How do I use preprocessing directives to check if the app is being run in Visual Studio?

Question

I need to make it possible for the users to send me back possible exception messages, which I show by wrapping the main method into try-catch, but that also forces me to see that custom message instead of visual studio's exception window.

That's why I need to make use of some preprocessing directive somehow to run the unwrapped method when in VS and wrapped when not.

why not check for an attached debugger and rethrow rather than going into your main exception handler? — Tetsujin no Oni, Oct 10 '12 at 22:15

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '12 at 22:19

2

main(){
try {
// your app code here
} 
catch (Exception ex){
if(System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
{
    throw;
  } else {
  // your exception handling here.
  }
}

answered Oct 10 '12 at 22:19

Tetsujin no Oni

7,300
2
29
46

I'll fix the formatting up a bit later, but this should let you get normal exception handling (without losing the original exception stack trace), while having most exceptions in the field caught by this exception handler. – Tetsujin no Oni Oct 10 '12 at 22:21
I think with this I'm actually losing the stack trace. Exception points directly to `throw`. – user1306322 Oct 10 '12 at 22:22
look at the exception details. throw by itself doesn't recreate the exception. (and you don't want to throw ex; just throw;) – Tetsujin no Oni Oct 10 '12 at 22:23
So I can't actually debug as usual with this? So far in-studio and standalone application behaves as intended, except the stack trace. – user1306322 Oct 10 '12 at 22:25
Take a look over here at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/881473/why-catch-and-rethrow-exception-in-c – Tetsujin no Oni Oct 10 '12 at 22:30
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/17836/discussion-between-tetsujin-no-oni-and-user1306322) – Tetsujin no Oni Oct 10 '12 at 22:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 10 '12 at 22:17

0

As Tetsujin no Oni suggested, use System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached If this boolean attribute returns true, then the Visual Studio IDE (or some other debugger!) is attached to the process, in which case - assume you're running under Visual Studio.

answered Oct 10 '12 at 22:17

M.A. Hanin

8,044
33
51

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '12 at 12:17

No need to use preprocessing directives — it can be done by checking for attached debugger in an if statement:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
    {
        /* application code */
    }
    else
        try
        {
            /* application code */
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {                
            // custom exception handling
        }
}

How do I use preprocessing directives to check if the app is being run in Visual Studio?

3 Answers3