VIsual Studio 2008 - Debugging tips/tricks - Continue "until next function" or "until next file"

Question

Is there any way to tell the debugger to just continue until the next file is accessed, and/or until the next (developer written) function is accessed, without setting debug points ahead of time? I'm kind of new to VS debugging so all I use right now are f5, f10, and f11.

Answer 1

There is currently no way to do what you are asking. The main ways of telling VS to go until something happens are the following

• Hit F5 and VS will go until the next user breakpoint or ,depending on your settings and where it occurs, the next exception is raised
• Right click and select "Run to cursor"
• Shift-F11 breaks out of the current method

Run to cursor doesn't require an explicit break point but it does require that you know where you want to break next.

Answer 2

You can right-click and select "run to cursor" if you just want to run to a specific line ahead in the execution stream.

Another one is Shift-F11 which finishes the current method and breaks again when you get back to the caller.

Answer 3

Looks like there's not a way to do what I wanted to do - thanks for the reponses though!

Answer 4

Actually, there is a way to set conditional break points.

1. Click in the left margin on the line where you want to break, as usual. (or F9)
2. Right-click on the red dot. In the context menu, click on "Condition...."
3. In the dialog, set your condition, e.g., fileName == "foo"
4. Hit F5 and go until the conditional break is hit.