--- title: "[Rediscovered] Advanced debugging tips and stuff you never knew about the \"Find\" combo box" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/12/rediscovered-advanced-debugging-tips-and-stuff-you-never-kne.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/12/rediscovered-advanced-debugging-tips-and-stuff-you-never-kne.html" published: "2004-10-12T00:27:00" updated: "2004-10-12T00:27:00" tags: [".Net Original"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "I just \"re-discovered\" an old post of mine relating to some cool debugging tricks. Its amazing I forgot all about these cool tricks and it was fun to rediscover them. I bet some of you could benefit from them (again).…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # \[Rediscovered\] Advanced debugging tips and stuff you never knew about the "Find" combo box By Roy Osherove October 12, 2004 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) **Historical article** · Originally published October 12, 2004; technical details may be outdated. _I just "re-discovered" an old post of mine relating to some cool debugging tricks. Its amazing I forgot all about these cool tricks and it was fun to rediscover them. I bet some of you could benefit from them (again)._ _So - as they say, "Let the recycling begin!"_ [**Advanced debugging tips and stuff you never knew about the "Find" combo box**](https://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2003/07/08/9793.aspx) 1) **You can set breakpoints on the callstack** window as well - just select the call and hit F9 or right click. great for recursive functions. 2**) You can set individual breakpoints on different expressions** on the same line bye setting the cursor in the specific expression and hitting F9 3) **CTRL+B - advanced breakpoint properties dialog**(if you didn't know this already) 4) **You can set a breakpoint directly on a specific method in a class if you know their names**. Just write down the "class.method" in the "Function" tab of the breakpoint properties dialog and you'll save yourself lots of time in finding that point in code and pressing F9. **Notices**: - It's case sensitive if you're using a case-sensitive language - The method name might not show up in C++ debugging if it's hidden in a DEFINE - You must select the correct language in the breakpoint dialog. - Oh one more thing - if youre using managed C++ you'll have to prefix the debugging expression with "MC::" so to set a break on class MyClass with function MyFunc you'd have to write "MC::MyClass::MyFunc" in the breakpoint dialog. 5) **You can write breakpoints that break on calls to the framework classes**. for example - you could write in the breakpoint dialog - "Console.WriteLine" and you'll break into disassembly whenever you call that function(You'll get a long list of "child" breakpoints for each of that method's overloads in the breakpoint window) You can also break on properties, but you'll have to prefix the property name with a "get\_" or "set\_" prefix. 6)(best one) **Auto-search for methods to breakpoint on.** In the breakpoint dialog, if you type just the name of a method that you know exists, and that method is unique in the application, you'll automatically set a breakpoint there, without the need to specify class name. **BUT** - if you have overloads to that method, or it exists in more than one namespace, you get a list of all the available methods and overloads, allowing you to select on which ones you'd like to set a breakpoint, and the best part - you have an "All" button to quickly set a breakpoint on all of them. If you'e debugging C++ - you can write the \[name of a class\]+ "." and you'll get a list of all members that can be debugged. note: DON'T try this in other languages - you'll get a very nast crash if you do! 7)**A few things you should have known about the "Find" combo on VS.NET's main toolbar:** - If you type the name of a solution file or any other file that is somehow related to the project or is in the INCLUDE environment variable and then press CTRL+SHIFT+G - VS.Net will open that file in the eidotr for editing. - If you write the name of a method (or class.method) like in the breakpoint dialog and press F9 - you'll get the same functionlity like in the breakpoint dialog. - If you type in ">" in the find combo - you'll see that it turns into a run of the mill command line! (including intellisense and all) \[Much of this was learned from the book "[Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735615365/qid=1057615405/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/iserializable-20)"\] and here's a nice tip. **Imagine getting a nasty exception messagebox** (or any other message box in windows)(sounds familiar?). Try pressing CTRL+C while the messagebox is still open. then open notepad and press CTRL+V. Have fun! ## More in .Net Original [All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) - Oct 15, 2004 ### [\[Tools and Addins\] : SharpTools, web controls and various utilities - free!](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/15/tools-and-addins-sharptools-web-controls-and-various-utiliti.html) - Oct 12, 2004 ### [Introducing the Osherove.Interception framework](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/12/introducing-the-osheroveinterception-framework.html) - Oct 5, 2004 ### [Introducing: XtUnit . An Unofficial Unit Testing Extensibility Framework - Add new attributes to NUnit or MbUnit easily!](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/5/introducing-xtunit-an-unofficial-unit-testing-extensibility.html) - Oct 3, 2004 ### [Upcoming talks and webcasts I'm involved with](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/10/3/upcoming-talks-and-webcasts-im-involved-with.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/