Trying to get a DataRow[] Debugger Visualizer to work in Visual Studio 2010

Answer 1

Debug Visualizers don't work for arrays.

You can write a custom visualizer for an object of any managed class except for Object or Array. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e2zc529c.aspx

The visualized type has to be attributed [Serializable] or implement ISerializable. Arrays don't implement ISerializable and cannot be attributed. For some reason.

Lists work, though, so I sometimes make a new list<>, just for debugging purposes.

Answer 2

For the most part what Spike says is true. You can write a visualizer for anything "except Object or Array": http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e2zc529c.aspx

"Array" seems a little ambiguous; but there's lots of people with the same problem...

I haven't been able to find anything specific to this (and haven't tried it) but, what about IEnumerable? Does that work?

There's also an interesting article of getting around limitations on the types of objects a Visualizer can except here: http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/the-rock-star-hack-of-2008/

Answer 3

Thank you very much guys for your replies. You confirmed what I was thinking (well, what I was coming to realize after four nights of fighting with it!). Thanks again. I blogged about it and referenced this information. Thank you very much for your time.

http://tinyurl.com/39cfd67