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View the value of a variable in .NET C#?

Answer 1

+14 A:

Grab a copy of Visual Studio Express and use the built-in debugger. Your life will be much easier.

jvenema 2009-12-11 19:59:45

Worth mentioning: it's free of charge.

Mark Byers 2009-12-11 20:01:42

There are also different editions, one for WinForms/WPF, and another for Web

ChrisF 2009-12-11 20:05:22

Answer 2

+2 A:

If you are going the 'debug by stdout' route you can use the Debug Class in .NET. The Console Class would work as well and might be a bit simpler.

Kris 2009-12-11 20:03:24

Answer 3

+2 A:

if you're just trying to output the value of a variable try this. It should behave like an alert, that way you don't have to try and convert it to a command line app. Should work as long as you have the standard Windows libraries.

MessageBox.show(thePath)

jon 2009-12-11 20:03:53

I stuck that right in the midst of the page that has this particular script, uploaded the page to the server and it did nothing. I don’t know anything about .NET so this is no surprise, I guess.

rg88 2009-12-11 21:14:49

Actually, I didn't notice you were working on a web env. I was thinking windows apps, sorry. BUT, @Aric TenEyck 's should work for ASP.NET

jon 2009-12-11 22:04:23

Answer 4

+2 A:

jvenema is right - you do have access to Visual Studio, you just don't know it (unless you don't have the rights to install software on your machine) - the express version is free.

However, if you don't want to wait for that, and you don't mind modifying your page to show variable values, you can put this in anywhere for guerilla debugging (since it sounds like you're using ASP.NET):

Response.Write(variable);

Depending on where in your code you do this, it probably won't land inside your viewable HTML, and it might even produce broken HTML output. However, if you view the page source in your browser, you'll be able to view it.

A better approach might be to declare a page-level string variable to which you can append your debug data:

// 'protected' so you can access it from your aspx page template.
protected string debugValues = string.Empty;

// Inside your page's code, do this with any variable you want to see:
this.debugValues += "variable=" + variable;

Then, in your aspx page template, just pick a good spot, perhaps at the bottom of the page, but within the viewable HTML and output it using the <%= %> syntax (which is a shortcut :

<body>
    // ... The rest of your page here ...
    <%= this.debugValues %>
</body>

Jeff Sternal 2009-12-11 20:04:47

Sticking this in the page did nothing. I tried Response.Write("test"); as well and that also did nothing.

rg88 2009-12-11 21:18:10

Updated with some additional info about that.

Jeff Sternal 2009-12-11 22:10:46

Thanks Jeff (and everyone else). I downloaded a copy of Visual Studio Express as per jvenema's suggestion and then I was able to use Response.Write as you and others suggested (viewing it in source works fine for my purposes). For some reason it isn't working on the remote server but locally, using VS Express, it works perfectly. Thanks.

rg88 2009-12-11 22:15:16

Answer 5

+2 A:

If you don't want to use the free Visual Studio express or Mono Develop, I suggest getting a copy of DebugView and using the Trace.Write and Debug.Write.

kenny 2009-12-11 20:07:39

Answer 6

+3 A:

For a Web application, do Response.Write("text to write");.

Aric TenEyck 2009-12-11 20:13:43

I stuck that in the script and it did nothing. It did cause the script to fail to return the data that it normally would have but it did not actually write anything.

rg88 2009-12-11 21:16:57

Answer 7

+1 A:

System.Debug.WriteLine(someData);

rein 2009-12-11 21:54:23

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View the value of a variable in .NET C#?

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