Is it possible to change display for a typedef long MyType by using autoexp.dat?

Question

I have type which is just a typedef-ed long which one I would like to display differently in a debugger. Is it possible to do so using autoexp.dat?

namespace MyNamespace
{
 typedef long DaysSinceItAllStarted;
}

Answer 1

I do not think that is possible for builtin types; I'm also not sure how that would benefit you: a long is a long, typedef-ed or not, you can represent it as a plain or hex number, but that's about it.

If you somehow want to incorporate the fact that a long variable means 'DaysSinceItAllStarted' in the debugger, choosing a good descriptive name for that variable is way better than trying to get the debugger to do nifty things, that other people reading your code can't even see.

If you use a struct/class however, you can get the debugger as verbose you want..

namespace MyNameSpace
{
  struct TimeSinceItAllStarted
  {
    unsigned long days;
    unsigned long hours;
  }
}

In autoexp.dat:

MyNameSpace::TimeSinceItAllStarted = DaysSinceStart=<days,u>, HoursInThatDay=<hours,u>

In watch window

+theStartOfAllThings   {DaysSinceStart=0, HoursInThatDay=0}