Visual micro debugger how to#
Visual micro debugger code#
Visual micro debugger windows#

Note that when you type in an expression that executes code there could be side effects that change the state of your application. So you can potentially call methods, evaluate lambdas, or just do things like “1+3”. Or you can right click on variables from your code editor and select “Add to Watch”.īeyond adding just a single variable, you can type in generally any expression. You can click in the editable line under the name column and type in the variable name whose value you want to see.

Visual micro debugger windows#

These windows start out blank and let you add the names of variables that you care about watching as you debug your application. There are four Watch windows available to use. Watch WindowsĮvaluate variables and ** expressions and keep track of the results. Open up this window from Debug/Windows/Locals Window (Ctrl+Alt+V, L). In all of our variable windows, when any values of the variables change the new values will appear in red text. Deciding which window you prefer to use depends on which scope of the variables you would like to see. Like the Autos window, variables that appear here are automatically populated. The Locals window will populate with the local variables for the current method that have. **See variables that exist in the local scope of your current stack frame. Open up this window from Debug/Windows/Autos Window (Ctrl+Alt+V, A) 3. Some languages like JavaScript are not supported by the Autos window. Typically, you will see variables that are referenced 3 lines behind and 1 line ahead of the current statement. The scope of what variables automatically populate from the surrounding statements depends on the language you are debugging. **Īs you stop at different places in your code the Autos window will automatically populate with all the variables used in the current statement (the line where the yellow instruction pointer is) and some surrounding statements. **See variables used near your instruction pointer.

This can come in handy when debugging inside of loops where you are watching a single value continually change. This way you can see the value change right in-line with your code as you are stepping through it. You can also “pin” a DataTip to your code by clicking on the pin icon next to a value. If the variable is an object, you can expand the object by clicking on the arrow to see the elements of that object. The DataTip will appear showing you the value of that variable. When stopped in the debugger hover the mouse cursor over the variable you want to look at. The most commonly used way to look at variables is the DataTip.

You can be stopped at a breakpoint, stopped while stepping, or even stopped at an Exception, and then you will have access to your variable values using these techniques. In order to look at the value of variables while you are debugging, you first need to be in break mode. If you’re interested in giving us feedback about our future ideas, please help us improve the Visual Studio debugger by joining our community. Which ways do you already use? Let us know in the comments below. In this post I will review seven different ways to inspect the values of your variables while debugging through your code in the Visual Studio debugger without modifying your code. You can use the tools of the Visual Studio debugger to inspect variables on the fly. This can be a tedious process, so I am pleased to tell you there is a better way than littering your code with a slew of “print()” statements you’ll have to remove later.

Then if I wanted to look at the value of another variable I would have to add a new “print()” statement, recompile, and re-run the application again.

Visual micro debugger how to#

When you are running your code and something is behaving unexpectedly, how do you find out what is going wrong? When I was in school the first way I learned how to debug a wonky application was by sticking “print()” statements all over the place, running my code, and looking back through the log of output seeing if I noticed that something looked wrong.