Automatically show properties of C++ objects in Xcode debugger

Question

The Xcode debug area can sometimes show a summary of the most important variables inside of an object that's in the list, without the need to expand the object to see it's individual members.

Is there a way for me to teach the debugger about my own C++ objects to do the same? Let's say I have a simple class with a single member variable:

class Foo
{
    int bar;
};

And the debug area should show something like the following:

aVariableOfTypeFoo = (Foo) bar=123

I know that some C++ objects are able to do this (for example std::vector shows it's size), but I wasn't able to figure out if this is somehow configurable, or if it's built-in in the debugger/Xcode itself.

I'm using Xcode 5.0.1

Thanks

Answer 1

You can change the summary description for a given type selecting Edit Summary Format... by right clicking on a variable of that type.

The format in your case is pretty simple and will look like this: bar = {$VAR.bar} For more information about formats check the "Using Data Formatters" section in the Xcode User Guide (pages 42 & 43).