Visual Studio Debugger - Automatic Variable Assignment

Question

I am working on a multi-developer project and the application being developed is launcher through a launcher application which passes parameters such as the user logged in, their location, etc. Right now when I debug the application I set a breakpoint on the code that parses the input parameters and I assign the username variable my username etc.

I could hard-code these values but:

• I believe this is bad practice.
• I am worried the file will get checked into our VCS and have disastrous ripple effects.
• Multiple developers are working on the project so hard-coding my name, location assignments etc. isn’t really an option.
• I cannot make the file read-only as it is in active development and I continuously need to get updated version of said file.

My question is:

• Is there a built-in way or an extension to AUTOMATICALLY assign variables a value in debug mode. Right now I highlight the variable and type my text, can this be automated?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

When I hit situations like this, I usually a combination of conditional compilation and environment variable / reg key. You can use these storage mechanisms to host your information without hard coding it into the application.

#if DEBUG
if ( null != Environment.GetVariable("CUSTOM_INFO")) {
  userName = Environment.GetVariable("CUSTOM_USERNAME");
  ...
}
#endif

This way it won't affect any other developers. Unless of course, they want to accomplish the same thing.