17.2. Debugger

Watch this video to learn the basics of the debugging tools available in Visual Studio. If you want to follow along, Chris is debugging a program called HelloMethods. You can find it here. Clone and open it on your machine.

A summary of Chris’s debugger tips:

  • Right click in the text editing window to add a breakpoint to your code.

  • Start debug mode with the run button as you might normally run your program.

  • Debugger Panes:

    • Autos pane shows the values of parameters and variables on the line that the debugger is currently sitting on, as well as the line above.

    • Locals pane shows the value of local variables and parameters within the program being debugged.

    • Add variables, parameters, and expressions to the Watch pane to monitor their values while debugging.

    • Call Stack pane displays the record of the methods that have been called in the program being debugged.

    • View a list of breakpoints in the Breakpoints pane. You may also disable and enable breakpoints from here.

  • Debugger Buttons:

    • Step over button moves debugger to the next line to be executed within a method.

    • Step out button brings the debugger out of the execution of a method.

    • Step into button makes the debugger enter the method at which it is currently paused. Note that you can’t step into System defined methods, only those defined by your program.

  • Right click on the breakpoint to set conditional logic for when you want the breakpoint to run.

  • Stop debug mode wth the stop button.

Tip

Visual Studio for Mac extra tips:

  • Your IDE may not default to Debug mode. To select for it, in the top menu, select View > Debug.

  • To view the debugging panes, select View in the top menu and scroll down to Debug Pads. Select the items you wish to view, ie. Breakpoints, Watch, etc.

  • To add conditions to a breakpoint, right click on the breakpoint and select Edit Breakpoint. From menu that opens, use the Advanced Conditions section to set your conditions for when you want the breakpoint to be executed.

17.2.1. Check Your Understanding

Question

True/False: Breakpoints on Console.WriteLine() are helpful because stepping into them reveals what is printed in the console.

  1. True

  2. False

Question

Define a breakpoint.

  1. A point in our code where the debugger will stop running and provide information about the current state.

  2. A point in our code that we anticipate will result in an exception or error.

  3. A point in our code where we include a print statement to see what’s going on.

  4. A point in our code where we want to throw the computer out of a window because nothing works.