c++ debugging in vis studio 2008, how to break when a variable becomes zero

Question

I can detect when a variable changes, but it changes so often that its no use - what I want is to detect the moment that a variable becomes zero.

Thanks,

Answer 1

That's not possible in Visual Studio. Visual Studio supports a number of debugging features in that particular area but I don't think you can combine them into a feature to get what you want

• Data Changing Breakpoints: break when a value changes (only supported in native C++)
• Conditionally breakpoints: break when the IP crosses the breakpoint and a particular condition is satisfied.

What you could do though is wrap all writes to your variable into a setter function. Then use a conditional breakpoint to break when the value changes to 0. I think this is the closest you're going to get to the feature you want.

Answer 2

You have to use one of these debuggers

1 - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/Debugging/default.mspx

2 - The Good Old SoftICE, if you can find it anywhere

3 - http://www.sysersoft.com/updatelog.html

Also check new version OllyDbg (it says it supports hardware breakpoints)