{"id":109,"date":"2009-12-16T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashokaon.tech\/?p=109"},"modified":"2020-07-18T01:29:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T19:59:23","slug":"debug-exceptions-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ashokaon.tech\/blog\/debug-exceptions-window\/","title":{"rendered":"The (not much utilized) Debug->Exceptions\u2026 window technique"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Note: This blog post was originally published under my old domain(codesmiles.com), here<\/a>. Web Archive link<\/a>.<\/span>
\nThe Debug-Exceptions\u2026<\/strong> window is a useful tool that at times saves lot of time when debugging. Even though this exists (i think)from Visual Studio 2003, I Still find people struggle a bit with the situation I am going to explain next.[more]<\/p>\n

As you know Visual Studio highlights the exception code line when it is not handled. Sometimes we purposely don\u2019t handle exceptions in a method and let the exception thrown to calling functions.<\/p>\n

\"filenotfound1\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Usually we have a multi-project solution that typically has layers like Business logic, Data access layer, UI, etc. Imagine that you make a call from the UI to a local function and it calls another function in BLL and the call goes deep into layers of your project architecture.<\/p>\n

Now, when it is not sure if each of the methods getting called handles exceptions in it or doesn’t throw identifiable exceptions.<\/p>\n

For instance..<\/p>\n

private void Function_A()
\n{
\n    try
\n    {
\n        BLLFunction();\/\/this calls few other functions..
\n    }
\n    catch (Exception ex)
\n    {
\n        \/\/handle exception
\n    }
\n}<\/p>\n

Function_A() calls BLLFunction() and it again calls few other functions, but I have handled exceptions only in Function_A(). In this case, whatever method in the call hierarchy triggers an exception, the Visual Studio debugger takes the control to the catch()<\/strong> in Function_A(). Debugging this could be bit hard when the number of functions is more and code is complex. You have to narrow down to the function and line the exception occurred.<\/p>\n

Instead, a simple technique can be performed with the Debug-Exceptions window…<\/p>\n

If you choose Debug \u2013> Exceptions\u2026<\/strong> a window appears with various categories of exceptions. Check the Thrown<\/strong> check box beside Common Language Runtime Exceptions<\/strong>, <\/strong>and now if you re-debug the project, the line highlighted by debugger will be the exact line where the exception occurs in the exception triggering method.<\/p>\n

\"debug-exceptions\"<\/p>\n

What happens is, we specify that all Common Language Exceptions are Thrown<\/strong> regardless of whether it is handled or not.<\/p>\n

You can even set only the exception you want to be thrown by selecting the exception using the Find..<\/strong> option as below, this will only throw that specific exception even if it is handled elsewhere and ignore other exceptions.<\/p>\n

\"debug-exceptions1\"<\/p>\n

The User-unhandled<\/em> option seems bit unclear as of now, and couldn\u2019t put time to find a clear usage scenario now, but thought the above is useful enough to write.<\/p>\n

If you like this article..<\/em><\/p>\n

\"kick<\/a>    \"Shout<\/a><\/p>\n

\n