Jump through java methods in emacs

Question

I want to jump through my java files by method, e.g. when I've got my anywhere, do a single keyboard shortcut to jump to the next end of a method or beginning of a method.

Emacs' "moving by defuns" with C-M-a and C-M-e is super-useful for C and does exactly what I want. But apparently in Java a defun is a whole class.

Moving by defuns: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Moving-by-Defuns.html

I've found that I can coerce C-M-f and C-M-b to sort of do what I want. They move forward and backward over any parentheses-balanced expression. The problem is that they only have the funcitonality I'm looking for when invoked from right outside the opening or closing brackets of a method definition, which is extremely limiting.

Expressions with Balanced Parentheses: http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/emacs/emacs_282.html

Any ideas would be welcome!

Answer 1

imenu and speedbar are close to what you are looking for.

Otherwise you can define it by yourself. You can start with something like this:

(defvar java-function-regexp
  (concat
   "^[ \t]*"                                   ; leading white space
   "\\(public\\|private\\|protected\\|"        ; some of these 8 keywords
   "abstract\\|final\\|static\\|"
   "synchronized\\|native"
   "\\|[ \t\n\r]\\)*"                          ; or whitespace
   "[a-zA-Z0-9_$]+"                            ; return type
   "[ \t\n\r]*[[]?[]]?"                        ; (could be array)
   "[ \t\n\r]+"                                ; whitespace
   "\\([a-zA-Z0-9_$]+\\)"                      ; the name we want!
   "[ \t\n\r]*"                                ; optional whitespace
   "("                                         ; open the param list
   "\\([ \t\n\r]*"                             ; optional whitespace
   "\\<[a-zA-Z0-9_$]+\\>"                      ; typename
   "[ \t\n\r]*[[]?[]]?"                        ; (could be array)
   "[ \t\n\r]+"                                ; whitespace
   "\\<[a-zA-Z0-9_$]+\\>"                      ; variable name
   "[ \t\n\r]*[[]?[]]?"                        ; (could be array)
   "[ \t\n\r]*,?\\)*"                          ; opt whitespace and comma
   "[ \t\n\r]*"                                ; optional whitespace
   ")"                                         ; end the param list
))

(defun my:next-java-method()
  (interactive)
  (re-search-forward java-function-regexp nil t)
)

(defun my:prev-java-method()
  (interactive)
  (re-search-backward java-function-regexp nil t)
)

Then bind my:next-java-method and my:prev-java-method to whatever key you want to go to the