IntelliJ IDEA 2017.3 Help

Working with SDKs

A Software Development Kit, or an SDK, is a collection of tools that you need to develop an application for a specific software framework. For example, for Android applications, you will need the Android SDK.

SDKs contain binaries, source code for the binaries, and documentation for the source code. For Java, SDKs also contain annotations.

SDK levels

Generally, SDKs are global. It means that an SDK can be used by multiple projects and modules.

After you create a new project and define an SDK for it, you can configure modules in this project to inherit its SDK. You can also specify an SDK for each module individually. For more information, refer to Changing module SDK.

Define SDKs

To define an SDK means to let IntelliJ IDEA know in which folder on your computer the necessary SDK version is installed. This folder is called SDK home directory.

Manage global SDKs

  1. Navigate to File | Project Structure.
  2. Select SDKs under the Platform Settings section.
  3. To add a new SDK or a new SDK version, click add (or press Alt+Enter), select the SDK type and specify its installation directory.
  4. To remove an SDK, select it in the list and click delete (or press Alt+Delete).
sdks project structrue sdks

Change project SDK

  1. Navigate to File | Project Structure.
  2. Select Project under the Project Settings section.
  3. From the Project SDK list, select another SDK or SDK version.

    If the necessary SDK is not defined in IntelliJ IDEA yet, click New and specify its home directory.

sdks project structure project

Change module SDK

  1. Navigate to File | Project Structure.
  2. Select Modules under the Project Settings section.
  3. Select the necessary module, and click Dependencies.
  4. From the Module SDK list, select another SDK or SDK version you want to use.

    If the necessary SDK is not defined in IntelliJ IDEA yet, click New and specify its home directory.

If you want a module to inherit a project SDK, select the Project SDK option from the Module SDK list.

sdks project structure modules dependencies
Last modified: 6 March 2018