IntelliJ IDEA 2018.1 Help

Altering the program's execution flow

Return to a previous stack frame

IntelliJ IDEA lets you fall back to a previous stack frame in a program's execution flow. This can be useful, for example, if you've mistakenly stepped too far, or want to re-enter a function where you missed a critical spot.

  • Click the Drop Frame icon in the Debugger tool window toolbar:
    drop frame

Force return from the current method

You can force the return from the current method before the return statement is reached and without executing any more instructions from it.

  1. Select the Force Return action from the context menu of the current method in the Frames view, or press Ctrl+Shift+A:
    force return
  2. If the method returns a value, you'll need to specify it. If the method has try-finally blocks, you will be prompted to choose whether you want to execute them.

Throw an exception

IntelliJ IDEA lets you throw an exception from a certain location in your program without modifying the code.

  • Select Throw Exception from the context menu of the selected method in the Frames view and specify the expression:
    throw exception

Reload modified classes

Sometimes, when you're making minor changes to your code, you want to immediately see how they will behave in a working application without shutting down the process. The HotSwap mechanism lets you reload classes changed during a debugging session without having to restart the entire application.

Recompile the modified class

  • From the main menu choose Build | Compile <class_name>.

If you want to disable automatic reloading of changed classes after their compilation, in the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) choose Build, Execution, Deployment | Debugger | HotSwap in the left pane, and set the Reload classes after compilation option to Never. Then, if you want to reload a modified class, you will need to choose Run | Reload Changed Classes after you've recompiled it.

Last modified: 24 July 2018

See Also