How to see one line returned value in debug mode?

Question

In debug mode, I can see what returned from method by moving mouse pointer to "name" variable;

public string GetUserName(int id)
{
    string name = UserService.GetUserName(id);
    return name;
}

But I don't want to create a variable to just to see what inside it...

So what is the proper way to debug one line returned method like;

public string GetUserName(int id)
{
    return UserService.GetUserName(id);
}

*Notes

I don't want to use F11 to get inside of GetUserName method.
I don't want to use immediate window.

put this statement: `UserService.GetUserName(id)` in the `watch` window — John Woo, Jan 04 '14 at 18:12
Thank you for your quick answer but everytime ( in every methods like this ) I'll have to change watch window's properties. This is not the answer that I looked for. — Lost_In_Library, Jan 04 '14 at 18:14

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 04 '14 at 18:15

Visual Studio's newest version, 2013, supports it right out of the box. In earlier versions, there's not much to do than to create a dummy variable and test it.

You can copy the whole method UserService.GetUserName(id) to the watch window and it will give you a result. If the method is deterministic then the result in the watch window will be the same one as in your code.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 04 '14 at 18:17

1

You can either use QuickWatch, or add a Watch to the watch window.

Select the whole expression (without "return" of course), then right click to use either of the two above mentioned tools.

Cheers

answered Jan 04 '14 at 18:17

Luc Morin

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That only works if the function has no side effects. Otherwise the side effects get executede multiple times. – user1937198 Jan 04 '14 at 19:23
I didn't know that "no side effect" was part of the original question, was it ? – Luc Morin Jan 04 '14 at 20:22
No but i though it was worth mentioning that that is the issue with this technique – user1937198 Jan 04 '14 at 20:32

How to see one line returned value in debug mode?

2 Answers2