Debugging in IntelliJ

Notes

In this video we will cover these aspects of debugging in IntelliJ:

Steps to Find and Diagnose Logical Bugs

• Set a breakpoint where you want to pause execution of the code (so you can look in detail at what the program is doing at this point).
• Run your program in Debug mode
• Inspect the values of your variables at the breakpoint in the Debugger pane
• If needed, use the Add/Watch button to watch a specific expression as your program executes
• You can also set a conditional breakpoint to pause execution of the code when a certain condition is met

Control the flow of execution

• Step-over button executes a given line then steps to the next executable line
• Step-into button allows you to review a called method and see what is going on line by line within that method
• Step-out-of button allows you to move out of the method you stepped into and resume stepping through the main code

Advantage of Debugger Over Printing to the Console

• The debugger let's you look at all the values in your program instead of just guessing which values you want to track via logging to the console.