How to get ToString() to show up in Debug

Question

I'd like to get ToString() to display for a class under my control in debug mode.

It'd be nice if this was the first thing to show up when you hover over a variable with the mouse. Is there an attribute for this?

Answer 1

Mark your class with

[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerDisplay("{ToString()}")]

Test:

[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerDisplay("{ToString()}")]
class MyClass
{
    private string _foo = "This is the text that will be displayed at debugging"

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return _foo;
    }
}

Now when you hover over a variable with the mouse it will show This is the text that will be displayed at debugging.

Answer 2

There is DebuggerDisplayAttribute which lets you influence the display. It allows you to write fairly complex expressions to produce the debug output, although it is not recommended to do so.

However, if you have overriden ToString then the debugger is documented to display that by default. Maybe there's something wrong with the code?

Answer 3

The output of ToString should be the default you see when debugging.

It can be overridden using the DebuggerDisplay Attribute (see MSDN).

I prefer overriding the ToString method because its easier and more versatile because it helps when writing to log files as well.

What output do you see? If you get the type name you see the default ToString.