I know about basic features of visual studio debugging. F10, F11, Shift+F11, Ctrl+F10.
If I am inside a for loop is there a way of stopping right after the loop is completed?
Right now the way I am doing it is to manually go to the location after the loop and press Ctrl+F10. Is there a better way of doing this?
There is no dedicated "Step Out of Loop" command in Visual Studio. "Step Out" (Shift+F11) works only for functions. There are only two options that I can think of:
Like Brian suggests, there is Run to Cursor, which has been there at least since VC++ 6. This is what you're already getting with the Ctrl+F10 keyboard shortcut. I use this literally all the time while debugging; it's an extremely useful tool. I don't really understand why you think this is a lousy way of doing it, or why you think there should be a "better" way.
You could set a simple breakpoint on the line of code immediately following the loop. This is relatively simple if you use the keyboard shortcut F9. But you still have to navigate to the appropriate line of code, so you might as well use Run to Cursor.
If you're working in a C-derived language, your loops probably conclude with a }. So you could use the Ctrl+] keyboard shortcut to move to the matching brace in the source file if your caret is at the loop's opening brace. That might make navigation easier. It certainly can help avoid moving your hands over to the mouse, killing precious seconds.
* Note that keyboard combinations are subject to change, depending on how you have configured your Visual Studio environment.
I just found out that if you hover with your cursor at beginning of the desired line, VS automatically blends in a little play symbol. When you click on it, debugger jumps to this point.
Perhaps you would like to use a breakpoint, which can be used to trigger the debugger once your program has reached a specific line. You can set one by clicking on the left side of the code line, where errors and arrows usually show up during debugging. Hope this helps!
Simple way is to put a break statement in the for loop and add a condition. This will allow you to test the loop while debugging.
Related
I know I can comment the code but would be even better if there is a shortcut to skip execution of code between two breakpoints.
VS has a feature 'set next statement' which moves the program counter to the to that location and continues execution from there (skipping anything in between). You can read more about it at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/debugger/navigating-through-code-with-the-debugger?view=vs-2017#BKMK_Set_the_next_statement_to_execute. The easiest way to use it is to either use the context menu item "Set Next Statement" (right click on where you want to set it) or hold down the ctrl key which changes the green "Run to click" editor glyphs into yellow "Set next statement" glyphs and just click on where you want to set it.
Set next statement is a great tool but it's really dangerous as a debugging tool. You're using the debugger to execute code in a way which would never happen normally. The results of which could cause crashes or other failures easily. It's real easy to do things like skipping over the initialization of a variable that's later used and will now cause an exception/crash.
It can be used in JS, .NET and native.
I am debugging a piece of code on visual studio and I forgot to note down the values I have kept a watch on. Can I go to previous line without rerunning the entire code?
There are similar questions asked on SO but in my case i haven't run through any error or exception. The code is running normally.
After pausing on a break point, right click on the line you want to "go back" to. From the menu that pops up, select "set next statement".
This will adjust the instruction pointer to continue from the specified line of code, but it will not roll back any variables or memory addresses to the values they were at before that line of code was originally executed.
It sounds like what you want to do is rewind / replay your code rather than just move to a specific line. You can move to a specific line, you can just right click and choose set next statement. Unfortunately, this won't rewind the state of the program to some past point (beyond setting the stack and doing a bit of unwinding).
To rewind/replay you need to be a bit trickier. Some options are: -
VMWare replay which will allow you to record and then go back to a certain point in time.
Intellitrace. I haven't tried it, but it allows you to replay to a point.
Which is a bit heavyweight and wont help you right now.
You can use the mouse to drag the yellow arrow pointing to the "next statement to be executed." This actually changes which statement will be executed next. It's not guaranteed to work, but as long as the code is not too complex, it could.
I am not sure what is the best way to word my question correctly in single line. But basically I have seen quite a few video tutorials now where the coder types really fast using some sort of shortcut to fill in the automatic text(prolly intellisense stuff) It looks very similar to Linux command line tab where you only type half of your text and when you hit tab it either fills in the gap or show you the remaining options.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks
Pressing Ctrl+Space completes the current variable/class you are typing.
Typing things like ctor and then pressing the Tab key twice tells Visual Studio to insert a constructor for you. (Also works with for for a for loop, cw for a Console.WriteLine();, etc.)
For a full list, please refer to the official reference from MSDN.
I believe its Ctrl-Space, which is pretty common among most IDE's
There is a command in Visual Studio 2005 called Edit.SelectToLastGoBack (bound to Ctrl + =).
I presume it is supposed to select all the text between the current cursor position and the last 'Go Back' point, but I can't work out the algorithm it's using for deciding what that point is.
Does anyone know how to use this potentially very useful command?
Selects to the last juimp point ...
Try using the navigation bar to jump to another method in class. Then press Ctrl + "="
It will select from the start of method you jumped to all the way back to where you jumped from.
I have yet to find a use for it though TBH,
Kindness,
Dan
I use it for recording macros.
Frequently I want to select everything from this brace to that brace and cut it in a macro. Go to the first brace, hit ctrl-f (ctrl-i doesn't work right in macros), search to the second brace, close search with escape, and hit ctrl-= to get everything between the braces selected. This is much more reliably repeatable in a macro than something like using ctrl arrows to navigate a word at a time while holding down shift, and is similar to the emacs concept of setting a mark point.
I'm not sure what all starts a new 'location in navigation history', but I'm sure starting a search does and that's all I need.
I just discovered this command is available in Visual Studio 2012. I've been looking for it ever since I got VS 2012. I kept thinking it was something like anchor, like select everything between the anchor and point. I was disappointed that macro recording and playing are no longer available. But I am glad this command still exists.
Another useful command is ctrl+k ctrl+a, which is Edit.SwapAnchor. So, you could be someplace in the code, then do a find. Now you have the point and anchor (maybe also known as the cursor and last goback). You can do ctrl+= to select, then ctrl+k ctrl+a then extend from the other end using another find--or something like that.
I find that I am cutting and pasting a LOT when I program. For example, method, variable and class names are things I regularly cut/paste. I do use "ctrl+space" after typing part of a word to autocomplete them or popup intellisense when there's duplicates found.
But just for straight copy/pasting do you guys have any good shortcuts/tricks/tips to use?
I already use these shortcuts as I program but I wonder if I am missing anything?
ctrl+x (with nothing selected)
ctrl+v (with nothing selected)
ctrl+l (with nothing selected)
ctrl+shift+arrowKeys
If I could copy/paste quicker I think I'd be able to write code quite a bit faster.
In Visual Studio has multi-paste.
pressing Ctrl+Shift+V allows you to paste any of the 10 last things you cut/copied.
Install and learn ViEmu.
I have more of a hardware solution. On my MS 4000 keyboard I have the back and forward buttons right under the space bar bound to copy and paste respectively. This actually makes copying and pasting much easier than I thought it would when I first did it.
I use ClipX, which gives you system-wide multi-paste. You can paste any of the last [configurable number] of things in your clipboard. You can also save "favourite" items, which stick on the list forever.
Shift + Page Up/Down to select everything below/above the cursor.
If you're not using ctrl+shift+arrow to select whole words/lines, then that can help a lot.