Android Studio includes tools for every stage of development, but
what's most important is simply writing your app: writing the code, building
layouts, creating images, and being productive along the way.
That's what this section is all about: the tools that help you write your
app and write it quickly.
Coding productivity
The following are just a few features to help you be more productive when
coding.
Code completion
Code completion speeds up app development by reducing typing errors and the
need to look up class, method, and variable names. The code editor provides
basic completion, smart completion, and statement completion.
Learn more about
Code completion
.
Create custom code-completion templates
Live templates allow you to enter code snippets for fast insertion and
completion of small chunks of code. To insert a live template, type the
template abbreviation and press the
Tab
key. Android Studio inserts the
code snippet associated with the template into your code.
For example, the
comp
abbreviation followed by
Tab
inserts the code for a new composable function.
Or type
loge
to find the
Log.e()
method and
log from your code
.
To see the list of supported live templates and customize them,
click
File > Settings > Editor > Live Templates
(
Android Studio > Settings > Editor > Live Templates
on macOS).
Learn more about
Live templates
.
Get quick fixes from lint
Android Studio provides a code scanning tool called Lint to help you to
identify and correct problems with the structural quality of your code,
without executing the app or writing tests.
Every time you build your app, Android Studio runs Lint to check your source
files for potential bugs and looks for optimization improvements in correctness,
security, performance, usability, accessibility, and internationalization.
Learn more about
Lint
.
See documentation and resource details
You can view documentation for an API by placing the caret on
the method/member/class name and pressing
F1
.
Information is also available for other resources, such as images and themes.
For example, if you place the caret on the theme name in your Android manifest
file and press
F1
, you can see the theme inheritance hierarchy and colors
or images for the various attributes.
Quickly create new files
When you want to create a new file, click the desired directory in the
Project window, then press
Alt + Insert
(
Command + N
on Mac).
Android Studio shows a small window with a list of suggested file types, as
appropriate for the selected directory.
Working with resources
Android Studio includes the following features and tools to help you
create and manage resource files.
Learn more about
adding resources
.
Create images for all screen densities
Android Studio includes a tool called Vector Asset Studio that helps you
create images that support each screen density. You can upload your own
SVG file for editing or select from one of the many Google-provided material
design icons. To get started, click
File > New > Vector Asset
.
Learn more about
Vector Asset Studio
.
Preview images and colors
When referencing images and icons in your code, a preview of the image
appears in the left margin to help you verify the image or icon reference.
To view the full size image, click the thumbnail in the left margin. Or, place
the caret on the inline reference to the asset and press
F1
to see the
image details, including all the alternative sizes.
Create new layouts
Android Studio lets you preview your composable layouts when you use the
composable preview
function. Previews
of your composables appear in the
Design
view of the file and update in
real time as you edit the composables.
If you're using XML layouts, Android Studio offers the
Layout Editor
to preview your layout while
editing the XML.
Translate UI strings
The Translations Editor tool gives you a single view of all of your translated
resources, making it easy to change or add translations, and even find missing
translations without opening every version of the
strings.xml
file. You can
even upload your strings file to order translation services.
To get started, right-click on any copy of your
strings.xml
file then click
Open Translations Editor
.
Learn more about the
Translations Editor
.