xcode4keyboard-shortcutsxcode5key-bindingsduplication

Xcode duplicate line

There is a Duplicate command in the Edit Menu (with a default shortcut of ⌘D), but it is (as Halley pointed out) meant for duplication in the Interface Builder part of Xcode.

So, how do you (easily) duplicate a line in Xcode 4?

Related question (with a working answer) for Xcode 3 ... and which does not work for Xcode 4.

Why not just copy & paste?

Because it is tedious and entails too much hand-acrobatics:

either (1): moving to line beginning and then pressing ⇧^E, then copying with ⌘C, moving to new line, alligning cursor, and finally pasting with ⌘V;

or (2): ^A (set cursor to line begining), ^SPACE (set mark), ^E (set cursor to line ending), ⇧^W (Select to Mark; customized), copy, new line, etc.

As Frank Schröder (in the related question) put it:

The whole point is NOT to use the Cmd-C/Cmd-V shortcuts.

Solution

    1. Go to this folder which contains dark side of the force:

      • Xcode 4.2 or prior: /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources
      • Xcode 4.3 or later: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources.

    2. Open IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist.

    3. Add a new dictionary and a new command item as the screenshot below (name them what you want): Editing the plist

      That's: selectLine:, copy:, moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:, paste:, deleteBackward:

    4. Restart Xcode and go to Preferences - Key Bindings, search for your command.

    5. Set a key combination for the command: Key Bindings

    6. Finally unleashed the power of key bindings on Xcode... Enjoy it!