How to Avoid Wildcard Imports in IntelliJ for Java

How do we avoid using wildcard imports in IntelliJ completely?

I never use wildcard imports in Java and try to always include imports individually, but IntelliJ frequently optimizes my imports to use wildcards (collapsing imports to use * is an optimization by default).

We would think IntelliJ natively supports a toggle for this feature, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Here’s how we might fix this.

Avoid wildcard imports in Preferences#

1. Go to Preferences
   1. ⌘+, on MacOS
   2. Ctrl+Alt+S on Windows and Linux
2. Go to Editor > Code Style > Java
3. Select Imports tab in the panel
4. Set these values in General
   1. Use single class import: checked
   2. Class count to use import with '*': an absurdly large number (i.e. over 999)
   3. Names count to use static import with '*': the same absurdly large number
5. Ensure the Packages to use import with '*' section is empty

Click Apply and OK, then you should be on your way.

Use Find Action to avoid wildcards#

If we don’t want to navigate through our Preferences, we can use the Find Action feature in IntelliJ.

1. Use Find Action
   1. ⌘+Shift+A on MacOS
   2. Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows and Linux
2. Begin typing Class count to use import with '*'
   1. Press Enter when the option appears
3. Fill in the same values as in the section above