Inspecting STL containers in Visual Studio debuggi

问题:

If I have a std::vector or std::map variable, and I want to see the contents, it's a big pain to see the nth element while debugging. Is there a plugin, or some trick to making it easier to watch STL container variables while debugging (VS2003/2005/2008)?

回答1:

For vectors, this thread on the msdn forums has a code snippet for setting a watch on a vector index that might help.

回答2:

If you want to watch more than one element at the same time, you can append a comma and the number of elements as so:

(v._Myfirst)[startIndex], count

However, note that count must be a constant, it cannot be the result of another expression.

回答3:

In VS2005 and VS 2008 you can see the contents of STL containers. The rules for getting at the data are in autoexp.dat "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\Packages\Debugger\autoexp.dat".

AutoExp.dat is meant to be customized. However, the STL defs are under a section called [Visualizer]. If you can figure out the language used in that section, more power to you, however I'd recommend just leaving that part alone.

Autoexp.dat existed in VS2003, but there was no support for STL containers ([Visualizer] didn't exist). In VS2003 you have to manually navigate the underlying data representation.

By modifying autoexp.dat it is possible to add rules for navigating the data representation of your own types so they are easier to debug. If you do this, you should only add to the stuff under [AutoExp]. Be careful and keep a back up of this file before you modify it.

回答4:

To view the nth element of a container in the Visual Studio debugger, use:

container.operator[](n)

回答5:

You could create a custom visualiser Check this out: http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=120

回答6:

Most simply method is you have to ready a pointer to watch variable like this.

vector<int> a = { 0,1,2,3,4,5 };
int* ptr = &a[0]; // watch this ptr in VisualStudio Watch window like this "ptr,6".

I tried "a._Myfirst[0]" in VisualStudio2015, But It wasn't display array data.

If you can use "natvis", it will resolve your problems.

This is "sample.natvis" for display std::vector data for Visual studio 2015.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<AutoVisualizer xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/vstudio/debugger/natvis/2010">
  <Type Name="std::vector&lt;*&gt;">
    <DisplayString>{{ size={_Mypair._Myval2._Mylast - _Mypair._Myval2._Myfirst} }}</DisplayString>
    <Expand>
      <Item Name="[size]" ExcludeView="simple">_Mypair._Myval2._Mylast - _Mypair._Myval2._Myfirst</Item>
      <Item Name="[capacity]" ExcludeView="simple">_Mypair._Myval2._Myend - _Mypair._Myval2._Myfirst</Item>
      <ArrayItems>
        <Size>_Mypair._Myval2._Mylast - _Mypair._Myval2._Myfirst</Size>
        <ValuePointer>_Mypair._Myval2._Myfirst</ValuePointer>
      </ArrayItems>
    </Expand>
  </Type>
</AutoVisualizer>

Before

After

回答7:

Visual Studio 2008, at least for me, displays the contents of STL containers in the standard mouseover contents box.

回答8:

You can also right-click any value in your watch, and choose 'add watch'. This can be useful if you only need to look at one element of a map or set.

It also leads to the solution that christopher_f posted for vectors - ((v)._Myfirst)[index]

回答9:

Above discussed method [((v)._Myfirst)[index]] will work only for specific container(std::vector) not for all possible STL containers. For example if you want to see the content of std::deque then you have to look for some other method to browse through the content in std::deque.

Maybe you can try the following similar setting to solve your issue

[I tested this setting only for Visual Studio 2010 Professional version installed with Microsoft Visual studio 2010 Service pack 1]

Step 1: Uninstall the Microsoft Visual studio 2010 Service pack 1 - for my project work I don't really need the Service pack 1 so uninstalling service pack 1 will not cause any issue for my case.

Step 2: Restart your system.

Step 3: This step is not necessary if you are not getting Error 'LINK : fatal error LNK1123: failure during conversion to COFF: file invalid or corrupt'. Otherwise browse through

Project Property -> Linker (General) -> Change Enable Incremental Linking to No (/INCREMENTAL:NO)

回答10:

In vs 2015, I could not get any of these working
so, i wrote a bit of code

1: I had vector of vector of long long elements

std::vector<std::string> vs(M_coins + 1);
for (unsigned long long i = 0; i <= M_coins; i++) {
    std::for_each(memo[i].begin(), memo[i].end(), [i, &vs](long long &n) {
        vs[i].append(std::to_string(n));
        });
}
// now vs is ready for use as vs[0], vs[1].. so on, for your debugger

basically what i did was converted vector into string. i had vector of vector so i had string vector to fill.

2: if you have just a vector of long long elements, then just convert as below:

std::vector<std::string> s;
std::for_each(v1.begin(), v1.end(), [&s](long long &n) {
    s.append(std::to_string(n));
    });
// now s is ready for use, for your debugger

hope it helped.