Java Reference
In-Depth Information
through, and because it still shows you the index values of the non-null entries,
you can easily tell what's going on. If all the values in the array are null, you see
an information node stating this fact, rather than empty array entries in the
Frame
view.
Showing synthetic fields
Normally, the debugger hides any synthetic fields created by the compiler to
manage things like anonymous inner classes. If you need to view these in the
debugger, you can do so by enabling the
Show synthetic fields
option in the
Cus-
tomize View
window.
Sorting the data view alphabetically
If the
Sort alphabetically
option is selected in the
Customize View
window, vari-
ables in the
Frame
view are listed alphabetically by name rather than by their dec-
laration order. If the class you're debugging has references to a lot of variables, it
may be easier to find the variable you're looking for by name, by enabling this
option.
Limiting the length of arrays
The text field next to the option
Arrays length limit
in the
Customize View
win-
dow controls the maximum number of array elements shown in the debugger's
display area. If an array has more than the number of values specified, only the
entries up to the specified limit are shown.
Enabling toString() mode
In the
Debugger
tool window, you can right-click a value to display its
String
rep-
resentation rather than an instance reference. Under the
Show toString()
group
in the
Customize View
window, you can define a list of class filters that will auto-
matically be viewed as
String
s without the extra step. The option
Ty p e s t o b e
shown as 'toString()'
enables or disables this behavior, and a checkbox by each
pattern lets you temporarily enable or disable individual patterns.
To add a class name, click the
Add
button and select the appropriate class. You
can begin typing the class name here to reduce the number of class options. To
add a new pattern, click the
Add pattern
button and specify either a fully quali-
fied class or a search pattern, using the asterisk as a wildcard match. For example,
to view all the classes in the
java.lang
package via their
String
representations,
add the filter pattern
java.lang.*
to the list.
