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When IntelliSense is Unavailable

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There are certain cases when the IntelliSense options may not work as you expect.

There is a code error above the cursor

If there is an incomplete function or other coding error above the location of the insertion point, IntelliSense will be unable to parse the code elements and therefore will not work. You can comment out the applicable code to enable IntelliSense again.

You are inside a code comment

If the insertion point is within a comment in your source file, the List Members, Parameter Info, and Type Info options will not work automatically. However, you can still invoke them from the menu or keyboard.

You are inside a string literal

If the insertion point is inside the quotation marks around a string literal, as in:

MessageBox(hWnd, “String literal|”))

IntelliSense options will not be available.

The automatic options are turned off

IntelliSense works automatically by default, but can be disabled. To see whether this is the case, check the Statement completion options on the Editor tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu). Even when automatic statement completion is disabled, you can always explicitly invoke any of the individual options. For more information, see Modifying IntelliSense Options.