Learning C# 3.0

Summary

• Visual Studio includes a powerful debugger that lets you step through your program and examine the value of variables and objects as methods execute.

• You can set breakpoints in your code, which causes execution to stop when it reaches that point. Breakpoints can be set to stop every time, every nth time, or when a particular condition is true.

• Press F11 to step into called methods, and F10 to skip over method calls.

• The Autos window displays the values of the variables used in the current statement and the previous statement. The Locals window shows the values of all the variables in the current method.

• The Watch window allows you to keep an eye on variables or objects as your method executes, not only revealing their value, but in the case of complex objects, allowing you to “drill down” into their internal state.

• The QuickWatch window displays information about a single object, and allows you to manipulate that object without changing the value of the object in the running program.

• The Call Stack window shows you the method that called your currently executing method, and the method that invoked that method, and so forth, so that you can see how you arrived at the currently executing method.

We hope that at this point, you’re comfortable enough with Visual Studio’s various debugging tools that you’ll have an increased sense of confidence as you approach the rest of the chapters in this book. The tools won’t prevent you from making mistakes, because that is normal and is nothing ...