides a context-sensitive popup window that can help you select parameter names. Completion insight provides you with a list of possible completions at the insertion point that you can use to auto-complete code you are editing. This list is based on the code context at the insertion point. To exit code insight at any time, press Esc or continue typing.

You can enable or disable automatic completion and parameter insight, as well as set the time delay for the popup windows.

Generate Column/Table Aliases Automatically: Automatically generates table aliases if you select multiple tables from the popup window; and if you then edit the column list, each column name in the popup window is prefixed with a table alias.

Autogenerate GROUP BY Clause: Automatically generates a GROUP BY clause if you manually enter (not copy/paste) a SELECT statement containing a COUNT function, and then edit the SELECT query.

Code Editor: Display

The Display pane contains general options for the appearance and behavior of the code editor.

Enable Text Anti-Aliasing allows smooth-edged characters where possible.

Show Whitespace Characters renders spaces, new lines, carriage returns, non-breaking spaces, and tab characters as alternate visible characters.

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Show Breadcrumbs shows the breadcrumb bar, which shows the hierarchy of nodes from the current caret position up to the top of the file. Hover the mouse cursor over a node to display information about the node.

Show Scroll Tip enables the Tip window that displays the methods in view while scrolling.

Show Code Folding Margin allows program blocks in procedures and functions to be expanded and collapsed in the display.

Show visible Right Margin renders a right margin that you can set to control the length of lines of code.

Enable Automatic Brace Matching controls the highlighting of opening parentheses and brackets and of blocks when a closing parenthesis or bracket is typed.

Code Editor: Fonts

The Fonts pane specifies text font options for the code editor.

Display Only Fixed-Width Fonts: If this option is checked, the display of available font names is restricted to fonts where all characters have the same width.

(Fixed-width fonts are contrasted with proportional-width fonts.)

Code Editor: Line Gutter

The Line Gutter pane specifies options for the line gutter (left margin of the code editor).

Show Line Numbers: If this option is checked, lines are numbered. (To go to a line number while you are using the SQL Worksheet, press Ctrl+G.)

Enable Line Selection by Click-Dragging: If this option is checked, you can select consecutive lines in the editor by clicking in the gutter and dragging the cursor without releasing the mouse button.

Code Editor: PL/SQL Syntax Colors

The PL/SQL Syntax Colors pane specifies colors for different kinds of syntax elements.

Code Editor: Printing

The Printing pane specifies options for printing the contents of the code editor. The Preview pane sample display changes as you select and deselect options.

Code Editor: Printing HTML

The Printing HTML pane specifies options for printing HTML files from the code editor.

Code Editor: Undo Behavior

The Undo Behavior pane specifies options for the behavior of undo operations

(Ctrl+Z, or Edit, then Undo). Only consecutive edits of the same type are considered; for example, inserting characters and deleting characters are two different types of operation.

Allow Navigation-Only Changes to be Undoable: If this option is checked, navigation actions with the keyboard or mouse can be undone. If this option is not checked, navigation actions cannot be undone, and only actual changes to the text can be undone.

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