Turning off Code Completion in SQLDeveloper – a Grumpy Old Man Fights Back

“You’re problem is you’re BBC”, a colleague remarked recently.
On further investigation, I found this not to be some reference to the British Broadcasting Corporation but rather that I had been “Born Before Computers”. Yes, I grew up – in computing terms at least – on the Command Line.
A number of things have changed since those dim and distant days.
Recently, I had a comment from Darryl claiming that chocolate bars had also been gradually reducing in size.
Damning photographic evidence of this scandal has recently come into my possession…

A Bounty Bar from 1980 together with it's modern counterpart

There’s more. My phone keeps insisting that I can’t spell and arbitrarily replacing words when I’m writing an SMS.
“You’re just the breast” took a bit of explaining to a rather skeptical Deb.
Having finally persuaded my phone that I really don’t require it’s assistance when composing a short missive, I have now turned my attention to SQLDeveloper.

Whilst most modern IDEs have those ever-so-helpful code completion features, I do sometimes find that they get in the way, especially when you know what you want to type. Pause for a second or two, or start going back to change something and that SQLDeveloper feels compelled to interrupt with some “helpful” suggestion of what I might want to put.

To put an end to these annoying interruptions, simply go to the Tools menu and select Preferences…

In the tree on the left-hand side, expand the Code Editor node and click on Completion Insight.

Uncheck the boxes marked Enable Completion Auto-Popup in SQLWorksheet and Enable Completion Auto-Popup in PL/SQL Editor.

No need to re-start, the changes should take effect as soon as you next start typing.

Now, if you should happen to require some assistance, you can simply press CTRL + SPACE and SQLDeveloper will present you a variation on the theme of “helpful suggestion”.

Whilst I’m being a grumpy old man, what is it with all this spam ? All these unsolicited offers of Viagra. I mean, how do they know ?!