Visual Studio Tip: Change Variable Values in Place While Debugging
I know enough not to go down to the Immediate Window and type ? variablename to get the value of a variable.
I didn't know this, but I should have (or if I did know once, I've forgotten). When debugging, I know enough not to go down to the Immediate Window and type ? variablename to get the value of a variable. Instead, when stopped at a breakpoint, I just hover my mouse over the variable to have a tooltip appear with the name of the variable and the variable's current value.
What I didn't know (or had forgotten) was that I can also swing my mouse over to the value in the tooltip and click on it to change the value. That's much easier than going down to the Immediate Window to type in an expression that changes the variable's value.
If, of course, I remember this…
About the Author
Peter Vogel is a system architect and principal in PH&V Information Services. PH&V provides full-stack consulting from UX design through object modeling to database design. Peter tweets about his VSM columns with the hashtag #vogelarticles. His blog posts on user experience design can be found at http://blog.learningtree.com/tag/ui/.