Intellij: Refactor Change Method Signature to change an abstract method from void to Int, but also add return -1 to all subclasses

Question

Long story short personal project of mine, I am trying to re-do the implementation of something. However, there are many uses of this method and it would take me too much time to do it manually.

Using the change method signature window, I can easily change an abstract method of

public abstract void run(int a, int b);

to

public abstract int run(int a, int b);

That part is easy enough and I know how to do it.

However, I'd also like to be add:

Before:

@Override    
public void run(int a, int b) {
   /* irrelevant code here */
}

After:

@Override    
public int run(int a, int b) {
    /* irrelevant code here */
  return -1;
}

Is this possible with any of the tools Intellij has to offer?

Answer 1

Depending on the complexity of your irrelevant code you might be able to get away with using a regex for this.

Something along the lines of:
Find: (\@Override\npublic void run\(int a\, int b\) \{)(.|\n*?)(^})
Replace: $1$2return -1;\n$3

---

Find explanation:

• (\@Override\npublic void run\(int a\, int b\) \{) first part of the method
• (.|\n*?) Find any number of any character (including new lines \n); non greedy (?)
• (^}) Last/Closing line of the method.
  • Shown here as a line that starts with a closing bracket, but should be changed to match whatever matches the end of your method. Likely four spaces (^\s\s\s\s}) or a tab (^\t})

Replace explanation:

• $1 first found section
• $2 second found section
• return -1;\n new code to add
• $3 third found section