The "Create Getter" intention should be smarter about the return type when the field the getter is being created for already exists. Given the code: class Bar { private Bar bar; } void foo(Bar bar) { System.err.println("bar: " + bar.getBar()); } Using "Create getter" on "getBar()" and accepting the default type (String in that case) results in the uncompilable method in Bar: public String getBar() { return bar; } (Note that "Bar" is not an option in the proposed return types.) Because the "bar" field already exists in Bar and we're creating a getter, the return type should be "Bar" (and not a choice of String, int, boolean, etc)