Datasheet

This isn ’ t the end of it. As you ’ ll note in Figure 1 - 29, by clicking on the down arrows you see on the right

hand side of your new custom watch window, just below the pin, you can add one or more comments

to your custom watch window for this value. You also have the option to unpin the initial placement of

this window and move it off of your Code view display. Not only that but, the custom watch window is

persistent in Debug mode. If you stop debugging and restart, the window is automatically restored and

remains available until you choose to close it using the close button.

Next, move your mouse and hover over the parameter

sender . This will open a window similar to the one for

Count as you review the reference to this object. More important, note the small plus sign on the right - hand

side, which if clicked expands the pop - up to show details about the properties of this object. As shown in

Figure 1 - 30, this capability is available even for parameters like sender , which you didn ’ t deﬁ ne. Figure 1 - 30

also illustrates a key point about looking at variable data. Notice that by expanding the top - level objects you

can eventually get to the properties inside those objects. Next to some of those properties, on the right - hand

side, is a little magnifying glass icon. That icon tells you that Visual Studio will open the potentially lengthy

string value in any one of three visualization windows. When working with complex XML or other complex

data, these visualizers offer signiﬁ cant productivity beneﬁ ts by enabling you to review data.

FIGURE 1 - 30

Once you are at a breakpoint, you can control your application by leveraging the Debug

buttons on the Standard toolbar. These buttons, shown in Figure 1 - 31, provide several

options for managing the ﬂ ow of your application. From the left are the following

buttons: Start Debugging , Break All , Stop Debugging , and three buttons that

look like a carriage return next to a set of lines. The ﬁ rst of these, which is the fourth button overall represents

stepping into code. The last two buttons represent stepping over and stepping out, respectively. In this case

you should use the Step Into or Step Over buttons to move to the next line of code as shown in Figure 1 - 29.

Step - In tells the debugger to jump to whatever line of code is ﬁ rst within the next method or property you

call. Keep in mind that if you pass a property value as a parameter to a method, then the ﬁ rst such line

FIGURE 1 - 31

Enhancing a Sample Application

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