Viewing Information in the Watch Window

The Watch window allows you to monitor the values of variables, properties, and expressions at run time. Many debugging problems aren't immediately traceable to a single statement, so you may need to use a watch expression to observe the behavior of a variable or expression throughout a procedure.

The development environment automatically monitors the watch expressions you define. When the application enters break mode, these watch expressions appear in the Watch window, where you can observe their values.

To display the Watch window

• On the View menu, click Debug Windows, and then select Watch.

  – or –

  Press the key combination, CTRL+ALT+W.

  – or –

  Click the Watch button on the Debug toolbar.

The Watch window keeps track of member variables that may change at various times or locations in an application.

To add a watch expression at design time or in break mode

• Drag an expression or variable from the Text editor, the Locals window or Immediate window to the Watch window.

To change the value of a variable

• Click a variable to edit its value.

To view or hide class member variables and array elements

• Expand a class or array member variable to view their elements.
  
  
• Collapse a class or array member variable to hide their elements.

  See Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts for the Auto, Locals, and Watch Windows for additional information on how to move around in these windows, and expand and collapse class member variables and array elements.

See Inspecting Variables and Properties with the Watch Window for more information about the Watch debug window.