When a DataTip is open while debugging in Visual Studio it appears the only way to get to a specific object property is scrolling with the mouse.
This can get very cumbersome as some objects can have hundreds of properties and scrolling to a property near the bottom takes a long time.
Yes, I know I can scroll faster if I hover the mouse over the bottom edge and pin a property once I found it but it can still take a long time to get to the property and pin it.
I've tried various combinations with Ctrl and Alt but what ever key I press the DataTip is promptly closed...
Once the DataTip has focus, you don't have to use the mouse. You can use the PgUp/PgDn (Page Up/Page Down) keys on your keyboard. But you're right: There is not a way to get to the end of the list or to get to items that start with a certain letter. When I need to do that often I take one of two approaches:
If possible, I create a [temporary] variable assignment after the code-line of interest and ensure that the variable gets assigned to the property of interest.
Create a watch variable and interact with that.
Open an Immediate Window and paste a copy of the object-instance name in question. Once in the Immediate Window, IntelliSense is available as soon as you type the "."--you can then type the letter of the property in question and drill-down as needed more quickly.
(Probaby the best tip!)
Open (and keep open for convenience) a Debug | Windows | Autos and/or Debug | Windows | Locals window. Those windows simplify navigating variables near the code break or in the current module--and they even seem to retain their tree-node-expanded state in some cases while debugging. More information is available here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bhawk8xd.aspx
You could use the oz-code as an extension tool which could help you search the properties or variables easily.
Search in debug mode inside an object
I right-click in the Watch 1 window and select Add Watch but nothing happens.
It is very unintuitive. The command doesn't do anything beyond adding a new row and selecting it. You next type the name of the variable. More intuitive is right-clicking an identifier name in the editor window + Add Watch. Or drag + drop it into the Watch window.
Right click (in your code) on the variable or expression (select it) you want to watch. It will be added to the Watch window.
Little question, large answer! You give us few details of what is happening...
Summarizing, be sure that current statement is around the place where your desired watched variables are, so you can see them on debug mode, i.e.:
Place a break point near there (press F9). Remember that it must be where the variable exists (remember that on C/C++/C# a common variable created inside brackets ({ and }) will be inaccessible outside it - something like that occurs on other languages);
Run the program (F5) and do something that let you on the right place (like pressing a button that launches the function where there are variables you want to watch);
To choose a variable to watch, on debug you must press mouse right button on it and "add watch". "Walk towards" using debug functions step into (F11), step out (shift+F11), step over (F10) or run-until-next-break-point (F5).
Is it possible to view variable values in Eclipse when debugging? Right now when I "mouse over" a variable all I get is the definition.
e.g. for [int mLastView] I get [com.company.samples.MyClass.mLastView] instead of 1. The value that was assigned to it.
Also, is there anyway to improve debugging in Eclipse?
For starter: making the breakpoints visible as in VS (see below)?
Eclipse Break Point
Visual Studio Break Point
I posted this over at Stack Overflow and one of the suggestions was to go into Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Hovers and select the Variable Values option and assign a modifier.
When I was first trying to resolve this issue, this was one of the options I looked at, but oddly enough, there was no Variable Values preference available, it was missing. Once my “fix” above was applied, it magically appeared:
Click to see the pictureBroken Link
Actually, since eclipse3.4, not only do you see the value of a variable when you pass the mouse over it, you can actually inspect it:
When debugging, hovers for variables have been enhanced to display an object inspector. The inspector will display logical structures according to the toggle setting in the visible Variables or Expressions view.
If you hit the breakpoint while you are debugging, you do see the value of the variable when you mouse over. You can also select an expression, and inspect the value of it's evaluation using the "Inspect" menu option. You can also use the "Variables" view to see the current value of all in-scope variables.
About breakpoint visibility:
Right-click on the right outline of the editor, you'll see some Preferences, and there in Annotations you can select Breakpoints. I personally added Text as Highlighted and some pinky colour. Shame that the highlighting is really buggy, sticks here and there, breaks between lines, etc. But it somehow works for most cases.
(Another shame is that breakpoint bullet is often hidden behind some suggestion icon or what - why they can't make the gutter wider like Idea does, I don't know.)
I got similar but a little different problem with the thread-starter. Sometimes during debugging, I mouse over a variable, I see it current value. Sometimes it's just the definition, like in coding mode. So what caused the first case, what the second?
PS: Of course I can always choose to view Variables (Alt+Shift+Q,V) but it's faster if you have mouse over value instantly.
Thanks
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Visual Studio is such a massively big product that even after years of working with it I sometimes stumble upon a new/better way to do things or things I didn't even know were possible.
For instance-
Crtl + R, Ctrl + W to show white spaces. Essential for editing Python build scripts.
Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor"
Create a String called Guides with the value "RGB(255,0,0), 80" to have a red line at column 80 in the text editor.
What other hidden features have you stumbled upon?
Make a selection with ALT pressed - selects a square of text instead of whole lines.
Tracepoints!
Put a breakpoint on a line of code. Bring up the Breakpoints Window and right click on the new breakpoint. Select 'When Hit...'. By ticking the 'Print a message' check box Visual Studio will print out a message to the Debug Output every time the line of code is executed, rather than (or as well as) breaking on it. You can also get it to execute a macro as it passes the line.
You can drag code to the ToolBox. Try it!
Click an identifier (class name, variable, etc) then hit F12 for "Go To Definition". I'm always amazed how many people I watch code use the slower right-click -> "Go To Definition" method.
EDIT: Then you can use Ctrl+- to jump back to where you were.
CTRL+SHIFT+V will cycle through your clipboard, Visual Studio keeps a history of copies.
Sara Ford covers lots of lovely tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/tags/Visual+Studio+2008+Tip+of+the+Day/default.aspx
But some of my favourites are Code Snippets, Ctrl + . to add a using <Namespace> or generate a method stub.
I can't live without that.
Check out a great list in the Visual Studio 2008 C# Keybinding poster: http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=E5F902A8-5BB5-4CC6-907E-472809749973&displaylang=en
CTRL-K, CTRL-D
Reformat Document!
This is under the VB keybindings, not sure about C#
How many times do you debug an array in a quickwatch or a watch window and only have visual studio show you the first element? Add ",N" to the end of the definition to make studio show you the next N items as well. IE "this->m_myArray" becomes "this->m_array,5".
Incremental search: While having a source document open hit (CTRL + I) and type the word you are searching for you can hit (CTRL + I) again to see words matching your input.
You can use the following codes in the watch window.
#err - display last error
#err,hr - display last error as an HRESULT
#exception - display current exception
Ctrl-K, Ctrl-C to comment a block of text with // at the start
Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U to uncomment a block of text with // at the start
Can't live without it! :)
Stopping the debugger from stepping into trivial functions.
When you’re stepping through code in the debugger, you can spend a lot of time stepping in and out of functions you’re not particularly interested in, with names such as GetID(), or std::vector<>(), to pick a C++ example. You can use the registry to make the debugger ignore these.
For Visual Studio 2005, you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio \8.0\NativeDE\StepOver and add string values containing regular expressions for each function or set of functions you wish to exclude; e.g.
std::vector.*::.*
TextBox::GetID
You can also override these for individual exceptions. For instance, suppose you did want to step into the vector class’s destructor:
std::vector.*::\~.*=StepInto
You can find details for other versions of Visual Studio at http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2004/02/06/69004.aspx
Ctrl-F10: run to cursor during debugging. Took me ages to find this, and I use it all the time;
Ctrl-E, Ctrl-D: apply standard formatting (which you can define).
TAB key feature.
If you know snippet key name, write and click double Tab. for example:
Write
foreach
and then click tab key twice to
foreach (object var in collection_to_loop)
{
}
2. If you write any event, write here
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Click +=
and then click tab key twice to
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Click += new EventHandler(btn_Click);
}
void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
}
btn_Click function write automatically
in XAML Editor, Write any event. for example:
MouseLeftButtonDown then click tab
MouseLeftButtonDown="" then click tab again
MouseLeftButtonDown="Button_MouseLeftButtonDown" in the code section Button_MouseLeftButtonDown method created.
Sara Ford has this market cornered.
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/default.aspx
More Visual Studio tips and tricks than you can shake a stick at.
Some others:
The Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 3-month trial editions are fully-functional, and can be used indefinitely (forever) by setting the system clock back prior to opening VS. Then, when VS is opened, set the system clock forward again so your datetimes aren't screwed up.
But that's really piracy and I can't recommend it, especially when anybody with a .edu address can get a fully-functional Pro version of VS2008 through Microsoft Dreamspark.
You can use Visual Studio to open 3rd-party executables, and browse embedded resources (dialogs, string tables, images, etc) stored within.
Debugging visualizers are not exactly a "hidden" feature but they are somewhat neglected, and super-useful, since in addition to using the provided visualizers you can roll your own for specific data sets.
Debugger's "Set Instruction Pointer" or "Set Next Statement" command.
Conditional breakpoints (as KiwiBastard noted).
You can use Quickwatch etc. to evaluate not only the value of a variable, but runtime expressions around that variable.
T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit). T4 is a code generator built right into Visual Studio
Custom IntelliSense dropdown height, for example displaying 50 items instead of the default which is IMO ridiculously small (8).
(To do that, just resize the dropdown next time you see it, and Visual Studio will remember the size you selected next time it opens a dropdown.)
Discovered today:
Ctrl + .
Brings up the context menu for refactoring (then one that's accessible via the underlined last letter of a class/method/property you've just renamed - mouse over for menu or "Ctrl" + ".")
A lot of people don't know or use the debugger to it's fullest - I.E. just use it to stop code, but right click on the red circle and there are a lot more options such as break on condition, run code on break.
Also you can change variable values at runtime using the debugger which is a great feature - saves rerunning code to fix a silly logic error etc.
Line transpose, Shift-Alt-T
Swaps two line (current and next) and moves cursor to the next line. I'm lovin it. I've even written a macro which changed again position by one line, executed line transpose and changed line position again so it all looking like I swapping current line with previous (Reverse line transpose).
Word transpose, Shift-Ctrl-T
When developing C++, Ctrl-F7 compiles the current file only.
Document Outline in the FormsDesigner (CTRL + ALT + T)
Fast control renaming, ordering and more!
To auto-sync current file with Solution Explorer. So don't have to look where the file lives in the project structure
Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> "Track Active Item in Solution Explorer"
Edit: If this gets too annoying for you then you can use Dan Vanderboom's macro to invoke this feature on demand through a keystroke.
(Note: Taken from the comment below by Jerry).
I'm not sure if it's "hidden", but not many people know about it -- pseudoregisters. Comes very handy when debugging, I've #ERR, hr in my watch window all the time.
Ctrl-Minus, Ctrl-Plus, navigates back and forward where you've been recently (only open files, though).
I don't use it often, but I do love:
ctrl-alt + mouse select
To select in a rectangular block, to 'block' boundaries.
As noted in comments,
alt + mouse select
Does just a plain rectangular block.
Here's something I learned (for C#):
You can move the cursor to the opening curly brace from the closing curly brace by pressing Control + ].
I learned this on an SO topic that's a dupe of this one:
“Hidden Secrets” of the Visual Studio .NET debugger?
CTRL + Shift + U -> Uppercase highlighted section.
CTRL + U -> Lowercase the highlighted section
Great for getting my SQL Statements looking just right when putting them into string queries.
Also useful for code you've found online where EVERYTHING IS IN CAPS.
Middle Mouse Button Click on the editor tab closes the tab.
To display any chunk of data as an n-byte "array", use the following syntax in Visual Studio's QuickWatch window:
variable, n
For example, to view a variable named foo as a 256-byte array, enter the following expression in the QuickWatch window:
foo, 256
This is particularly useful when viewing strings that aren't null-terminated or data that's only accessible via a pointer. You can use Visual Studio's Memory window to achieve a similar result, but using the QuickWatch window is often more convenient for a quick check.